Blast From the Past: Benn Dover's College Papers

Day 782, 19:23 • Published in USA USA • by Woxan
Benn Dover has given me permission to publish these papers

Benn Dover is a former US President, beta giant, and tank. He ran one of the, if not largest, corporate empires in the United States at the time, was America's first media mogul, and was banned along with his rl friend, Uncle Sam, 6 months ago.

He wrote his personal statement and college letters on eRepublik and got accepted because of eRepublik. He sent me his personal statement, letter to a college, and the infamous naughty list. eRepublik can be used to further real life means and teach you life lessons. This is something Benn tried to stress for a long time, and these essays are proof.

The first is just for pleasure. The second has gotten me into Penn State, Pitt, Towson, George Mason, Villanova and Fordham. I only had a 3.47 GPA with 2020 SAT scores... so it helped a lot haha. The third got me $28,000 a year to Carnegie Mellon.

I'm sending you these because I feel as though they can be shown to citizens around the world and maybe even open their eyes to the significance of erep. I tried to do this countless times - in PMs, in articles, and in chat, but getting points across in this game is sometimes really hard. I hope you enjoy these essays, and I hope you can use them to write really kick-ass articles!

~Benn Dover / Pete

I will publish these in 2 installments. The first is his 28k scholarship letter and his personal statement. The second will be a republishing of the naughty list.

Personal Statement

PETER L.


I am the president of a country and CEO of a corporation. I have been a congressman, economic advisor to the president, and secretary of state. I have discussed the problems of global economics with people all over the world and have spent countless hours pondering solutions to them. And I would have given the problems even more consideration if it were not for calculus homework. How did I accomplish all this at such a young age? As a participant in the internet virtual global strategy game, Erepubik.
Erepublik is an alternate reality internet game played by people worldwide. Players, or citizens as they are called, contribute to their country of choice from political, social, military, and economic standpoints. Citizens can own businesses, form political parties and hold offices, vote in elections, write newspaper articles and even go to war. Much like in real life political and military alliances are made, business transactions are carried out, elections are held, wars are waged.
Unlike other games, this real-life simulator presents many situations that politicians and businessmen alike will experience during their careers. One example of this is the principle of competition. Throughout the e-community there are many different products to be sold, companies to choose from, and countries to which these companies can export. Although injuries and death are very much downplayed in the game, maintaining one's wellness (a health and happiness indicator) is integral to the success of all industries. While participating in war might decrease wellness, spending money by buying a house, building a hospital and eating high quality food will increase it.
The more I played Erepublik the more interested I became in the economic realm. I formed a successful business that sold a highly desired product and developed strategies for increasing employee productivity by addressing their wellness factor (high wages, high quality food, comfortable and affordable housing). I began to consider economic factors such as supply and demand, competition and business management.
As I played I began to realize that the challenges that this virtual world presented were challenges that I would like to face in the real world. Maybe I should consider a career in the business/financial sector, I thought. Although I had not been leaning in that direction earlier, I decided that this was a good fit for me.
I have very few material needs and desires, but I always had a healthy respect for money. If my sister and I each received fifty dollars for a holiday gift, hers would be spent within two days and mine would be stashed carefully under my mattress. I am a pretty generous person, and when I wanted to purchase a special gift for someone and had the means, I liked the way that made me feel.
As you can see I have not been discussing a typical computer game like Super Mario or Halo. I do confess, however, that in the past, I have spent more time on both than my mom would have liked. But discovering Erepublik has really helped me find my focus. I am thankful to its creators for that.
Mothers, keep in mind, all computer games are not alike.

Carnegie Mellon Essay

Ever since I learned about the field of economics, my interest has been piqued by the topic. The concept of a relatively small number of people in the world making decisions about monetary growth and power that ultimately affect billions has baffled me. Already interested in this topic, you can imagine how intrigued I was by the disastrous economic downturn of 2008. When I heard about people losing much - or even all - of their savings, of families being forced from their homes and of seemingly successful working people losing jobs that they believed were stable, I began to think that maybe I should expand my limited knowledge of our economic systems by majoring in a related field.
Throughout high school, students are forced into a prescribed curriculum and are limited in their studies. As a result, many do not study certain topics in depth, economics being one of them. However, I was fortunate to be exposed to eRepublik, an online role-playing game in which players get to take part in political, economic, and social challenges. During my time reigning as president of the e-United States, I realized what an enigma economics really was. Not only does it deal with the basics, such as supply and demand, but it also involves the psychology of business practices. All of these intricate components made the game a true challenge for me. Every day I would sway congress into fixing our country's VATs (valued added taxes), income taxes, and import taxes appropriately, so that the value of our currency, the US dollar, would not fluctuate too heavily so that America's companies could thrive. Hundreds of decisions were made on a weekly basis, many exceeding the realm of economics. A sense of vastness in the topic of economics developed inside me, and after awhile I started becoming fluent in the cycles apparent in the game. I could forcibly change the value of any currency so that it either inflated or deflated. I could collapse markets all around the world. I could calculate the net profit of a company. I used all these assets to help my own country and companies climb to the top, until eventually my conglomerate was one of the best and most successful in the e-world. For months on end I had monopolies set up in every industry; I was the Wal-Mart of the e-world, minus the poor treatment of employees.
I believe that the strongest foundation of knowledge is shaped from the strength of experience. Wisdom, as some might call it, is the only way to truly become skilled in a particular area. I knew I should find a school that could help me develop this wisdom and a program that would guide me in my quest to learn more about the fields of economics and business. My research convinced me that Carnegie Mellon was exactly where I wanted to be. This is chiefly due to its distinguished faculty, the strength of its business and economics programs, and its reputation as one of the best undergraduate business schools in the country.
I do not honestly have a specific work plan because my comprehension and understanding of these fields are limited due to my young age and relative lack of experience. However, although I am genuinely interested in the big picture of macro-economics, I think I would like to work with small businesses helping them grow and prosper, and I know I must be aware of the big picture in order to do this efficiently. I am a true believer in private enterprise and the American dream. My life would be very rich, I believe, if I could help businesses achieve this.