Let's set some Groundrules, folks

I've been a regular reader of Marquis' blog for over a year now. Sometime last year, he had a post setting groundrules for his readers. Apparently, some were going a bit overboard on their requests. For example, asking him to review their Stanford essays or asking specific questions about the firm he now works for. Maybe he even got requests to see his own essays, I'm not sure. I always used to think "Really!? People sure can be opportunists sometimes."

Well, the time has come for me to set some groundrules here as well. After getting some really strange requests and emails, I think it's appropriate in order to reduce these types of emails/requests in the future. Without further adieu...

1. ClearAdmit School guides - ClearAdmit was nice enough to sponsor the MBADiversity 2008 Symposium.

Sponsor means they spent their own money in order to help applicants out.

I've receive a few requests over the last couple of days for the Yale, Ross, and Duke guides I picked up at the symposium. This is called freeloading. The answer is clearly and simply NO! I would advise anyone who is strongly interested in specific schools and doesn't have time to do research into schools to pick up these guides (I mean really, what's $35 in the grand scheme of application costs?).

2. Essays - I am not even remotely qualified to review essays at this point. I have enough trouble putting mine together, sorry! I also will not share my essays. I will place them in GMATclub's essay repository (which is tightly guarded) after this application season for a select few GMATclub trusted members to access. Of course, if I don't get in anywhere nobody will want to read them!

3. Admissions Consultants - I've been asked if/which admission consultants I've signed up with. This is a personal decision and whether or not I've signed up or whom I've signed up with is not going to be shared. Yes, I was considering one...whether or not I signed up (and why or why not) is not public information.

4. Phone Chats - I will under no circumstances share my phone number with others (except a select few who already know who they are) who want to "chat" about the admissions process. One of the main points of being in the blogging community is to keep myself anonymous -- For those who think my real name is "Soni"...it's not...it's my cat's name :)

5. Profile Reviews - I am not qualified to assess MBA aspirants' profiles and tell them what their chances at specific schools are or how they can improve their profiles. I am not qualified to assess chances for Masters in Finance or PhD degrees either.

I think if everyone respects these guidelines, this will be a fun application season. By and far most emails I've received have been nice, friendly, and enjoyable. I hope to keep things this way.