Application Help

I spent some of yesterday cleaning out my study as a lot of crap had piled up over the last few months. I re-discovered my box of eBay items that I need to auction out. A lot are comic books that my former housemate generously left me (i.e. he got a new girlfriend and didn't want to be a "nerd" anymore), but I also found my old GMAT study material and a couple of books that gave me admissions help.

As a perused through one of the books, I remembered my thoughts and feelings about getting these books. I'm an inherently prideful individual and believed that using any sort of "help" was cheating in a manner. It wasn't for me. I also was an extremely tightass frugal individual who didn't want to fork out the money for the book.
But, I'll be frank, they were very very helpful. I got a lot of mental blocks around some of the toughest essays, and I found that just reading some of the example essays gave me good ideas on how to go about it.  There was also a certain way of writing that really helped - I have a tendency to ramble in my writings (if you haven't noticed in this blog:)) but the language used in the books and in the example essays really tightened up what I was saying. This is tough since the essays are getting shorter and shorter! Specifically crafting the message was also important.

One thing, also, was how there were sample recommendation letters. I actually didn't have a problem with my recommenders writing the letters as one was a Harvard grad and had been through the runner before, and the other was an amazing wordsmith who was very excited for me. But heck, if I had to write a recommendation letter for someone, I would seriously appreciate a template and I wouldn't procrastinate on it.

A lot of this was compiled in three books, and I'll admit it was rather confusing going from one book to another. So, I am going to recommend one guide that I got introduced to that should be able to cover all the great elements of admissions: MBA Essays Exposed. I believe they're having a 50% off offer going on right now.

Otherwise keep an eye out on ebay for my old, tattered versions :)