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Favorite Essay

43% [17]
5% [2]
12% [5]
7% [3]
2% [1]
28% [11]
Total votes : 39
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nick_sun
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 01:38
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"What matters most to you, and why?" for Stanford was the most rewarding because of its tremendous self-reflection power and soul-searching engine.
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togafoot
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 01:50
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Hated writing all my essays :)
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bherronp
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 08:15
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I actually liked writing the "Why (MBA,now,chicago) essay for Chicago GSB. It was long at 1500 words, which allowed me enough space to discuss my background, intentions, and desire to attend more thoroughly than at other schools. I feel that this essay should always be 1000 words or more. The 500 word one I had to do for Michigan was brutal.
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parsifal
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 08:28
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kryzak
I enjoyed the "If you can invite someone to dinner (past, present), who would it be" from Haas.
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I was wondering why no one mentioned it so far. I didnt apply to Haas, otherwise this would have been among my favorites. It is very easy to fall into the trap of mediocrity while writing an essay on this topic, i.e. I m convinced that a majority will write Prez Bush, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates......

Just curious, what did you write kryzak? (i mean, who would you invite?)
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kk.iyer
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 08:35
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You say 500 was less ? Cornell gave you 400, no more... :shock:
bherronp
I actually liked writing the "Why (MBA,now,chicago) essay for Chicago GSB. It was long at 1500 words, which allowed me enough space to discuss my background, intentions, and desire to attend more thoroughly than at other schools. I feel that this essay should always be 1000 words or more. The 500 word one I had to do for Michigan was brutal.
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terry12
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 08:50
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I really liked Stanford's "What matters most to you, and why?" It wasn't especially fun to get started on this question, but it became a lot of fun in the end.

I didn't apply to the Chicago GSB, but the Power Point presentation sounds like it would've been pretty cool.
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max125
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 08:56
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parsifal
kryzak
I enjoyed the "If you can invite someone to dinner (past, present), who would it be" from Haas.

I was wondering why no one mentioned it so far. I didnt apply to Haas, otherwise this would have been among my favorites. It is very easy to fall into the trap of mediocrity while writing an essay on this topic, i.e. I m convinced that a majority will write Prez Bush, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates......

Just curious, what did you write kryzak? (i mean, who would you invite?)
Show more

This Haas essay is pretty much the same as "step into shoes" of Chicago. But, I guess, one can take a different approach (like taking Giselle Bundchen out and getting to know about New England Patriots) .
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kryzak
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 09:14
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The Haas one is similar to Chicago's shoes one, but in 250 words (take that, Cornell! :P). It was short and sweet, but you had to pack so much in there (why you're inviting the person, why has the person affected you, what do you aspire to be, etc...)

I wrote about Pete Sampras since he's the guy I've been religiously following for a decade in the 90's and I try to model my every day life on his quiet and gentlemanly demeanor.

I might post the essay (like Kwam did) in the Haas Essay Vault soon...

EDIT: short answer 1 from Haas is in the essay vault now...
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kk.iyer
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 15:49
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250 words...man that is brutal! :shock:
I had a tough time moving from the 500 word Ross goals essay to the 1500 word Chicago goals essay.
What was tougher was then pruning them down to the 400 words for Cornell.

I had to resort to tactics like combining words (I have => I've and so on)
How did you folks manage?

kryzak
The Haas one is similar to Chicago's shoes one, but in 250 words (take that, Cornell! :P). It was short and sweet, but you had to pack so much in there (why you're inviting the person, why has the person affected you, what do you aspire to be, etc...)

I wrote about Pete Sampras since he's the guy I've been religiously following for a decade in the 90's and I try to model my every day life on his quiet and gentlemanly demeanor.

I might post the essay (like Kwam did) in the Haas Essay Vault soon...

EDIT: short answer 1 from Haas is in the essay vault now...
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wallspotter
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 16:48
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kk.iyer
250 words...man that is brutal! :shock:
I had a tough time moving from the 500 word Ross goals essay to the 1500 word Chicago goals essay.
What was tougher was then pruning them down to the 400 words for Cornell.

I had to resort to tactics like combining words (I have => I've and so on)
How did you folks manage?
Show more

I actually enjoyed the short cornell essays - as it gave me an excuse to re-read my favorite Hemingway novel for guidance on writing "short, simple, declarative sentences."
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kryzak
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Favorite essay this application season.... 12 Mar 2008, 17:24
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I started with Haas first, so after 4-250 word essays, and a 500 and 1000 word essay, I actually had a hard time writing my kellogg essays in the end because I had too much space... :P One reason I didn't apply to Chicago was because I had to expand my "dinner" essay to 500 words and my goals essay to 1500.

You really need to focus on word choice and what you're trying to get across. My first draft of the short essays were all around 400 words or so... really had to get the point across and utilize every word completely.
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kk.iyer
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Favorite essay this application season.... 13 Mar 2008, 08:15
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The vote counts on this one have stagnated with the Chicago PPT emerging as the clear leader
(I always thought so but just wanted to confirm.... hehe)
I'll close the poll once the R3 deadlines go by and the enthusiasm dies down...
Cheers
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kryzak
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Favorite essay this application season.... 13 Mar 2008, 09:20
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of course, Chicago also had the most applicants this year on GMATClub... maybe we should normalize it to the # of applicants for the school in question? :P
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