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Expert Exchange seems to target only those students who aspire to the most competitive academic programs and awards. I'm not a top student and am unlikely to be a viable candidate for such programs. Is Expert Exchange for me?

Expert Exchange is intended to serve all students who seek to realize their full potential.

The information housed in the Expert Exchange database will undoubtedly assist those who aspire to the competitive scholarships described in this section of the site. However, these skills and insights are transferable to other application processes as well and are of relevance to any student in the process of exploring or pursuing academic opportunities.

It is also important to note that you may be capable of enhancing your competitiveness for these top awards by using the self-assessment and strategic planning tools on this site in concert with your broader educational support system. While it is important to set realistic expectations on the basis of your qualifications and interests, it is equally important not to underestimate the range of opportunities available to you.

The information housed on Expert Exchange can also steer you to good alternatives to those competitive programs featured. We’ve asked our expert contributors what they considered to be their second and third choice plans which can be helpful in pinpointing alternate paths.

Finally, “prestigious” and “competitive” do not always mean “better.” You might also be surprised that these top programs don’t receive rave reviews from every participant. You’ll see that some contributors wish in retrospect that they’d stayed closer to home or attended a less selective program better suited to their specific academic objectives. It may be that even the “top students” who use this site will find that programs that are perhaps less competitive or prestigious are actually better suited to their individual needs.

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Don't you worry that making sample application materials so readily available might increase the likelihood of unethical students plagiarizing in the preparation of their applications?

No.

	Sample application essays such as those housed on Expert Exchange are already available to students attending certain top-tier educational institutions. Students who attend institutions with sizable financial reserves and numerous successful applicants among their alumni benefit from extensive application prep programs and are greeted with filing cabinets full of past essays and sample interview questions for every imaginable award. Those who attend institutions with lower financial endowments and fewer past award recipients have no such opportunities and are often left scrambling to compensate for associated shortfalls in personalized application advising and access to informational resources. We believe that all students should have access to some minimum baseline of information in order to ensure that the all capable students are able to present themselves as viable candidates in these selection processes. Only by making available materials such as these can we ensure that all aspiring students are afforded equal access to comparable background information.
	Unlike the offline archives of successful application essays housed in some universities, our public domain fee-free service empowers selection committees of all kinds to check their incoming applications relative to our database. Unlike web services that require paid access or offline archives of past essays, our database can be searched by anyone effortlessly. We are also ensuring that selection bodies will be aware of our site. Administrators of each and every program for which we receive content are contacted to inform them of its presence on our site.
	We have incorporated robust anti-plagiarism mechanisms that minimize greatly the possibility of this site’s content being exploited for unethical purposes.

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Do you worry that, by providing these self-guided informational and preparation utilities online that you might inadvertently be driving students away from the human resources that are available to them?

An online resource will never replace the impact of an individual mentor. We aim to supplement existing resources, not displace them.

Our passion for providing the information and utilities housed in the Expert Exchange are predicated upon the following points:

	In some resource-limited institutions, all staff members are multi-tasked to such a degree that they may not have ample time to mentor. There are also cases when a guidance counselor or teacher believes in a student, but may not have the personal expertise to know how best to assist them. And then there are those students who feel overlooked, as though they do not have someone who believes in them. In all of these cases, we hope that our online resource will empower both students and their mentors to access important information readily.
	For those who do have a passionate mentor, we have designed and incorporated many online tools intended to involve them.
	College academic advisers and representatives of the National Association of Fellowship Advisers are participating on our development task force and Advisory Board to ensure that we provide tools that encourage users to integrate their academic and personal support networks into their planning processes. We seek to supplement existing resources, not displace them.
	We are planning to market this resource vigorously among communities of high school counselors and college scholarship advisers nationwide. We hope to increase their proclivity to encourage students to explore options and provide them a comprehensive resource that will help them do so.

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What is the purpose of providing written samples from successful applications to top academic degree and fellowship programs?

We perceive the content housed in the Expert Exchange to achieve a few core objectives:

	Introduce students to the range of awards, academic specialties, and experiential opportunities that are out there;
	Demystify these opportunities by contextualizing them relative to survey responses and detailed first-hand insights; and
	Assist students and their mentors in preparing applications by allowing them to assess the kinds of materials successful applicants have prepared in the past.

Running in parallel with this resource will be online strategic planning tools that help students identify goals, develop action plans, and then execute them.

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How should students use the writing samples on this site effectively and appropriately?

It is important to understand the spirit in which the content and utilities here are provided. The sample essays are not meant to be templates, but to offer students a range of anecdotal samples and the ability to contextualize them relative to their respective authors. Should students attempt to “model” their application materials on the samples provided here, they would be doing themselves a great disservice both by decreasing what they learn from the process and by actually decreasing their likelihood of success. Selection committees recognize materials that are written from the heart. And remember, some students’ applications are successful in spite of their essay responses or other components of their applications, rather than because of them. Students shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that every writing sample provided here is perfectly stellar or worthy of emulation.

The materials here are meant to demystify the application process for top educational programs and awards by providing everyone an open window onto materials that have proven successful in the past. Nothing here is a template or constitutes advice, magic answers, or guarantees for success.

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Are there restrictions about the use of materials housed on this site?

Yes.

	Plagiarism is an intellectual crime.
	Certain portions of the site are restricted to certain kinds of users. We restrict access to the expert contributor and administrator portions of this site and confirm the qualifications of all who are granted access.
	We retain copyright to all content housed on this site – both text and utilities. Please use them freely and link to our site at will, but refrain from providing materials housed on this site in other forums.

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