Essay Exchange Attempts a Revolution

By Kash Rajagopal '14

The college application process seems remarkably straightforward: craft your personal statement into a ticket to one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. The essay is a window into your soul…really just a simple litmus test by the ad-coms to ensure you’re sufficiently accomplished, but humble, well-balanced but impassioned. Naturally, your essay should aim to be poignant but certainly never mawkish, and show how you, young wunderkind, have grappled with life’s unanswerable questions. Cheers!For the few that don’t find this request particularly transparent, www.EssayExchange.org provides some clarity. The website serves as an application essay bazaar, where students can learn from successful essays. For a meager $7.50, students can read previous essays accepted by Ivy League schools, Stanford, and MIT. Its founders, Harvard Business school alumni, wanted to “level the playing field” in a world of $40,000 private tutors and test-prep agencies. However, CEO Rory O’Connor wants to inform colleges around the country about his website and collaborate with them to ensure students don’t Turnitin to a plagiarism hotspot. O’ Connor believes his blossoming website may just revolutionize the college admissions process.