Twitter微论文成商学院招生新宠

    虽然商学院或许会说，撰写社交媒体“短文”符合候选人的最佳利益，但社交媒体的免费广告显然也给这些学校带来了好处。蒂皮管理学院要求所有申请文档必须上传到学院的MBA幻灯片频道，同时鼓励申请人推广自己的幻灯片——得到最多“赞”的学生将获得5,000美元的奖学金。这所商学院还许诺，幻灯片最具创意的学生将获得一笔相当于全额学费的奖学金。

    乔治敦大学麦克多诺商学院鼓励申请人在Twitter上使用标签#WhyHoya来回复申请短文问题。最佳回复（包括一些来自校友的回复）被收录在了一个Facebook相簿之中。

    但社交媒体并不是创意申请流程的唯一选择。近20年以来，纽约大学斯特恩商学院（Stern School of Business）一直邀请候选人提交有创意的自荐资料。斯特恩商学院负责MBA招生事宜的副院长伊塞•加洛格利介绍说，这所商学院多年来收到的材料可谓五花八门，不一而足。比如，一个通过手摇曲柄提供照明用电的微型大楼，还有一个个性十足的麦片盒——申请人在原料配方的位置上列举了自己的各种素质。

    后来，由于几位申请人采用了“越大越好”的方式，这所商学院于是对申请人提交物品的尺寸进行了限制。“难不成接下来有人会递来一辆轿车？”加洛格利开玩笑说。此外，招生团队还把穿过的旧衣服列入了黑名单（很有可能是因为他们收到过一双旧马拉松运动鞋导致的结果）。收到一批寿司之后，食物也成了不受欢迎的物品。加洛格利委婉地说：“有些东西寄到我们这里的时候，已经不是申请人期望的样子了。”

    芝加哥大学布斯商学院（Booth School of Business）早些时候也尝试过使用申请短文之外的其他方式。根据2007-2008学年的招生计划，候选人必须提交四张幻灯片来说明一个问题：“你会成为一位什么样的学生，你打算怎样脱颖而出。”

    布斯商学院主管招生工作的副院长库尔特•阿尔姆表示，这些需要使用幻灯片来回答的问题可以让学院看到候选人通过其他途径很难看到的一面。他解释说：“申请流程能够了解的候选人资质是有限的。出于非常具体的原因，我们询问一些非常具体的问题。但可以想象的是，除此之外，有些事情还需要进一步沟通。”

    事实证明，这个实验非常成功，。在2012-2013学年的招生流程中，这所商学院继续要求学生提交由四张幻灯片构成的“申请短文”。尽管幻灯片目前禁止嵌入链接、视频和社交媒体内容，但阿尔姆表示，这种情况未来有可能发生变化。“我从来没有说过绝对不会做什么事情。我认为，没有什么事情不能探讨。”

    但这些非常规的“申请短文”是否真的能够帮助招生委员会更好地了解真正符合要求的候选人呢？蒂皮管理学院的谢弗似乎是这么认为的。她说：“申请顾问们可能需要多花点时间来适应新技术，掌握新技术。它要比帮助申请人撰写一篇文章更加复杂。”

    此外，商学院正在使用非传统的申请短文，以梳理出申请人具体的个性，进而评估某个申请人是否“适合”。这是一个很难把握，但越来越普遍的招生标准。斯特恩商学院的加洛格利如是说：“我们正在寻找的学生不仅要具备高智商，还要具备足够高的情商。这种方式能够从一个不同的角度展示候选人的真实情况。”

    乔治敦大学的休伯特认为，非传统申请短文的成功与否取决于申请人承担风险的意愿。麦克多诺商学院去年引入Twitter申请的时候，大多数学生并没有嵌入照片或链接。但这并不意味着试验已经宣告失败。她说：“我们希望申请人愿意承担更多的风险，让我们走进他们生活的其他方面。”(财富中文网)

    译者：任文科

    While schools may describe social media "essays" as being in the candidates' best interests, the institutions certainly benefit from the free social media marketing. Tippie requires all entries to be uploaded to the school's MBA SlideShare channel and encourages applicants to promote their own slideshows -- the student with the most "likes" gets a $5,000 scholarship. The school has also pledged a full-tuition scholarship to the applicant with the most creative slide deck.

    Georgetown's McDonough School of Business encouraged prospective students to Tweet their responses to an essay question under the hashtag #WhyHoya. Top answers, including those from alumni, were featured in a Facebook album.

    But social media isn't the only option for innovative applications. New York University's Stern School of Business has invited candidates to submit creative expressions of themselves for nearly two decades. Over the years, the school has received everything from a miniature building with crank-powered lighting to a personalized cereal box, which listed an applicant's attributes in place of the ingredients, says Isser Gallogly, Stern's assistant dean of MBA admissions.

    The school introduced size constraints after a few applicants adopted the "bigger is better" approach. "Is someone going to send a car next?" Gallogly jokes. "The admissions team also blacklisted previously worn clothing (likely a result of the used marathon sneakers) and food following a shipment of sushi. "By the time it got to us, it didn't present as well as they expected it to," Gallogly diplomatically recalls.

    The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business also experimented with a non-essay option early on. In the 2007-2008 application cycle, candidates were required to submit four slides to help illustrate "who you will be in their class and how you will stand out," according to the guidelines.

    Kurt Ahlm, Booth's associate dean of student recruitment and admissions, says the slide question allowed the school to get at aspects of candidates that might otherwise fall through the cracks. "There's a finite amount of real estate in the application. We ask very specific things for very specific reasons, but presumably there are things left out of this that you'd like to communicate," he explains.

    The experiment proved successful, he says, and the school continued the four-slide "essay" through the 2012-2013 application season. Although the question bans embedding links, videos, and social media in the slides, Ahlm says that this could change in the future. "I never say never," he says. "I don't think anything is off the table."

    But are these unconventional "essays" helping admissions committees get a better sense of the real candidate? Tippie's Schafer certainly seems to think so. "It's going to take a little bit of time for consultants to catch up with new technology and uses for new technology," she says. "This is more complicated than shaping an essay."

    B-schools are also using nontraditional essays to tease out specific personality traits that help them assess a candidate's "fit," a slippery but increasingly common admissions criterion. "We're looking for people who not only have high I.Q., but really high E.Q. and emotional intelligence," Stern's Gallogly says. "It can bring a candidate to life in a different way."

    For Georgetown's Hubert, the success of the nontraditional essay depends on an applicant's willingness to take a few risks. When McDonough introduced the Tweet essay last year, most students shied away from embedding photos or links. But that doesn't mean it has been a failure. "We hope people will take more risks and allow us into other aspects of their lives," she says.