Possible academic repercussions of freelance essay writing?

I've done a little writing for essay companies and I like the work. Lately I've been thinking about starting my own freelance essay business and possibly taking online classes for people as well. However, I'm concerned about anonymity. I've considered using a DBA name so customers wouldn't see my real name in Paypal, but it's my understanding that the fictitious name would still be linked with my real name in public records, if people were really inclined to search it out.

I'm not currently a student, but I want to go back to school to do a master's and possibly a Ph.D. eventually. My fear is that my future school would somehow find out about my work on the side. It seems really unlikely, but also possible, that a disgruntled customer could dig up my identifying information and make my school aware of it. (Not that I'm planning on having disgruntled customers, but it happens.) I don't want to do anything that could jeopardize my academic future.

I've searched the internet for information on this topic, but I can't find anything. Most people who do this kind of work seem to be out of school and I haven't spent enough time in this business to know if my worries are valid or not. I know academic ghostwriting isn't illegal, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't get in trouble with a university for it. What do you think? If you were planning to go back to school, would you still do academic writing for money?

Thanks.

I don't think it would negatively affect you. Just the opposite; having a working / professional experience would always be something to be proud of. Working as an example research writer / editor is pretty much similar to working as an academic tutor (as long as you make it clear you don't condone plagiarism). Having said that, 'taking online classes' is not something you should do. Revealing the name assigned with your Paypal account is possible, but very difficult if you use a DBA name (or have a business account). If I was going to go back to school, my ghostwriting / academic tutoring experience would have no effect on that.

I agree. Moreover, from a strictly pragmatic perspective, freelance academic writing is a good business model. Although it is not as scalable as the strategy used by Tom Cruise in "Risky Business," the appeal to business college recruiters would likely be the same:

Bill Rutherford, Princeton Admissions (BR): I believe we had an interview scheduled. ... if this is inconvenient for you...

Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) (JG): No, sir. It's fine.

BR: I understand that you would like to attend Princeton.

JG: Yes, sir, very much.

BR: Well, fine. ... And you wish to major in? Business?

JG: Business. Yes.

BR: [Reviewing transcript] Well, Joel, this is very respectable. You've done some very solid work here... but it isn't quite lvy League, is it?

JG: You know, Bill... there's one thing I've learned in all my years. Sometimes you have to say, 'WTF.'
...
BR: Princeton can use a guy like Joel.

Thanks for the replies. Major, I think you're right that taking classes for others isn't a good idea, as there's pretty much no ethical justification for it. I'm poor and taking classes is what I'm best at, haha, which is why I was considering it, but I do feel a bit weird about it so I'll be steering clear of that one.

Regarding the academic writing, though, do you think a school would be skeptical about the ethics of my work even if I made it very clear that I don't condone cheating? Because realistically, no matter how many anti-cheating warnings I put on my website, I know and university administrators know that part of the customer base for pre-written essays is students who don't want to do their own work, and I doubt that my playing dumb would convince anyone. Not too many people are going to spend $100+ on custom-written CliffsNotes. Maybe my business would look more respectable if I also offered editing services and composition tutoring? I'm not sure if there's a way I can spin this that wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

You can always describe your work as an "educational consultant," but I think you're worried about something that will never happen.

If someone wants to 'frame' you, they can always find a way to make it happen. Even if you told someone you are a 'regular' ghostwriter, they could claim you write p#r*n stories on the side. In my opinion, having experience in running a business, doing a customer service, doing *something* will always be considered valuable to your potential employers.

When I applied for my last traditional job as a writer/editor for the federal government, I'd already been doing this for years and it wasn't anything that I hid during the interview process. In fact, I discussed it in some detail because the range of subjects that I'd been covering and the fact that I was so used to handling multiple overlapping short deadlines were both valuable skills from the employer's point of view. They had roughly 400 applicants for that one position, so I think it's safe to say that they didn't hold it against me. However, when I discussed it a couple of years ago with a recruiter for a company in Switzerland, he told me in no uncertain terms that Swiss companies would not look favorably at all on this kind of work experience. I suspect that might be the same view of employers in academia.

Yes. For college students who have a strong set of writing skills, the ability to be an academic writer on campus can be a good thing. It helped me with my additional expenses as a student and often, gave me some extra cash to spend on whims and caprices. Academic writing while a student actually helps you prepare for 2 eventual careers: the one you studied for or, the one you were paid for. Either way you end up with a skill that will help you earn money after you complete your education. Beating the pavement looking for work was never something that happened to me because I had the continuous flow of students to support me after I graduated. That, is also the reason why I ended up in this career instead of the one I studied for.

Your terrible English really hurts my eyeballs, and I feel sorry for any customer who stumbles into your ES-sanctioned trap here. Why do you think you belong in this industry? For God's sakes!

I took a certain language in HS and college, and I'm okay at it. I can get by in that country, ask for directions, buy toothpaste, etc. But I would never even dream of setting up a company offering high-level academic assistance in that language, because #1 I'm not a con-artist and #2 I have a realistic sense of my own limitations. That also actually helped me learn more, because I could recognize my own errors and try to fix them.

You, though-- you assume you belong in this industry, and yet you still don't understand basic stuff about the language, like YOU DON'T ISOLATE THE SUBJECT OF A SENTENCE WITH A COMMA. What gave you the gall to make a career choice where you're crippled from square one? Was it desperation? Privilege? Arrogance?

Cite-- you are a mind-bogglingly incompetent disaster in the English-speaking academic ghostwriting world. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

The academic writing industry is struggling right now. Writers are barely getting by as both independent and company attached writers. Going back to school to accomplish some sort of upskilling is not a bad idea. It is something that all writer's should consider at this point. Schools will not ask about your occupation as an academic writer unless it comes up as an integral part of your work experience consideration. In which case, it is never good to hide the truth. Go ahead and disclose this if the need to do so arises. The school could only look upon this in one of 2 ways:

1. You will use the school as an extension of your writing business, in which case they will refuse your admission.
2. The skills you developed over the years prove that you can complete the course you will be taking and that you are capable of working under extreme deadline pressure so they will admit you as a student.

Like they say, you will never know until you try.

I think the only writers who haven't suffered too much since the introduction of AI are those of us who already established a large client base of regular customers. However, for anybody thinking of trying to start building a clientele now, for the first time, that's probably a very steep uphill battle that no new writer is likely to win.

I know one well established independent writer who is starting nursing school. After having written 1,000+ Nursing projects (as most of us have if we've been doing this work for many years), he figured that he already has much less to learn than the typical Nursing student.