Taking Stuff from Other People's Essays is a Really Bad Idea
Here you are. All set to finally write your business school admission essays. You have run out of excuses to postpone this task. But wait, the problem continues - you are just unable to get started. Writing was never really your strong point. And writing about yourself! That could get tricky.
So, you do the only sensible thing - seek inspiration. You locate friends who got into good business programs last year and get hold of their essays. You surf up free essay samples from the good ol' internet. Now, you have a lot of essays that other people wrote. Essays that pertain to other people's situations. It takes no time for you to acknowledge that some of the stuff out there is pretty good. And now you have it all in your hands.
It is at this point that one starts making liberal use of material from other people's essays. There are those who steal an entire essay with minor modification.
You can think up many justifications - No one is going to know! There are so many applicants, admission officers cannot possibly read all this closely! This stuff is much better than anything I could ever write! Everybody does this!
Leaving aside the ethical dimension of plagiarizing, let us simply consider what it does to the likelihood of your admission. Here are some real risks:
A lot of other candidates are doing what you are doing. Hence, your essays will all sound the same. Over the past few years, I have assisted several students with their essays. On one occasion, I found essays from 3 different students with the exact expression 'I am at that point in my career, where my head is teeming with ideas.' Coincidence? I think not.
Admissions officers take a very harsh view of plagiarism. It abuses the entire process. So, you could be in for outright rejection for this.
The essay is just not you. The admissions officer already has some writing samples from other parts of your application. Also she/he knows your verbal scores from the qualifying test. It better all make sense.
Is that enough, or do I need to tell you more about the ills of plagiarism? After all, my head is teeming with reasons to stay away from plagiarism J
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