Each time, I would raise my hand–ignoring the look of chagrin on my daughter’s face–and ask how the school was defending itself against what may be an increasingly synthetic creation. With admissions summer camps, private counselors and high-school curriculums even incorporating tips on how to write a personal essay, were colleges actually getting to know the kid or, rather, some combination of parents, English teacher and high-priced tutor? But each college official I queried insisted they maintain the ability to judge. “We know the real thing when we see it,” they said.
But it turns out that in private conversation, admissions officials confess they are far less sanguine about the role of the essay in the process. Moreover, they are reassessing how to evaluate the essay. “I don’t think we yet fully comprehend the extent of the help that is out there for applicants,” says Nanette Tarbouni, director of admissions at Washington University in St. Louis. The essay’s staying power stems from its appeal as a humanizing counterpoint to the numbing array of numbers, letters and lists that otherwise dominate applications. “Even though there’s certainly more skepticism now, we’re not willing to let go of the essay because of our idealized version of what it should be–to have the student’s voice show up somewhere in the application,” says Jennifer Rickard, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bryn Mawr. “Unfortunately, the essay too often has become somebody else’s.”
Colleges have always been on the lookout for glaring inconsistencies between the essay and the student’s record. It’s almost inconceivable, admissions officers say, that a student can write a brilliant essay and not have that talent reflected in grades, extracurricular activities, awards and recommendations. “If mediocre English students are writing like Shakespeare, it raises red flags,” says David Borus, dean of admission and financial aid at Vassar. But there are subtler distinctions that now concern schools. Two years ago Duke added a question to its application asking students to reveal who provided assistance on the essay. Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions, says Duke’s intention was never to suggest the essay “should be written in total isolation.” In fact, it encourages applicants to seek advice from parents, friends or teachers. Still, he says, Duke was seeking insight into a process in which, too often, its admissions officials encounter essays “that have been polished to the point where you’ve kind of lost the student. "
A few schools, including Bryn Mawr and Vassar, require the student to submit a second writing sample–specifically, any graded school paper. And admissions officers say that when the new SAT, which will include an essay question, is instituted in March 2005, they will have a tool to double-check an applicant’s writing abilities. But some believe the system is already sufficiently out of whack to justify devaluing the essay. “Because of the unequal playing field and the fact that we don’t know how many eyes and hands have been over it, we have begun to back off on the emphasis we place on the essay,” says Jim Miller, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin. “It has always been said that a great essay can’t raise the dead, but it can heal the sick. Now I’m not sure it can even raise the sick.”
The concerns of admissions officials go well beyond the question of who is crafting the message; they fret, too, about what that message has become. Bryn Mawr’s Rickard says the essay is meant to be an opportunity for genuine introspection; instead, she says, it has become an exercise in marketing. “We’re looking for what makes them tick and they’re thinking, ‘How should I tick in order to get accepted?’” Washington U’s Tarbouni says that, contrary to the impression many applicants have, an essay seldom makes or breaks an application. And she’s far more comfortable when she spies a slightly awkward passage in an age-appropriate effort than when she encounters flawless work in a sophisticated package. “We don’t expect everyone to be a polished writer when they join us,” Tarbouni says. “Only when they leave.”
