writing process

yeah, there'll have to some some sort of post limit, or you can "purchase" the rights maybe? Then again, that won't stop people from shooting themselves in the foot by copying our essays (not that I'd care by then =P)

I will really pity that unfortunate soul who copies my first draft - I wouldnt even copy it myself..!!!!!!!!!

Ok I am posting as many messages so I get to be senior manager asap!!!! Since no promotion at work, might get promoted on this forum

In effect , it *could* work like the challenges. Either people can pay for access or people with over 300-400 posts can get access to it free of cost. But then I have more important worries at the moment (like whether columbia will actually like my essays or not )

Lets give it a shot. If the existing crop of admitted students would like to contribute their essay to the club, I would be very grateful for their help. If you are interested, please send me a PM. Here is what you need to keep in mind:

a) Remove any personal identifiable information, including references to the school, places etc. Essentially, the use of proper nouns anywhere should be a no-no.

b) Essay submissions should be done voluntarily without any expectation of compensation.

If I may offer my opinion, I think you may complement this idea by inviting the existing admitted candidates to share their opinions of what their essay writing experiences were.... somewhat along the lines of "Share your GMAT Experience". Though it is tempting to focus on the final product, I think the process is more important than the final product.

Not that this will be a shock to any of you, but they say that the best form of writing often involves rewriting. Most well written essays are written and rewritten over an extended period of time. I think ncprasad's strategy is great.

Excellent!!!!..

It would be awesome if the admitted students posted their first draft and finished draft (not necessarily their submitted essay).

What matters more is the idea that essays are not born overnight. The drafts are being posted so that prospective applicants feel comfortable with the idea that a lot of work has to be done and a lot of Asprin needs to be taken to cure the "Is my essay good?" headache.

As I agree completely with Praetorian, its the process that matters most.

My best ideas for applications come at random times like a lot of people so I have taken to carrying a small note book and just write thing down in it when they pop into my head. I have come up with a few of my best material this way.

When I work on my essays I just write and write, I am not worried about length at this point on most essays since once I have my ideas all defined I can reword stuff, cut useless info, and basically edit it to a high quality short essay.

Thanks Praet! Do you think the previous class (rhyme's class) would be interested also to help out with essay samples?

I agree with having a draft and final version, just for comparison. Removing all names and schools is good too.

Having a "Share your Essay Writing Experience" is probably good, but don't we have something like "Share Your Application Experience" already?

While this is a great idea, one thing to be careful of is having things be too easily available. I would be willing to provide material after this year but the last thing I would want to do is have someone surfing around looking for ideas for their MBA application see it and steal parts of it. I am not too worried about they average member here since people on this site overall seem like a very dedicated and honest group. But there are those occassional bad seeds and god knows who lurks or just stumbles on this place.

It would be good to have it be restricted like the challenge area, and based off of your participation and contributions you are given access to the material...make people earn it.

Great idea ....

I will def. post my essays -if the essays happen to convince the adcom

My thoughts exactly !!!

Sure. This will not be an open forum and you can only get in if you contribute X amount of posts.

I agree with the implementation.

We'll just have to decide how many posts are good... 150? 200? The other problem is, with the Math and Verbal sections of the GMAT forums, some people just respond "E" or "A" 200 times, should those people be allowed access compared to others like avi who have contributed good info for all of us but have under 200 posts?

Just like access to challenges, Praet can administer access control...

Earlier when challenges were accessible to users with > certain posts, few tried to cheat the system by random postings...but now it is history!

either pay the bucks or get access from admin

maybe an invite only system from the mods?

I was thinking along the same lines - an invite system would work fine.

I like that... either invite or APPLICATION system (I know, like any of us need any more applications to write). But seriously, if someone wants access, they PM a CEO (or whoever is in charge of the area) and say why they should be allowed in. The CEO looks at a sample of the person's posts and grants access if he/she's a contributor to the site.

I think we're getting there with the logistics, I'm excited! (well, if I actually finish my essays and get into some schools and have something to post!)

Same here... I dread to think what will happen once I start getting dinged!!...knocking on wood.. let one school be foolish and make a judgement slip and send me an admit!!!!

As in the movie Superbad.. we could be that mistake!!!!