Admission essay editing is cheating to get into college. Offering that and other writing and editing services for students is unethical unless the professor or panel approves.
Why?
Because a large part of the approval or rejection of a student—and in the case of papers, the grade—is based on how well the student writes. Helping that student to misrepresent their writing skills is unethical. It’s cheating, and cheating is wrong.
Do not help students cheat. If you do, you’re setting them up for failure and you’re adding to the problems in education today. The system is already full of students who are at the remedial level. It doesn’t need any more. And college is not helpful for so many people now. They’d be better off going to trade school, self-educating, or getting an entry-level job and building their skills.
I see so many people offering editing services to students—almost 38 million results in Google just for one search term. The editors who do this see no problem with the misrepresentation. Perhaps their desire for dollars outweighs their understanding or conscience.
Why admission essay editing is risky
An entrance essay is supposed to give the administration of the institution (college or university) an accurate portrayal of the student’s personality and abilities. If the student writes at an elementary-school level, and you polish the writing to college-level material, you just helped someone commit fraud.
Pretty strong words, I know.
Maybe that’s my autism talking, but some things really are in black and white.
I worked in administration at two colleges in different states. At both schools, if we found out that the student misrepresented herself in the application process (including obtaining admission essay editing), then the student was kicked out. The student’s scholarships were revoked, and no credit was given. The student had committed a major ethics violation and was removed from campus.
That’s how serious this is.
Why would you as an editor participate in such a dangerous and misleading thing? For a few dollars? Please have integrity and be a better person than that. Why would you as a student risk expulsion and shame, over admission essay editing?
Setting students up for failure
Not only does the student risk being expelled from college for cheating on the essay, but they also are being set up for failure. If they obtain admission to a school that is out of their league by using an essay that misrepresents their abilities, then they enter an environment they are not prepared for or worthy of being in. They might not be able to complete the coursework if they can’t write at the college level. Why would you set a student up for failure? To protect someone’s ego from reality? That is not helping them. It’s actually contributing to their downfall.
Getting professor approval
When I was in college and beyond, multiple students approached me and asked me to edit their papers. The only way I would do it was if they’d tell me the name of the professor, whom I would contact independently and ask if it was okay for me to edit the paper(s), explaining what that would entail. If I didn’t receive any response, or if the answer was no, I would refuse to help that student with that paper. This is the only ethical approach.
You can also point the student to resources such as books they can buy and use to learn how to write better.
Be ethical, or get out of the editing business. If you’re a student (or an aspiring student), go about things the right way. Cheating to get into college will only set you up for failure and put you in a stressful situation. There are so many other options.
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