My essays are (almost) published online here...  

Posted by Dino in ,

Reading applicant blogs, I have noticed that a few people are swapping essays to get feedback. I imagine this can be a double edged sword. Fellow applicants, particularly those researching schools in depth, will be able to provide feedback perhaps as good as consultants / coaches. On the other hand, I can not help but feel that some of your approach to the essays might rub off on others' writings. While I am more inclined to the latter view, I do feel I am missing out in all this loving sharing! So I have decided to go for a half-baked approach...

Using Wordle (though I had to screen capture and crop the output), I have pulled out the common words from some of my essays. Larger words mean I have used those words more frequently. I have also word-replaced company names and the like, because I am paranoid that some adcom will come across this and go crazy :-/ . I think the picture does, however, give a view of the themes of my application, while garbaging everything so that you really couldn't recreate the original essays. For example, looking at this, you might think I was a Director! LOL.

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6 comments

Nerdboy  

How do you manage to write these without 'I' appearing a million times? Does the application count it as a word?

30 July 2008 at 10:09
Nerdboy  

How do you manage to write these without 'I' appearing a million times? Does the application count it as a word?

30 July 2008 at 10:09
JulyDream  

Awesome approach. I previously read some essays for people and it was definitely an interesting experience. Sometimes it made me feel inferior and other times I felt I could help the person a lot. Overall though, it's A LOT of work.

31 July 2008 at 05:57
JulyDream  

Awesome approach. I previously read some essays for people and it was definitely an interesting experience. Sometimes it made me feel inferior and other times I felt I could help the person a lot. Overall though, it's A LOT of work.

31 July 2008 at 05:57
D. G.  

Nerdboy: Yeah, the Wordle thing removes common words like 'I'. But thanks for the scare ;-)

Julydream: Yeah, it is a lot of work. You've been through it so I know you can appreciate how much work you must do to give these schools lots and lots of your money. :'-(

31 July 2008 at 10:29
D. G.  

Nerdboy: Yeah, the Wordle thing removes common words like 'I'. But thanks for the scare ;-)

Julydream: Yeah, it is a lot of work. You've been through it so I know you can appreciate how much work you must do to give these schools lots and lots of your money. :'-(

31 July 2008 at 10:29

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