In the U.K., it’s been discovered that five percent of medical-school applicants cheat on their application forms by plagiarizing material in their personal essays.
It is hardly news, of course, that students will cheat (or, for that matter, teachers). Consider the following snapshot from Google Trends, which compares search queries for “term paper” (in blue) and “animal rights” (in red). Based on this search and other similar ones, it would seem that the practice of buying term papers is very much alive.
But doesn’t it strike you as a bit more unseemly to rip off information for your personal essay to get into med school? Especially when the stolen bits are so hackneyed? Consider this:
[The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service] said 370 applications contained a statement starting with “a fascination for how the human body works.” A total of 234 included a statement relating a dramatic incident involving “burning a hole in pyjamas at age eight,” and 175 candidates wrote about “an elderly or infirm grandfather.”
(Hat tip: Cyril Morong)
and 
. You can also watch it on 
What inspired the choice of “Animal Rights” as your control term? For what it is worth, I put in “Chinese History” and got a similar pattern. Not so with “Watermelon”, however.
What inspired the choice of “Animal Rights” as your control term? For what it is worth, I put in “Chinese History” and got a similar pattern. Not so with “Watermelon”, however.
Most doctors have the personality of cheez wiz. So I wouldn’t expect them to write very well. They have the skills of a glorified car mechanic, except that the glory is fast declining. Most doctors now wish they had gone into dentistry.
But hasn’t it been proven that you want your surgeon to have been a 12-hour-a-day-video-playing-pimply-faced kid who never read a poem or mastered algebra?
Most doctors have the personality of cheez wiz. So I wouldn’t expect them to write very well. They have the skills of a glorified car mechanic, except that the glory is fast declining. Most doctors now wish they had gone into dentistry.
But hasn’t it been proven that you want your surgeon to have been a 12-hour-a-day-video-playing-pimply-faced kid who never read a poem or mastered algebra?
Why should a personal essay have any bearing on whether or not you get into med school? Are there studies that show that candidates who figure out how to give the best snow jobs to admissions committees make better doctors?
I’m betting the correlation is low to nonexistent, and the essays are there to make the schools and directors feel good about themselves. I’m betting that there are better-qualified candidates being excluded because they are not as good at writing an emotionally-moving story as, you know, actually doing doctor stuff.
And why should having a dramatic story about “an elderly or infirm grandfather” help you get into medical school? At least this essay plagiarism levels the playing field between those who legitimately have a real tearjerking story and those who, through no ‘fault’ of their own, don’t.
Why should a personal essay have any bearing on whether or not you get into med school? Are there studies that show that candidates who figure out how to give the best snow jobs to admissions committees make better doctors?
I’m betting the correlation is low to nonexistent, and the essays are there to make the schools and directors feel good about themselves. I’m betting that there are better-qualified candidates being excluded because they are not as good at writing an emotionally-moving story as, you know, actually doing doctor stuff.
And why should having a dramatic story about “an elderly or infirm grandfather” help you get into medical school? At least this essay plagiarism levels the playing field between those who legitimately have a real tearjerking story and those who, through no ‘fault’ of their own, don’t.
Agreed. I think this post misused the Google trends (and the stated Freakonomics mantra to not mix correlation with causation). I’m not exactly sure how Google Trends works, but for the ‘trend’ Dubner sites, US comes in 6th behind the Phillipines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya and Lebenon for regions where the search eminates (though the scores are ‘normalized,’ but Google doesn’t explain this term well). Is Dubner stating that these regions are more likely to cheat (or the source of cheating)? I don’t know but as post #1 points out, this seems like a case of spurious correlation.
Agreed. I think this post misused the Google trends (and the stated Freakonomics mantra to not mix correlation with causation). I’m not exactly sure how Google Trends works, but for the ‘trend’ Dubner sites, US comes in 6th behind the Phillipines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya and Lebenon for regions where the search eminates (though the scores are ‘normalized,’ but Google doesn’t explain this term well). Is Dubner stating that these regions are more likely to cheat (or the source of cheating)? I don’t know but as post #1 points out, this seems like a case of spurious correlation.