The Application Essay, suggestions from students who got in

Hi i have a quick question about what admissions think is essay plaigarism. my cousin let me see her common application essay from last year and i liked and could relate to some of her ideas. However, there is one sentence that i really really liked and i used the same sentence on my common application essay. does this mean i have plaigarized?.. even though i only used 1 sentence and all the other parts of the essay was my own original work?

The concept of plagiarism is pretty simple:

If you did not write the sentence yourself and you include it in your essay as your own work, than that is plagiarism. There are no shades of grey ... if it is not your own original thought but your are passing it off as your own work, that is plagiarism.

When I applied as an engineering student, I thought that it would be in my best interest to have all of my essays be about completely different sides of me and leave all the science-y stuff to my major essay. My common app essay I talked about being a jazz musician, and my struggles not be naturally gifted in music. Yet, something resided in me that made my want to be good at music, no matter how naturally un-gifted I was. Then I created my "community" essay, which used to be a part of the Hopkins supplement, as an art extravaganza, which incorporated drawing, and painting , and 3d madness. Lastly, I submitted my essay on ChemBe, which talked about why I was so passionate about biological engineering. I really wanted to show admissions all the sides of me, from the academic, to the musical, and to the artistic. When it comes down to it, be honest, express who you are, not what you want to be seen as. There's no need to plagiarize. My advice would be to go a completely different direction. Think about the most mundane, or maybe the quirky, things that make you who are you, and run with it.

While obviously there's no way that the admissions office could know that you took that one sentence from your cousin, if you're asking about it you probably know that it isn't the right thing to do, anyway.

Writing an essay that's completely your own thoughts and in your "voice" will come off better in the application process anyway, so it's worth spending some time with that to really make it your best.

Like Cate demonstrated, there are a lot of chances in the essay section of the application to talk about yourself and how interesting/unique/etc you are, so why waste it on an essay that's actually not all about you.

Hope this helps!

So I'd like to take this thread back to its roots by restarting the tips on your application essay....

I think the most important thing that I did while applying to Hopkins was stressing my individuality, and I recommend you do the same. This is not to say start your essay like this: "My name is Joe. I'm neat. I'm an individual, because I'm me." Unless you're an AMAZING writer, that will probably be really, really boring. And it'll come off like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqq3e03EBQ

Show the admissions reps how you're you, how you're special, how you'll add to the Hopkins community. Remember that everyone, including you, is unique. Show them what you've done and how you've done it, and avoid just putting your resume into list form (though it's totally cool to describe some things you've done on your resume; I'm guilty of that...).

These are only my personal suggestions, so please don't take them as a checklist on how to get into Hopkins. I'm only a blogger/forums-er; I have no say in admissions, and I'll never ever see what you submit. But showing rather than telling, I'm confident, made my application stronger, and if I must make one recommendation, I'd go for that.

Good luck. I'm not at all jealous of the position of many of you -- I waited until the last minute to complete my apps. Bad times, bad times .