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I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

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Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#11

Post by eck »

The bit about selling her soul seemed a bit contrived. They don't have to be the applicants' stories, but they don't have to be the ghostwriter's story either -- once it's no longer a true story for the applicant, whether it's your story or total fiction seems irrelevant.

The part about interviewing the applicants made me wonder whether there is any fact checking of essays, or whether there will be in the future. The story about being poor and having your clothes stolen from a laundromat is a real tearjerker, but if the admissions officer knows that you're the child of China's 99th richest business magnate, I doubt it would help.

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#12

Post by jacquesm »

asdfologist wrote: post #2

First of all - wow, what a talented writer. No wonder her clients have done so well. Forgery of college admissions essays is rampant not just in China but also in the US (and I suspect in many other places), but actually the problem is really much worse than that. With the boom of the "college consultants" industry, professionals are essentially "forging" entire high school careers on behalf of their clients - tellin…

The big question then is how do they make out in real life afterwards compared to their honest brothers & sisters who also entered those same colleges and compared to those that didn't make the cut because of them.

At a guess, they'll do better in life than the ones that didn't make it but not as good as the ones that were honest and made it but I have zero proof for that. It's just that they will get some of the benefits from these colleges but not all of them while the group that didn't make it gets none.

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#13

Post by sliverstorm »

soneca wrote: post #5

I have several friends here in Brazil that were accepted in top USA MBAs. All of them are very smart, but all of them hired a consultant to help with admission process. No one hired a ghost writer, all of them wrote their own essays, but in all cases the consultant asked them to rewrite 5 or 6 times, at least. There it is where it seems to exist the ethical line: ghost writer, no good; rewrite yourself until every si…

IMO with a consultant, you aren't passing someone else's work off as your own, which is the truly dishonest part.

Soliciting help, even if it is for pay, is not against the rules to my memory. I know I had friends and family read my essays.

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#15

Post by rokhayakebe »

I am not sure why this is directed towards China. There are certainly more Americans paying Americans to write their essays every semester.

EDIT: Oh Fucking ??, guys what is up with the downvotes? This is just idiotic. If you disagree, voice it. It's ok, perhaps I am mistaken, enlighten me. But downvoting without giving a comment is like telling me I am wrong without giving me a direction. "You wouldn't laugh at someone who was going the wrong direction if you could correct them, would you?" Lord! Now as far as the this article, paying for someone to write essays is not particular to China. I did this for some people. IN. THE. US. People do this for others in other countries. The article could have still held its value without the Chinese part. It sounds condescending.

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#16

Post by ghaff »

mrottenkolber wrote: post #6
usea wrote: post #3

At $400 a piece, often including lengthy interviews and an overwhelming demand, the author should raise their rates. Probably by an order of magnitude.

Agree. $400 seems awfully low. What does a PR guy get for a piece?

PR isn't done on a piece basis unless it's really low rent, in which case it's not worth however little you spend. Normally there's a retainer of some sort into the considerable thousands of dollars. A typical press release including working with the client on messaging and getting supporting quotes, etc. probably costs into the thousands.

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#19

Post by w1ntermute »

jacquesm wrote: post #12
asdfologist wrote: post #2

First of all - wow, what a talented writer. No wonder her clients have done so well. Forgery of college admissions essays is rampant not just in China but also in the US (and I suspect in many other places), but actually the problem is really much worse than that. With the boom of the "college consultants" industry, professionals are essentially "forging" entire high school careers on behalf of their clients - tellin…

The big question then is how do they make out in real life afterwards compared to their honest brothers & sisters who also entered those same colleges and compared to those that didn't make the cut because of them. At a guess, they'll do better in life than the ones that didn't make it but not as good as the ones that were honest and made it but I have zero proof for that. It's just that they will get some of the ben…

> they'll do better in life than the ones that didn't make it but not as good as the ones that were honest and made it

If this is true, then less-than-deserving children will have successfully used their parents' wealth to artificially improve their station in life. Which means that our higher education system is helping to perpetuate class divides (even though it claims to be greatly interested in not doing so).

Re: I Ghostwrite Chinese Students' Ivy League Admissions Essays

#20

Post by praneshp »

0003 wrote: post #8

Sidebar - for those who wrote admissions essays - do you remember what you wrote?

I do, because I have managed to not do one single thing that I wrote. Some I knew were half-truths when I wrote them, some I had to give up because my interests changed between applying and starting MS (which is an almost one-year gap, in the final year of your undergrad), and I changed specializations.
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