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Read it, comment, and share it with your friendsWould you turn this down?
A few weeks ago I applied for the Cornell Student Blogging Project. If you don’t want to be bothered to click the link and read about it, I’ll explain in short: new initiative, students blogging about life at Cornell, $50 worth of gift cards as payment each month for 2 entries a week. Sounds like a good idea right?
I applied in a hurry, being that I was quite busy with my job, web designing, and wandering around the great state of Hessen, Germany. I figured my application was a sure winner, what with the “I’m the most famous blogger at Cornell” line going on. And yes, that’s honest… Elliott graduated. It’s not the only thing I was touting though; I’m also very involved in the Engineering community on campus, and as a senior who is actually surviving ECE, I think I have some good stories to tell.
But I was rejected. Don’t know exactly why, though I could attribute it to my poor application, or to the fact that my reputation as a blogger doesn’t exactly precede me wherever I go. I do remember linking my Technorati ranking, but I don’t know if the reviewers realized what that meant.
When I received the rejection e-mail, I responded with a question: “Don’t you think you are hurting the project a little by rejecting the most famous blogger at Cornell?” I still haven’t received a response; it’s been quite a while.
My initial thinking was to be a jerk about this and lambast the student blogging project right here in front of everyone. A little controversy always gets attention. But after thinking about the whole situation for a while, I realized that I would be much better off taking a more constructive approach. Here is my latest e-mail to the Office of Web Communications, which I am posting here as an open letter:
Dear [name withheld],
I would like to offer my support to the Cornell Student Blogging Project this year. As the most famous blogger at Cornell (currently ranked in the top 10,000 of 50.2 million blogs tracked by Technorati [1]), I have a wealth of knowledge and experience that I would like to share with the members of this project. I know that blogging can be as much work as it is fun and I have learned what it takes to be a good blogger. I believe in the value of blogging; I know this project will really help Cornell’s image and I would like to see it reach its full potential.
I am willing to serve as an advisor to the blogging project and hold one or more sessions for the members on successful blogging, covering topics including writing for the web, being original, and encouraging discussion, as well as analysing successful blogs and helping each blogger find their ideal focus. I am also willing to assist the members with any support they need throughout the year as their student advisor.
I am willing to do all of this free of charge because I do care about this project and would love to be involved. Please do consider this offer and let me know what you think at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
Christian Montoya
Cornell Engineering ‘07[1] http://technorati.com/search/www.christianmontoya.com
So tell me: would you turn this offer down?
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Responses to my articleI think you should have included an apology too
Dean: you only apologize when you have done something wrong.
Apologize for being so awesome at what you do. It wasn’t fair to the other applicants and I’m sure they have in inferiority complex now.
Nice entry. I liked it. Your open letter was elegant, well-written and quite gentleman-like of you even though you are offering such valuable services to a program that may not recognize them as such.
Good luck!
“Don’t you think you are hurting the project a little by rejecting the most famous blogger at Cornell?”
I like reading your blog and what not, so I’m not hating on you or anything but that sounds really egoistic.
So they chose someone else, what makes you think that you deserve it more than the other person? Just because you have a higher blog ranking? Have you considered other factors than just being “most famous blogger at Cornell?” I didn’t read the full requirements of what the project was about, but maybe they wanted someone who never blogged before in their life.
Do you believe scholarships should be choosen based solely on GPA? I have won a $3.5k scholarship before and my GPA was pretty crappy. What you’re applying to is a not a popularity contest.
I would, yes. To be honest, you came off as extremely egotistical. I wouldn’t want that in my project. I think you should have taken a little more time on your initial application.
Wow. If you feel that deserving, and are that upset, I would stay in college for as long as you can. The real world isn’t all sunshine and lollipops. Not only would I refuse the offer, I would laugh maniacally as I did so.
More than likely, this blogging project is more about promoting a somewhat representative look at students and their activities. The fact that you are a self-proclaimed famous blogger would skew that tremendously. So, every 10th, or 100th student at Cornell is a famous blogger? Probably not.
I’ve never read your blog before (I stumbled across this accidentally), and probably never will again. I’ve had my share of self-important, whiny punks.
FYI, it’s Elliott Back, not Elliot or Eliott. I really should buy up all the combinations of my name, but that could cost me a couple hundred bucks I’m not willing to spend…
If you don’t want to be bothered to read the article, I’ll explain in short: blah, blah, blah, me, me, me, whine, whine, whine.
Hi,
I share the same opinion as the others. You came across extremely arrogant. I don’t know how famous you are or if that matters to anyone but you, but if I were in charge of the project, I think you’d be the -first- cut unless you were the only applicant..
Getting rejected is never nice, but like the others said, it seems a bit unusual to hinge your application on being the most famous blogger in Cornell, and though the rest of your e-mail sounds decent enough, it could have been that one line that ruined the entire thing. If I were the project leader, I wouldn’t want to take on board someone that sounded egotistical, no matter their credentials. And I realise you would have been feeling a bit sour, but your response to the rejection probably didn’t help, either.
You said so yourself, your reputation as a blogger doesn’t precede you whereever you go.
Better luck next time, I guess.
People will react badly to any “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?” tirades, in real life or online. Which is pretty obvious from the above comments
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I didn’t present this to you all very well… I should have mentioned my actual qualifications for the project (there was more to my app than just my rank), nor could I ever explain the way Cornell usually works about projects like this and why this is a problem.
But I see where my approach was wrong and I am fine with leaving this where it is. Once again, thanks for the feedback.
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