How are we doing: Preparation for 2011

Question

So, all of you are welcome to add your questions to the mix, but this is the opportunity for you to hold us accountable. So evaluate us - the admins, moderators. How did we do?

Some questions (some are repeats from last year):

a) Do we take ourselves too seriously? Are we boring? If we are boring, is it a problem? I have no problem with humor, just that not many people know how to do humor well. Personally, I like rhyme's brand of humor, but he is a freak and it'd be hard to find so many qualities in one person.

b) elitism is still of some concern. are we drowning out differing opinions and discussions on lower ranked schools?

c) threads going off topic -- can we agree to respond to the author's post FIRST so we can help the author and not go off on a tangent at the first opportunity?

d) what about discipline - Do we demand too much in terms of conduct on the forums? If yes, how would you do this differently? My fear is that the forum will become a source for problems rather than a source for frank and respectful discussions, long lasting friendships and exchange of valuable information.

What else can we do in terms of community?

Some past feedback threads for your reference:

krussell · Answer

I think this site is great, but I do think there is way too much focus on the top 15-20 schools in the USA only.

I'm sure that it is the target you're hoping to reach, but as someone who mostly applied to Canadian schools and an applicant to a non top-tier USA school (ND), to me there isn't enough discussion encouraged.

The best advice I got was from the "Calling All HBS applicants" thread, but I found for information on schooling outside the USA, both discussion topics and the forum itself are extremely broad. Having all European, Asian, Australian, and Canadian schools jumbled into one forum is a little unwelcoming, and then ranking the schools in one worldwide list is a little intimidating for any of us with plans to study outside of the USA. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there's a place here to talk about schools outside of the USA, but when I asked about the difference between York and UofT, the first response I got was asking why I didn't apply to more American schools with my high GMAT score.

To that extent, I kind of feel like sometimes those of us who choose to go to a school outside of the USA are kind of put down by members. There are lots of great things about places like LBS, INSEAD, Schulich, Rotman, Ivey, HEC, MBS etc. and I just wish there was the kind of attention or encouragement of discussion put on those schools as there are for the 20 or so northwestern USA schools.

But that's just a small gripe. I do love the site and check it every day. I love that this place is SO focused and that questions do get answered

osdihg · Answer

First off, thanks for the great forum! I'm mainly a lurker but from what I've been seeing on this forum I can provide some feedback.

1. Humor isn't a problem. Some posters are funny, but people mostly come here for information and advice and not jokes. However, with the GMAT and b-school applications being stressful processes, humor does help sometimes. I don't this forum is boring at all.

2. I'm not sure if you're necessarily drowning out discussion of lower ranked schools. The activity on this forum is mostly a function of what the community wants to see. So maybe people applying to lower-ranked schools aren't posting enough. But I guess you could put up structured posts with lots of info (e.g. pants-pooping thread, etc) like the one you have for elite schools for lower-ranked schools.

3. I haven't really paid attention to this sort of thing but I do see that sometimes someone posts a thread asking for a profile evaluation or something and before people can comment on his profile, some other guy hijacks the thread and posts his profile right under his post under the same thread.

4. I was "disciplined" once for double-posting, which was scary, but entirely my fault. I was glad that there was some policing on the forums to keep them clean. I don't see any unnecessary disciplinary actions taken as most threads are friendly with lots of people helping each other out.

Community? I really like that you've started to use the chat function for real-time help.

Take all this with a grain of salt as I mostly lurk. Long-time contributors can probably help you more in this regard but seeing as I'm applying for Fall 2011, I'll be more active in the forums and figured I'd start posting more beginning today.

Thanks for your effort in listening to our feedback

Praetorian · Answer

thank you both. please keep the feedback coming.

We will schedule a chat for the 2011 applicants soon.

nink · Answer

"too much focus" is created by "demand and supply" issue. When school specific application threads get started, it is initiated and supported by current students/alums and current applicants. The forum does not stop anyone from starting a thread for school X (no matter how obscure the program is) but if there aren't any applicants in the forum applying to that school, it is just gonna die out.

All the great information is provided by current students/alums/ and current applicants. It is participation based and the forum won't be as popular if we just created random thread for a school and put information that is generic and easily found elsewhere online. And when new members visit the forum and post questions in those "forgotten" threads, there is no one available who can answer his/her questions.

In addition, applicants to lower ranked schools tend not to participate in the forum because the admissions process is rather simple and straight forward. If you have a great GMAT score, and decent profile, it is relatively easy to get in compared to other "popular" schools in the forum where strong profile alone won't get you in.

