Partly that’s because we’ve been busy reading essays. Reading essays means less time for writing snarky blahg posts.
It’s also because you should be WRITING ESSAYS instead of reading snarky blahg posts. We don’t want to contribute to your own procrastination tendencies by giving you more to procrastinate with.
But the main reason that we don’t have a big, long, super insightful post today is… We keep coming up with advice that we could be offering, and we realize either:
1. The things that we want to say are more focused on strategy and probably, it’s just too late for any of that.
2. Or we’ve said it all before.
Anything that’s possibly worth saying has, at this point in the season, been said. Anyone paying attention, or doing their due diligence on their essay strategy, would’ve been digging into this here blahg and discovered it. We keep saying the same things in essay reviews – warnings about timewarping or not to use acronyms or show, don’t tell – if you’ve been coming around for awhile, you’ve heard all that already, and you’re not making those rookie mistakes anymore. So we’d be wasting your time to cover it again, or wasting ours to do so for people who can’t be bothered.
On the first point:
We keep wanting to tell certain BSers whose essays we’re reading that they should go back a step or two in their essay development process. Or, their entire application strategy. Like, if your GMAT is low, and/or your GPA, and your essays are coming in as crap: Don’t bother. It’s not going to work out. (“Ouch! EssaySnark! Don’t be a hater!”)
At this point, the only thing you have control over is the essays. If that essay strategy is not yet coming together, welp, you’re gonna be submitting anyway, aren’t you?
If you’re applying to a school like NYU, with a deadline almost 2 weeks away, then sure, you could absolutely stop and regroup (heck, you’d even have time for the Complete Essay Package! Three separate BSers recently worked through all the steps on that from beginning to end in just about two weeks’ time).
But when your deadline is this week, you’re probably not going to be open to hearing our suggestion to stop writing essays and go back to lay the groundwork. Even though, very likely, doing that would get you where you want to go more efficiently. Panic tends to make people not think so clearly and we understand why such a suggestion would not be well received.
If our strongest advice to someone right now is to NOT apply – because they’re not ready – then all they’re likely to do is to stop listening to us and go somewhere else for help. Lots of consultants are happy to take your money right now. And **all** of the schools are happy to accept your app. It helps them to do so. Get those app numbers up! It’s going to boost their standing against their competition, and it might result in higher rankings.
But man oh man is that an expensive way to go – with heartbreak practically guaranteed in a month or so.
Dang, we’ve turned into Debbie Downer today, haven’t we?
Maybe it’s just the stress of reading all these not-good-enough essays coming from people that totally ARE good enough to make it in that put us in a glummer mood than usual. We thought we had nothing to offer today, and here we are laying out all the negative on you folks.
Sorry about that.
We do see lots of potential in Snarkville, including many BSers who have improved enough that we’re starting to get glimmers of hope for how things will work out for them. And we DEFINITELY admire the workeffort we’re seeing from some of you. Bravo for that.
This week is going to go by quickly. We’ll be here if you want a last-gasp assessment in a Sanity Check or anything else. Feel free to hit us up, we’re happy to help – even if today we’re sounding like a wet blanket.
Happy New Year! Happy January! Happy Round 2! Go get ’em, Brave Supplicant!!! May the Force be with you.
Tell us what you think.