As educational consultants we often see the stress that comes along with students writing college essays. There is the Common Application essay, the supplemental essays, and the scholarship essays. Students can easily be overwhelmed with the process. Whether it is the difficulty of brainstorming topics, or the writing itself, students often struggle with the essay portion of applications. However, an upward trend in use of the service Turnitin by college admissions offices should serve as a important reminder that the work you submit should always be your own.
Academic dishonesty is a familiar term for those who work in college judicial affairs offices. For years, campus officials have used Turnitin, an anti-plagiarism database service to make sure that college students weren’t recycling papers from other students or other sources. Now, Turnitin has branched out and being used in college admissions.
A number of colleges and universities have adopted this service as way to quickly review essays and compare them to a large database of writing on file and show potentially copied material. While it is mostly being used by graduate programs at this point some undergraduate institutions with applicants are making use of the service. The colleges then can determine whether or not the applicant warrants a rejection based on plagiarism.
So, take our advice, write your own essays.
For more information read the recent LA Times article on the subject.
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Don't Plagiarize Your College Essays-'Turnitin For Admissions' Is Watching

Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.
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Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.