As college admissions consultants, one of our main tasks here at the university is to help students write the best personal essays they can. As we’ve noted before, the personal statement has the potential to seriously help a college understand why they should accept you. At the same time, knowing just how powerful a personal essay is can make the prospect of writing one seem difficult and intimidating.

The stress of writing a personal statement that some students face can make some tempted to cheat the system out of fear that they may not be able to succeed or be accepted into an otherwise satisfying college. Some recruit someone or multiple people to write their essay for them, or even try to submit essays or essay parts they find online as their own work. This is considered plagiarism and we do not condone it in any way.

Because we know how stressful the college application process can be, we’d like to take the time here to remind you that plagiarism is never the answer. Although competitive and complicated, the college admissions process is not an unwinnable game. There are virtually no benefits to being dishonest; meanwhile, cheating leaves you vulnerable to a host of problems and negative repercussions. What many students do not realize, and what we would like to highlight here, is that it is very easy to identify plagiarism. Chances are, if you don’t write your own application essay, you’ll get caught, and here’s why.

What counts as plagiarism?

First, let’s clarify what a college admissions committee would consider plagiarism to avoid offenses of ignorance. Plagiarism is defined as the act of claiming another’s work as your own. The most obvious form of plagiarism in the college application process is to hire a freelance writer or company to write your essay for you. Although it may seem attractive, these companies and individuals exist and operate. However, if you are caught using their services, it is you, not them, who will suffer the negative repercussions.

Another form of plagiarism is copying and pasting entire sentences or paragraphs that you didn’t type into the regular app. Even if you generated some of your essay content, one stolen sentence or paragraph is enough to be incriminating.

Also, excessive editing by a parent, school counselor, or guardian turns into plagiarism when you are no longer writing the essay, but directing your family and teachers to do it. What’s more, there really isn’t a “fine line” between getting help and plagiarizing; if you’re cheating, you’ll know it. It is certainly fine and even recommended that students seek advice and feedback from teachers, parents and guardians. But when you start letting your helpers sit at the computer and do the typing for you, a red flag should go up in your mind. By the time an edit session reaches that level of engagement, it’s usually gone too far.

Why is it bad to plagiarize? An ethical approach

Before launching into a discussion about the real repercussions that plagiarism can have, we think it is important to discuss the ethical argument against plagiarism. As we said before, we do not approve, because in the long run it hurts you and your achievements. Obviously, it’s unethical to put your name on someone else’s words and take credit for their work; this is unfair to the original writer.

That said, it’s also wildly unfair to you. By cheating, you admit to believing that you need someone else to help you get into the right school when, in fact, the opposite is true. The only person who can get you into the best school for you is, you guessed it, you. If you end up being placed at a university based on a job that isn’t yours, it could certainly come back to bite you later. Ultimately, you should want to end up in an institution where you are accepted on your own merits; These are the institutions that can best serve you, your work ethic, and your specific set of strengths and weaknesses, and you should apply honestly.

What’s more, you put yourself at a disadvantage by hiring someone else to write your personal statement, since the ultimate goal of the essay is to share intimate information about your personality, something you can do better than anyone else. Often when students allow parents or guardians to review their personal statement too heavily, the student’s idiosyncrasies are erased.

Why not plagiarize? The practical approach

We’ll start by saying that it’s usually pretty transparent when a student hasn’t written their personal statement. If the voice in your personal essay sounds inconsistent with the voice in other sections of your application, an adcom might notice this and investigate further. College applications provide you with many opportunities to express your opinions, in the personal statement, through supplementary essays or in an interview, and college admissions committees are particularly attentive to your voice throughout the process; this is because ultimately adcoms are trying to reach an admissions decision based on your personality and mindset. If you present yourself a certain way in your common interview and application but sound different in your personal statement, that’s going to raise a red flag.

Your English grades and TOEFL test results can serve as another point of reference for adcoms when they read your personal statement. If your scores are average, but your essay is extremely well written, advertisers may question the credibility of your essay.

Additionally, adcoms are aware that it can be tempting to plagiarize a personal statement. They also know that there are many consulting firms and third parties that are willing to write commissioned essays. Because of this, any suspicions about the credibility of your personal essay will trigger further investigation and may disqualify you for admission if confirmed.

Practically speaking, there are a number of ways colleges can find out that you haven’t written your own essay. Because application materials are submitted online, it is easy to perform plagiarism checks on essays through third parties. Harvard is just one of many universities using this software capability to weed out plagiarists.

Finally, the stakes are high and universities do not accept cheaters. If a college finds out that you plagiarized your essay, you can expect immediate rejection or rescinding of your admission if a college finds out after the fact.