FAQ

Isn’t this cheating? Shouldn’t I be writing these myself, without help?
I am writing these myself. Almost every applicant asks a friend or mentor to edit his or her essays. I just happen to be asking quite a few more people for edits. I don’t see a problem with that. I’ve never heard anyone say “I think you should get less feedback on your work.”

Won’t the admissions board frown on this process?
I hope that an admissions board for a university’s Mass Communications program would see the value in a student willing to devise and utilize a process such as this, which process is in harmony with my message as an applicant: I use tools of mass communication and want to study them further.

Am I trying to get everyone else to do my work?
Only if you think “my work” is writing and editing my paper. However, if you think “my work” is writing my essays and using all of my resources to perfect them, then no, I’m not trying to get other people to do my work. If you’re concerned that I’m a slacker plying his craft, consider the fact that I spent more than 20 hours building this website before I even started writing my essays (while working a full-time job).

Is this user-generated content?
No. I am generating the content, users are editing it. It’s a critical distinction. An example of user-generated content is Wikipedia, where people can actually change the content of the document themselves, which is subsequently evaluated by the masses. My effort, on the other hand, is exactly analogous to handing a printed essay to hundreds of people and asking them to comment. As the author, I choose what feedback to incorporate and am in complete control of the content 100% of the time.