2007 Admitted GMATClubbers - Submit your Essays! ;)

vij, we did suggest having a charge to access... not sure if there are any cons to that. Praet could want the area to only be open to those who contribute (not in monetary terms) to the site... But I wouldn't be opposed to charging similar amounts for access to the essays area.

BTW everyone, there's NOTHING in the essay area yet, so don't panic yet

Money is important for the Club, but these essays are not our work. I dont think money should be involved here.

We can work out all the details about access later.

Oh well, I have close to 30 posts in 16 days. Would take me almost 7 months to get to 400 posts. Now to find a pic of a dosa....

Charging for access might just work very well. Members could be charged per the posts they have. So someone with 300-400 posts could be required to pay less (say $10) than someone with 100-200 posts (say $20).

This money could be used to perhaps entice admitted members to submit their essays and get this initiative off the ground fast. Here's one suggestion:
All 09ers, 08ers etc. to submit their essays to Praetorian by a fixed date, let's say Sep-5. Praetorian uploads all of them the on same day. The first 5-10 (or any number of essays) to be downloaded a 100 times earn $20 Amazon/eBay evouchers each. So if member X submitted 5 essays and in the list of most dowloaded essays 3 of his/her essays make it to the list of top 10 then memeber X gets $20 * 3 = $60 evouchers.

If most of the members downloading the essays are from the 400+ club and that means GMATClub ends up paying money from its own pocket for these prizes then thats fine too because sooner rather than later I figure GMATClub will recover its investment.

I hope anyone denied access does not take it personally. Whatever way people are chosen to be allowed in, it is going to be open for debate. Selling access while a good idea to make money for the site it goes against the idea of the forum as a support of information. Sadly it probably will be an exclusive area, which is actually a good thing. There are a lot of people who come contribute for a short time then leave, some who lurk but never add anything, some who really don't try to add anything to conversations, and some who even take away from discussions (hopefully they are chased away quickly)...it really is going to be a reward for people who put in a great deal of effort to this forum.

What makes this place great are the users, its pretty much a simple messageboard but without the high caliber of members it wouldn't be what it is. While some people don't post much but they do add a great deal of value it will be tough if you are excluded. However, it would be a lot worse to allow people who post just to get the numbers to get into the site. I hope that if its numbers based that it doesn't lead to LOL, I agree, ^ what he said, and all those typical useless posts you see on a lot of forums.

The more dedicated users that this place gets the better off we all are. Now please don't post just for numbers and for those who don't have the numbers and probably wont reach it anytime soon please continue to contribute as much and as often as you can...you never know when Praet will decide to give access to certain people based on high value posts they make. Besides there isn't anything there yet so there is no need to feel excluded. Its a forum that while is a great idea will probably take a few years to develop into what the hopes for it are.

Well said.

There there .. people already started increasing their post-count by posting one/two-worders

HAHA





alright thats enough post count whoring...we already have enough and don't want to set a bad example.

Almost all the 2007ers must be busy with the school prep work already. And once classes start (If they haven't already), they wouldn't even realize how a month passes by. And then, from October, a lot of them will have to start looking for internship jobs (Based on what a Columbia alumnus told me).

So, the 2007ers visits to these forums might become very rare very soon. So if there is any 2007er who may want to voluntarily donate his essays to the GMATClub's cause, then we should get in touch with him now.

I understand that need to keep freeloaders at bay, but there are many of us that get a lot out of the website that don't post on every question. I guess I could tell everyone I back solve these hard ones, or go toe to toe with bmwhype2 when I say that "B" sounds icky and that is why I didn't pick it.

even getting to 100 posts that are worth is tough.

I feel the need to post this since so many people seem to be worried they are missing out.

For all those who can't get in to the forum. There is absolutely nothing of value in there yet and there probably wont be for a while. It is going to be a long process to get people to contribute materials so in reality it wont be much use until R2 at the earliest and the real value wont be until next years applications when this years people submit materials. Long term it will be a great addition to the site but in the immediate future it is probably not going to have any great secrets.

I guess I don't have access

Guys, As riverripper said, there is nothing of value in that section yet. And chances are that there won't be anything till R1 deadlines. For now, we are just planning to ask 2007ers (In the most polite way possible) to submit some essays, if they feel like it

And if you guys continue contributing as well on these forums as you have done in the past, there's no reason for you to not have access by the end of R1 deadlines anyway.

Hey Guys,

I have a post count of >650 still I am not able to access the forum.
Mods please help!!

Regards
Yogesh

I tried that (very subtlly in this very thread yesterday).......an someone cleaned them up an even removed the count from my posts.

For once admin's/mods doing their job is working against me

I appreciate to read all the thread and the idea is nice by itself

Yet, It could sound weird or paranoid but what if someone is copying/pasting the content of a former essay to his own one.... and then, of course, the ADCOM see this and as an effect, the B School decides to act against not only the applicant but also the original writer, turned to be a alumn at best or a current student at worst?

I agree that it may be a bit paranoid, but people could use the syntax and style for a few sentences. Even the same strucutre. I know that there a bunch of books out there, Paul Bodine's and Richard Montauk's come to mind, that have sample essays. But I think it is a bit different when it comes to viewing other people's essays especially those who have just applied or are applying to bschool. I don't think that anyone from these forums would do something like that but it doesn't hurt to be safe.