Perhaps if you have any info or experience applying to a school that is not well represented in this forum, maybe you can contribute and post info? :-D

Moss · Answer

a): I can rarely tell when a moderator is speaking with their “mod hat” on, so I would say you guys do just fine with it.

b): I totally agree with what nink said. The schools for which you have to get a good GMAT score and do a ton of research on are the top 20 programs. Naturally, then, a website that provides GMAT and MBA applicant resources is going to naturally self-select for individuals who are interested in top 20 programs. Its a simple side effect of the portion of the population who needs those resources.

And for that, I think GMATClub should continue to focus on the top programs.

c): Off-topic threads are such a finesse topic. On the one hand, I doubt many people have had a conversation with peers that has stayed steadfastly and rigidly to one particular topic. On the other hand, if a topic is 4 pages deep and you click on it expecting one thing from the title, but upon reading the most recent posts realize it has nothing to do with what you thought it would, this can be frustrating. Of course there may be a reason the thread is 3-4 pages long -- its a pretty useful and entertaining topic of discussion which is eliciting a lot of conversation (and stifling this may be counterproductive to the forums' goals).

So obviously its a complicated topic: balancing allowing good discussion to flourish while still keeping the board navigable.

d): GMATClub has a great brand which makes it much different than BW; this is a good thing. I think GMATClub has a pretty good culture. As the MBA process is so holistic, one cannot simply reveal their undergraduate GPA and GMAT score to get a frank appraisal of who they are as a candidate – one must often reveal pretty personal things about themselves to basically the entire internet in order for those offering constructive criticism to do so intelligently. If they don’t have a forum where they feel they are treated professionally and with respect, they will probably opt out of doing so – to the detriment of the entire community.

Praetorian · Answer

thank you nink and moss.

osbornecox · Answer

I've never had an issue with anyone, and I think the "light-touch regulation" works really well here; we know you're around, and you don't have to enforce anything. Thankfully, this is not BW. I must say that though I have not had any direct encounters with this person, there is a moderator (not on your list in the top) that seems unusually earnest and stern. If you are worried about moderators being too humorous, this one certainly comes off as dour enough to offset the rest of you comedians

That said, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this guy, just a bit more abrupt. I have noticed that "filler posts" certainly do exist and they can sometimes make a thread seem more important and information-rich than it actually is: ie) someone puts up their profile or a debrief or a review of an event, and you get a string of: "great score man... tks" "ne1 know if therez more info on wharton/cbs/yale i really want a top mba" "+1" "congratulations..." etc Which I am sure are well-meaning, but if a topic starts to have two or three pages and half of them are filled with this stuff, it may drown out shorter topics that actually have insight for plunder. As for heightened attention towards the Top 15-20 schools, "admissions" is generally a top-loaded subject anyway, and it happens in any sort of market where entry is hard. People talk about breaking into Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and PIMCO way more than they talk about (and no offense at all to these firms/institutions, or the people who work for them) the interview process at COFACE, Accenture or CALPERS - and AGAIN, I mean NO disrespect at all to these institutions, they simply don't have a critical mass of "entry gossip" that the others do (which in many ways is a good thing). So people do tend to talk about CBS more than University of San Diego, even though both programs probably place at least a few people a year at overlapping firms (Big 4, etc). The most important thing (and we have that here) is that threads don't degenerate into pissing contests based on brands and labels. That, to me, is the antithesis of true prestige - which I always think is carried within. What I do think, though, is that between all of us we may be able to shed a bit more light into some of the more interesting programs outside the Top 20; I think that if anyone came here looking for insights into admissions and employment opportunities at places like Georgetown, Thunderbird or Rochester, they probably wouldn't bookmark the site. That's about it from someone with a medium participation level and a slight amount of reserve.

Praetorian · Answer

thank you osbornecox.

Praetorian · Answer

bump... more?

alexBLR · Answer

a) Personally, I had no negative experience on GMATclub forums when the admin/moderator would be too serious. Otherwise, the threads with names like The Pants Pooping Applicant Thread would never make it onto the Announcement part of the forum. 
b) I agree with comments above that people are choosing to discuss the schools that they are interested in. So if there are not too many discussions about the ‘lower ranked schools’, than it means that majority of the guys in the GMATclub forums are probably not interested in these schools. 
c) Not sure I see the problem in going off topic as long as the author gets a response to his/her question in one of the posts.
d) I think you guys have done a great job in keeping the forums clean. We are here to obtain/share information and learn from each other. So keeping it clean and professional makes sense to me.

At the end, I would like to thank admins/moderators for creating such a great resource of information. Also, I think that the GMATclub community is great. It is amazing how many people on this forum are willing to spend their time and effort in order to help others.

How are we doing: Preparation for 2011

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards