Do people really PAY to have people help them with their personal statements?

[HippieLawChick]

I am sorry, but I just can't believe that so many people seem to have zero confidence in their own abilities to write a decent personal statement and that some of the ridiculous "movie script" style statements worked. 

I read some of the ones on those sites and nearly gagged. You aren't trying to get into a creative writing program, you are trying to get into law school where making assertions that you support with evidence and legal citations win cases - not bull.

Sorry, just venting.  I had no idea that getting into school was going to be another racket where those who can afford it get ahead. 

[critic]

I am sorry, but I just can't believe that so many people seem to have zero confidence in their own abilities to write a decent personal statement and that some of the ridiculous "movie script" style statements worked. 

I read some of the ones on those sites and nearly gagged. You aren't trying to get into a creative writing program, you are trying to get into law school where making assertions that you support with evidence and legal citations win cases - not bull.

Sorry, just venting.  I had no idea that getting into school was going to be another racket where those who can afford it get ahead. 

question: you are saying that those who can afford it get ahead...

and you also say that the essays on the websites are movie-style, and better geared towards a creative writing program, and supported by bull?

If you don't like the way the essays come across, how can you also say that they help rich people get ahead? shouldn't they have the opposite effect?

[helendemilo]

I paid. 

[giffy]

I paid 10 bucks to EssayQueen to proofread mine. I am not so great with the grammer and spelling and figured it would be better to give her a few bucks then harrass my english major friends. All she did was tell me were my grammer or syntax could use some help or were I was not a claer as I could have been.

I agree that the full fledged well write your essay for you services are bad news.

[CheezWiz]

But the process of “getting in” is not about proving your point/counter-point or evidentiary abilities.  It’s about getting attention so that you can show who you are.  People don’t want to read some drab rag with 50 “and then’s” thrown together with a few “therefore’s”.

I had two professors in my Univ.’s English Dept. take a look at mine.  I didn’t pay a dime.  I would venture to say that most of us have that resource available to us.  If you can’t write well and attract your reader then no amount of money in the world will help you.  But having a professional (paid or otherwise) review your statement can sharpen your essay.

[sublimation]

I took an intense writing/editing course during my senior year of college with a professor who has written a leading book on grammar and style.   It was a paper due every week plus and additional 20 hours a week of hard-core editing of classmates’ papers.  It’s the type of stuff that’ll really hone your ability to edit your own prose. 

But regardless of your own confidence level, you should always have your work looked at by fresh eyes.  For my PS  I cornered some of my buddies from the class as well as the professor.  I was lucky to have people around me who knew what they were doing.

But if people don’t have access to these sorts of resources, I could totally see why they would drop the money for a good editing service.  I could dig $70 to $150 bucks for a solid read-through with line-editing, micro and macro.  it can take a good 3-5 hours to really help reshape a 2-page PS.  trust me, i've spent that much time on a couple of statements from (now) Harvard-bound lovlies on this board.  i'd say it's worth the money to have someone help you go from dull and bland to sparkly and shiny.


 

[underwhelm]

They also pay $1000s to learn what a course or two in logic during their undergrad would have taught them. It just gives credence to the capitalist truism "time = money". Getting in to law school requires both, but where you've skimped on one you can substitute the other.

[Dazed]

I wanted to demonstrate my underpriveleged SES in my statement, but felt as if my unique ability to make magic flow from my pen would not lend it credence. So I payed a home-schooled high school student $2500 to write it for me. It read as if he had absolutely no formal writing education at all! I think it definitely helped. So sometimes those paying are not getting a leg up on you, but rather a shove downwards.

[Perversely]

you know guys, the reason this LSD is here is because we write these messages here.

the ads here are for us, so take some comfort in knowing that your writing is worth something   

[dbgirl]

Well Dazed I'm sure you're joking around but ...

Being poor does not somehow make someone a bad writer. In fact, most writers are poor (I'm a prime example of that.)