本文作于2012年6月。是美国一位本科招生官在哈佛的一场招生官会议上的见闻。拜各地甚嚣尘上的中介所赐，美国的招生官现在也越来越不相信ESSAY了。

有的招生官认为ESSAY阅卷将越来越成为招生官的负担；有的认为类似“哈佛成功ESSAY50篇”之类的攻略范例将越来越令ESSAY考卷化、标准化、模板化；布朗大学的招生官则直言，他们现在已经减低了ESSAY在申请中的占比。

文中提到，有的美国大学已经要求学生提交高中平时作文作为参考——就像成绩单一样，由老师或学校提交——以鉴定学生在ESSAY创作上是否存在代写或作弊行为。而这将越来越成为常态。

原文如下：

Will Application Essays Survive?

Boston—Application essays are perhaps the most romantic fixture of the admissions process. Although many colleges do not require them, some selective institutions ask students to write two or more. Such requirements allow applicants to reveal their true selves and help admissions officers see inside students’ heads and hearts. At least that’s long been the idea.

But has the personal statement outlived its usefulness? On Wednesday, several admissions officers and college counselors weighed that question here at the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions. In an era of application surges at super-selective colleges, one counselor predicted, application essays will soon become too much of a burden for some overworked admissions staffs.

Others expressed concerns about the impossibility of judging authenticity. Some applicants have college consultants who coach them through each sentence; some plagiarize, or borrow elements from books like 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get Into the College of Your Choice. And some essays are composed by someone else entirely (a colleague of mine once told me that she had written almost every word of her son’s personal statements).

Honest applicants who do their own work may still benefit from copious editing that blurs the boundaries of ownership. Martin Bonilla, director of college counseling at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, Calif., described how some students solicit feedback from more than one teacher. “I tell kids to be careful who they show it to,” he said. “There are too many adults looking at these essays.”

That’s one reason why Jim Miller, dean of admission at Brown University, said his staff does not put as much stock in essays as it once did. “A spectacular essay can raise more questions than it answers,” Mr. Miller said. That’s especially true if an application lacks other evidence that the student is, in fact, a strong writer.

A handful of colleges now ask applicants to submit copies of essays that have been graded by high-school teachers, and some counselors predicted that this requirement would soon become more common. Mr. Bonilla has found that personal essays cause students more stress than any other part of the application. “If it’s not adding value,” he said, “then let’s drop it.”

文章来源：Will Application Essays Survive? The Choronicle of Higher Education