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Sidebar - for those who wrote admissions essays - do you remember what you wrote?
Despite the edits, it was not at all contrived. Nothing was made up, and it was based on an actual 270-mile hike I did.
Ended up doing pretty well for me too (lots of Ivy acceptances).
Total cost of my actual application process: $50 (for some registration fee).
Really interesting piece. In my post-college lull, I was once in a major financial bind and ended up doing a brief stint as an academic ghostwriter. I wrote term papers, not admission essays, for a ghostwriting service over a period of about 2 months. The work was easy and the money was good. I felt pretty guilty doing the work at first, but I quickly realized that most of the assignments were so banal that I don't t…
> Why are college courses giving "major" assignments that can reasonably be completed in 5-10 hours by a smart person with no training in the field? Because that's precisely the point of a liberal arts or humanities education: to make you able to look at a new field with a modicum of critical thinking & intelligence. Within the humanities, it is largely irrelevant post-grad what field you actually studied since actua…
It's also part of the reason most reporting on technical fields is so horrible.
This is a bit disheartening to me, but not surprising. I know of several people who have used this type of service, and some who have provided it. For me, my essay was the difference in attending the likes of Harvard - my essay was egregiously bad, and it was explained to me by the director of admissions of one Ivy League school via a family friend who was a professor at that same university as the primary reason for…
Good for you for having that attitude, of course, but that's such a foreign state of mind to me. I stumbled across the finish line in high school and self-destructed in college. Things have worked out but I wonder what even a small change in state of mind would have done for me as an adolescent.
So she now makes decent money but feels like she is selling her soul. That seems so common. And I find myself increasingly wondering if the world is really so screwed up that it is not possible to make it, financially, without feeling like a sell-out or if there is some other explanation for that phenomenon. Surely, there are people in the world who are not destitute and who don't feel like they are selling their sou…
Yup! I make great money and also strongly believe in what I'm doing (building a platform to showcase great writing).
She's helping people cheat their way into college. The soul-crushing nature of that is absolutely appropriate, and hopefully a mechanism for ending her unethical ways.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why are college courses giving "major" assignments that can reasonably be completed in 5-10 hours by a smart person with no training in the field? Because that's precisely the point of a liberal arts or humanities education: to make you able to look at a new field with a modicum of critical thinking & intelligence. Within the humanities, it is largely irrelevant post-grad what field you actually studied since actua…
> Hence, it's absolutely expected that any educated adult should have no problem writing in an unrelated humanities field, because they've already gone through the system. It's also part of the reason most reporting on technical fields is so horrible.
Indeed. Your humanities degree is enough to understand the basics of economics, politics, etc. — but not compilers.
Unfortunately, when technical people do the writing it rarely ends up much better (since most were never taught how to effectively synthesize ideas for a general audience). Hence why I wish more technical programs had larger disciplinary and liberal arts components.
Paul Graham had some interesting things to say about the value of elite college degrees back in 2007: http://paulgraham.com/colleges.html Any sign employers have started to focus less on recruiting at the most prestigious schools? And if they're not looking there, where are they looking? Come to think of it, where are the founders accepted by YC coming from?
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…
I was paid $50/hour for quite some time to do "marketing consulting" for a company started by a douchebag studying at Harvard. It was vaguely interesting work, and I over delivered on every expectation, but grew tired of his increasingly demanding explanations (pages long at times) of why I did what I did and who the market was. Those two questions were asked of me obsessively. Eventually, after I told him I was sick…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's written by a woman who writes essays for Chinese students.
She writes for anyone who is willing to pay her $400 per essay. It is not just for the children of wealthy Chinese, and many Chinese people choose to write their own. The system is broken if it cannot distinguish between a fraudulent essay and real one and is using that measure as integral for admissions. Many universities have specialized questions (almost as a CAPTCHA) to make sure students are serious about applyi…
I'm sure she wouldn't turn down $400 from anyone, but she makes it pretty clear throughout the essay that the vast majority of her clients are the children of wealthy Chinese.
>many Chinese people choose to write their own.
No one is saying that all Chinese students pay someone to write their essays.
> Test scores, teacher evaluations, and an applicant's résumé are often much more important criteria.
True, but these are easily gamed too if you've got the money, especially in these cases where distance and language barriers makes everything harder to verify.
As to proof-reading and consultants, more power to them. Everyone should bounce their work at professionals in the area, before publishing it. It is a very good practice.