I truely admire the commitment we all are showing towards this forum and especially while polling is in session. I read the concern that ' tkovalsky' raised and the response by Eric. I do admit that I mysef and few others went over 300 words but looking at our essays, I don't think that any of the finalist(s) commited this mistake willingly. All the essays are indeed strong in their own respect and the way canditates expressed their feelings are truely applausable.
I have few concerns that I want to discuss looking at the response by Eric and about the rules in general.
Firstly, the rules neither mentioned that there is a penalty for any essay over 300 words nor a reward if under that number. Here, I am not trying to take stand that going over 300 words is justified, however, there was no specific guideline in other scenario.
Secondly, Eric should have disqualified the essays in the first place if he had thought someone knowingly went over 300 words. He himself agrees that he let the essays to be among the five finalist out of many because he thought that they were strong enough.
Therefore, I would request let the people decide whom to vote for and who have followed the instructions. I have a strong faith that the most deserving would win. Since the final outcome depends on the number of votes by users as per the rules, I think it would be unfair to reward 10 extra votes by Eric.
If Eric were to decide in the final outcome then why voting was considered the first place. Also, I dont find evidence that his decision represents the community voice. I didn't come across any posts by the old users, those registered before May 07 2006, raising this issue.
Similarly, MBA admission committee comprises of members with each having a say towards the final decision about a candidate. I have never heard the director of the committee saying that he/she will reward 10 extra points later during the admission when he/she himself agreed upon the length of the essay on the first place. Please let the whole beatthegmat community/admission committee decide who truely is deserving.
If you'll think that you'll have missed something in the essay, you'll can always write as many posts as you'll can suporting your eligibility for the scholarship. I think Eric clearly mentioned that in the e-mail he sent to all of us.
I am sorry if this post is considered long too. I think it take words to express the feelings.
Good Luck All !!!!
(mriaz1)
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