Essay Exchanges?

Clearly, I cannot guarantee the honest behavior of other people. I do have an advantage in that my profile is quite different from the majority of the applicant pool. I doubt anyone from the "IT pool" would find much useful to plagiarize given my background, (liberal arts, fine arts, lutherie, etc.) work experience, and goals. I know also that, if someone wanted my help, it would be far more productive for them to simply let me read and critique their essay than plagiarize mine. However, that's not why I made the statement I did. I simply think that "borrowing" my essay would be unproductive for someone stupid enough to do do so.

Why?

I think the important point is that, even if I had the magic key to writing a goals essay, how would someone else use it? I am a competent writer but certainly no Joyce or Proust. Anyone lazy or dumb enough to steal my work and present it as their own is therefore someone to whom modest competence appears to be a competitive advantage. Even the most harried adcom is going to notice something is amiss when this person arrives for an interview.

I don' t think that the above description fits the people who hang around here. A GMATclub'er seems more likely to obsess over rewrites than not bother to write a decent essay. Besides, many of the regulars have posted far beyond the word limits of all the essays they will write.

Call me a fool, but I believe in acting honorably.

Very good discussion folks. Hopefully, we can create a workable framework that can be beneficial to all.

helpslip - very valid points. I agree with you on all counts.

As you said, your profile would not be that of a person from a more generic backrgound and so your essays would carry a distinct tone, but I think one concern would be if someone copies your tone of writing or "borrows writing ideas or themes".

Nobody would be daft as to do a cut and paste job, but trading an essay is akin to Heisenberg's principle (what you observe, you change). There is a possiblity that the person you trade your essay with would be inspired to write an essay with a similar theme/tone or story.

That is a remote possiblity, but still a possiblity. That is the risk that I am not quite willing to take.

I am all in favor for reviewing essays that are different from or do not have anything in common with my reviewer's. At least I would not be inadvertently swayed by another essay....

Essays like goals, family, greatest accomplishment, and ethics/morals would be in the grey area as most of these essays are common for all applicants.