Admissions Essays

I'm applying to graudate school and I've encountered the essay question(s). Greg Mankiw has an interesting post on the role of essays in admissions. He links to a professor at Johns Hopkins:

Yet if Harvard really wants to do something to make admissions fairer, it should consider doing away with the most inane and manipulable part of the present process: the application essay....the application essay has been corrupted from another direction: by wealthy parents who hire consultants for tens of thousands of dollars to game the system, "advising" students on their essays (i.e. writing them), and also arranging for just the right range of activities and "experiences" to make the essays compelling to admissions officers.

I'm inclined to believe that wealthy parents (or applicants) will always be able to "game" the system by hiring consultants or tutors which is especially unfortunate since education is what moves people up the income ladder.