Grading my GRE Essays

[JamesBond101]

 

Claim:  Even though young people often receive the advice to “follow your dreams,” more emphasis should be placed on picking worthy goals.Reason:  Many people’s dreams are inherently selfish.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim AND the reason on which that claim is based.

There is a strong philosophy and backing from where the claim and reason are coming from but I disagree with the statement. I believe that individuals should follow their dreams irrespective of how worthy it is deemed by the general public. It is not the public that matters but your satisfaction and happiness which does

Some people emphasise on worthy goals because they believe individuals are not capable of facing hardships that come by taking the path not followed by others. They believe that the person would not be able to match up with the obstacles that lie in the path ahead. What they don't realise is that any dream that you follow will have its shares of ups and downs and these should not be the reason for backing away from your dream. Examples include Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela  who overcame them and have now become legends in the history of mankind. Mother Teresa wanted to start her missionary programs for the poor and ill and faced lot of hardships and difficulties during her initial years but she fought and managed to overcome them. 

Another example would be to become a professional cricketer since it involves lots of sacrifices and very few people are able to reach the top. That though does not stop people like Tendulkar who left school during his ninth class and focused solely on cricket. People criticised him for taking this decision but his families support helped him take his decision and he is now the most popular person in India and has been awarded the highest civilian honour of the country, the "Bharatratna". 

Another reason people believe their dreams are not worthy would be that they will never ever be famous. Examples include scriptwriters and costume designers in the film industry who are not in the forefront but the people working are extremely happy with the life they have chosen. These dreams are unimaginable for the children born in the 70s but are needed in the industry to make critically acclaimed films. They will never be able to get the limelight that the actors and directors have. 

To summarise, I believe people should follow their dreams since it would make them content and happy. They should not be bogged down by the trends which occur in the society since it is their life that they should lead, not the life prescribed by the society. Dreams can never ever be considered selfish since those are what make a person happy and lead to them contributing to their fullest to the society and people they work with.

[JamesBond101]

The following appeared in a letter from the faculty committee to the president of Seatown University:

A study conducted at nearby Oceania University showed that faculty retention is higher when professors are offered free tuition at the university for their own college-aged children. Therefore, Seatown should institute a free-tuition policy for its professors for the purpose of enhancing morale among the faculty and luring new professors.
 

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

There can be many ways of handling this issue and one needs to first underhand a few key areas before making this decision

The first component would be identifying the number of candidates who apply to the university and see the rejection rates of those who have an extremely good statement of purpose and whom the university believes would have been selected had there been more number of seats offered for the course they applied in. If the percentage is extremely high, it would imply that many good candidates who apply will have a lesser chance of getting in which would reduce the number of good candidates in the college if the policy is implemented

The second point to be considered would be the productivity of the professors. Many need to teach as well as work on research problems during their spare time. Studies have told that more content a professor is, the better are the chances of producing quality research material. If more number of quality papers is published, the academic standing of the university would increase leading to more number of good candidates applying to them. This would also increase the funding for the university and help in strengthening the university even further  

The committee should also see whether successful universities like MIT and Stanford have got such schemes. Identifying whether the competition is following them to be ahead would be a major talking point for discussion. If it is found that they are having such reservations in their admission system, it could be deemed as a plus point to implement the same for the university. On the other hand, if they are extremely strict and believe all students should get into the university on their own merit, then it would work against the implementation of the policy

The final thing that should be considered is whether such a quota system is needed, then how many seats should be reserved and whether all faculty members should have this option or whether only experienced members who have contributed a lot to the universities success should get precedence. This could then work as a motivation factor for faculties who do not have any seats reserved for their children since they would have to work harder to ensure that their children would have a secured future by having a confirmed seat. This would increase the number of publications and research papers and would lead to an increased reputation of the university 

If the findings from all the above are considered favourable to the letter, the the policy should be implemented but if it is not showing any improvement in the reputation of the university, then I believe that the policy in the letter should not be implemented

[JamesBond101]

People who make decisions based on emotion and justify those decisions with logic afterwards are poor decision makers.         

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

I agree with this statement and believe that each and every action should be though about before making a decision.

It has been shown that Data Analytics and other topics like Data Visualisation are on the rise because people realise that they need all the data present before making a decision. Once they have all the data, they would realise areas where they lack which would not have been possible if they had taken a decision based on emotions. This would give a good opportunity to make more profits. This has been used by leading entrepreneurs which has been the reason why they have been successful. In the earlier days, they used to rely on impulse in finding fraud but with the help of data, they are able to make better decisions 

Justifying a decision afterwards with logic is not good since it ignores the other decisions which could have been correct with Data. It forces a person think they have made the best possible decision and leads to finding faults in other decisions which might have led to a better outcome. People voting for political parties normally fall into this trap after voting for a particular candidate and finding all the negatives in the other candidates afterwards while simultaneously ignoring the bad decisions of the person they voted for. This leads to a situation where they do not accept that they made a bad decision 

All in all, there has been a shift in the mindset nowadays which has led to an increase in the data visualisation and data analytics tools in the current world and by 2030 according to business today, all decisions will be based on data.