An anonymous writer calling himself Ed Dante has caused quite the internet controversy over an essay he wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education about his job writing essays for students who will pay hundreds of dollars to avoid them. Dante claims to make over $65,000 a year writing about everything from sociology and history to theology and ethics — with more than a dose of irony, we hope.

Naturally, we seized on the following paragraph:

I have become a master of the admissions essay. I have written these for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs, some at elite universities. I can explain exactly why you’re Brown material, why the Wharton M.B.A. program would benefit from your presence, how certain life experiences have prepared you for the rigors of your chosen course of study. I do not mean to be insensitive, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been paid to write about somebody helping a loved one battle cancer. I’ve written essays that could be adapted into Meryl Streep movies.

We here at BlogDailyHerald aren’t naïve enough to think Brown students don’t cheat, despite the fact that in last year’s Herald poll, only 0.4% of you admitted to turning in someone else’s work as your own. But we have to admit we’re hoping that whoever “wrote” that Meryl Streep essay didn’t get in.

Have you ever paid someone to write an essay for you? Do you know someone who has — at Brown, or elsewhere? (Remember, comments are anonymous!)

It’s crunch time. Everyone’s suffering with exams and papers. Many are probably wondering if there’s a no-effort way to boost their grade a bit. And for those working on papers, there may be.

An incredibly unscientific study was conducted by a sixth semester college student who had used three fonts on the 52 papers he had completed for school so far. After going back through his old work, he found that his papers in Times New Roman got an average of A-, those in Trebuchet MS got an average of B-, and those in Georgia got an average of A.

His conclusion? Maybe Georgia gets you higher grades.

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