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kryzak
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 06 Sep 2007, 19:58
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well, even for the class of 2006 application (just 2 years before us), they had NO LIMIT for the what matters essay... the student I talked to said he wrote TEN pages... and was shocked to hear that it's 3 pages now. It'll definitely be a different ballgame this year!
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 06 Sep 2007, 20:48
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Yeah, I just spent an hour cutting out the fat of my 1st essay and its still 4 pages long... Well, time to move on and I'll come back to it with the butcher knife ;)
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kryzak
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 06 Sep 2007, 22:15
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you can always take space from the other essays... (thought that's near impossible)
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 07 Sep 2007, 14:35
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kryzak
definitely helps. talked to a current student today, and he gave me some good ideas... two approaches. one is to find a unifying theme of your life motivations and write it that way. The other is to look at what themes you want to portray to each business school, see what's left out of Essays B and C, and try to develop a theme for Essay A using the remaining things you want to talk about your candidacy...
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wow ..... I wished you ahd posted that last week.

I tried both approaches, though in reverse order - first I saw how I had arrived on my "goals" and said thats what mattered the most to me. I shoe-horned things that I was not able to show anywhere else in the essay an then sprinkled a dab of community service an left to bake - results - a crap cake

I then grappled with the topic for two days an changed my approach. I tried the unifying theory approach, and the essay is definately less crappier
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 07 Sep 2007, 14:54
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sangoman
kryzak
definitely helps. talked to a current student today, and he gave me some good ideas... two approaches. one is to find a unifying theme of your life motivations and write it that way. The other is to look at what themes you want to portray to each business school, see what's left out of Essays B and C, and try to develop a theme for Essay A using the remaining things you want to talk about your candidacy...

wow ..... I wished you ahd posted that last week.

I tried both approaches, though in reverse order - first I saw how I had arrived on my "goals" and said thats what mattered the most to me. I shoe-horned things that I was not able to show anywhere else in the essay an then sprinkled a dab of community service an left to bake - results - a crap cake

I then grappled with the topic for two days an changed my approach. I tried the unifying theory approach, and the essay is definately less crappier
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Now I love most any kind of cake... but not crap cake. I have the reverse problem of you guys. I feel good about my what matters most essay, but now I am struggling to find a good, complementary 1 page essay to go with my other 3.
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kryzak
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 07 Sep 2007, 15:23
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you probably want to save at least 2 pages for the career goals essay... the Haas one is 1000 words and I barely made it under. I'll probably have 800 words for Stanford (2 pages double spaced 12 pt font).
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 08 Sep 2007, 08:01
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That's what my issue is right now. I have three pages for the first essay and one page each for the last two. But the middle one is a little over three so I know that's where I need to cut down. Did you guys talk about career history (very briefly) in this essay at all?
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 08 Sep 2007, 10:57
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for the goals essay, only bring up important events during your career, and talk about why they're important. Don't go through the career history, not even a quick description! That will save you some words.
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 08 Sep 2007, 11:38
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kryzak
for the goals essay, only bring up important events during your career, and talk about why they're important. Don't go through the career history, not even a quick description! That will save you some words.
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Agree with you fully. If you read the wordings of their goals essay then unlike the U-Chic an many other goals essay they arent specifically asking you to trace your career path

PS: Has anyone tried to experiment with font that are small. Please help.
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 09 Sep 2007, 08:02
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Hey folks, does stanford require only self-reporting of GMAT scores, then only after they ADMIT, then you send in the real scores? Or do they want the real scores right away before they review?

I thought it was only self-reported scored for all schools, but someone told me Stanford wants real scores first??

On the same note, does ANY school want real scores first?? I thought it was ALL self-reported!
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 09 Sep 2007, 11:11
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i don't think any of my schools (Stanford, UCLA, Haas) want the real scores just yet. But then again, I didn't read it carefully since I already sent them my scores when I took my test.
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 09 Sep 2007, 20:08
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How y'all feeling about Arial Narrow... I'm having trouble condensing my Stanford essays to the suggested length and Arial Narrow is totally my savior at the moment. Maybe I can just include a magnifying glass with the application?!?

OK. I had to vent. Another weekend sacrificed to the B School apps! How crazy is 3 pages for Essay A, anyway?
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 09 Sep 2007, 20:20
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3 pages for Essay A is pretty crazy, especially since 2 years ago they get 10+ pages. I would not do anything that would make the adcom's lives miserable by having to pull out reading glasses. ;) Margins would probably be the way to go, along with a very minor tweak of the double spacing thing (1.8 spacing perhaps?). I think Times New Roman has a smaller font size at 12 pts than Arial...

I'm spending all of Sunday working on the "family" essay for UCLA. I think by writing it, it's helping me understand what i want to write about Essay A for Stanford. Or so I hope!
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 10 Sep 2007, 10:28
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Wow you guys are way ahead. After spending a week, I feel I have got the right stuff for essay 1 and essay 2. Now that content is taken care of, here comes the style problem :-) I will pen my first line tonight
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 10 Sep 2007, 11:39
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kryzak
i don't think any of my schools (Stanford, UCLA, Haas) want the real scores just yet. But then again, I didn't read it carefully since I already sent them my scores when I took my test.
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Hi can anyone who is applying to Stanford verify whether they require official GMAT and transcript right away? OR is self-reported ok for now?
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 10 Sep 2007, 13:35
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actually, I'm not sure what to write about for "what matters" yet. After completing my Family essay for UCLA, I didn't think it was as strong as I liked... so on to some other theme then!
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 12 Sep 2007, 13:44
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I was so proud a month ago when I 'thought' I was done with the 1st draft.
Pulled it out a few days back and could'nt stand the smell. Wow - so back to my design board for #1 !
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 12 Sep 2007, 13:47
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sniff! sniff!
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 13 Sep 2007, 03:21
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Hey Stan Ppl,

need advice on essay topic choice:

As of now my essays read as below:

Essay 1: Very personal/private........nothing to do with office
Essay 2: Very professional.....office related (obviously)
Essay 3: (mini essay - impact on a company) - again work related
Essay 4: (mini essay - challenging situation) - college ECA.

OK now the problem is that I have a very good alternate essay 4 - as a simple B. Tech (alebiet from a top college) I am a business manager in a division where I lead a 8 member team which has P. hD's and M.Tech ppl. I am the youngest/ least educated person in the team. Obviously when I came in, none of my team-members were too charmed by the situation, but I slowly won them over.

I know this is limited info. but can any of you tell me if I should re-write my essay 4 from this point of view. I personally feel that doing this will make my app too work related - my college strugles will not have an essay dedicated to them

Advise Please
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Calling Stanford Fall 2008 Applicants 13 Sep 2007, 05:53
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My essays 2,3,4 all have to do with work, though, my personal essay does touch on my undergraduate education.

Not to rework your app, but it sounds like the alternative work situation that you've outlined is a pretty compelling story about your leadership abilities, so it would be valuable to share.

I don't think including details about under grad education is that important b/c they've got your transcript, etc. Any other thoughts on this?
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