海外MBA申请新政：视频取代书面作文

    她还表示：“我们发现这些视频非常管用，的确增加了招生委员会工作流程的客观性。”通常情况下，当一位申请者进入面试环节时，他或她面对的只是招生委员会的一位成员。有了视频之后，每一位委员都可以看到申请者活灵活现的样子。“这有助于我们识别超级明星，并做出一些艰难的选择。”

    在凯洛格管理学院，MBA候选人需要在几分钟内，通过一个类似Skype的屏幕回答一个自发的随机性问题。凯洛格管理学院负责招生工作和助学金事宜的副院长凯特•史密斯表示：“我们觉得这是一个与申请者见面的绝佳机会，无论他们来自世界哪一个地区。我们认为，就视频技术而言，我们已经经过了一个转折点，现在很适应了——大部分申请者会用Skype或FaceTime。

    凯洛格管理学院的申请者将享有三次机会，来录制一个令人信服的答案。如果觉得第一个问题有点难度，他们可以放弃，并要求回答另一个——每次的问题都是不同的。虽然这听起来挺有压力，但招生团队希望，通过这种形式，他们可以跟每年申请就读凯洛格管理学院的5千多人进行更真实的互动沟通。

    “这些问题的精神在于，用一种自发的形式，了解我们的候选人更加个性的一面，”史密斯说。“其设计宗旨是，让那些我们已经通过纸面了解的候选人活灵活现地出现在我们面前，从而让我们更加深入地了解他们的爱好、兴趣和想法。”

    这种视频内容不会取代凯洛格管理学院的个人面试——这是这所商学院严格的申请程序的中流砥柱。目前，二年级学生和校友对许多候选人进行了面试访谈。

    达席尔瓦透露称，几个月前，在决定推出视频申请环节之前，凯洛格曾经咨询过罗特曼管理学院的意见。罗特曼管理学院声称，即使是那些紧张不安的申请人，通常也对这种新的视频测试称赞有加。“他们认为，这种形式有点令人望而生畏，但他们非常喜欢，因为他们知道，至少他们事实上能够站在整个招生委员会的面前。这样他们就有机会讲述自己的故事，尽管这听起来有点吓人。”她说。

    在试行那一年，罗特曼管理学院并没有给这些视频材料打分。但现在，这所学校打算这样做。达席尔瓦估计称：“其中大约10%到15%并没有给我们留下深刻的印象。真正脱颖而出的是一小部分，大约20%吧，它们胜出的主要原因在于内容，而不仅仅是表演的精彩程度。”

    罗特曼管理学院正在进行一些调整。在试行期间，所有申请者都被要求回答一个标准问题，第二个问题则是从一个大约由25个问题构成的问卷库中随机抽取的。每个问题要求的回应时间都不超过一分半钟。

    但有时候，一些申请者开始以匿名形式在留言板上张贴问题，从而使视频问答环节丧失了出其不意的效果。所以，罗特曼管理学院今年取消了标准问题，并将问题清单扩大至100多个——其中一半与候选人的价值观有关，剩下一半则涉及他们的经验和兴趣。

    本文开头提到的那位罗伯特轻松地通过他的试镜。罗特曼招生委员会认为他信心十足，能言善道，尽管该委员会对其申请材料的其他方面有疑虑，比如他目前处于失业状态等等。看来，即使镜头前的发挥非常出彩，也不见得能够完全打动这些苛刻的招生官员。（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科

    "We found it incredibly helpful," she adds. "It really allowed the admissions committee to bring more objectivity to the process." Usually, only one member of the admissions committee will interview an applicant when he or she is presented in committee. With video, every member of the panel can see the applicant in action. "It's been helpful to identify superstars and to make some of the tough decisions."

    At Kellogg, MBA candidates will have several minutes to answer a spontaneous, randomized question on a Skype-like screen. "We felt like this was a great opportunity to meet our applicants from wherever they might be in the world," says Kate Smith, Kellogg's assistant dean of admissions and financial aid. "We felt that we were past the tipping point in terms of video technology and comfort with it – most applicants would have used Skype or FaceTime."

    Kellogg's applicants will have the luxury of three tries to record a compelling answer. If they bomb the first question, they can discard it and request another one – they'll receive a different question each time. While it sounds stressful, the admissions team hopes it will lead to more authentic interactions with the more than 5,000 people who apply to Kellogg every year.

    "The spirit of the questions is to get to know our candidates on a more personal level in a spontaneous format," Smith says. "They're designed to bring to life the person we've learned about on paper in the application, including their passions, interests and ideas."

    The video component will not replace Kellogg's personal interviews – a mainstay of the B-school's rigorous application process. Currently, second-year students and alumni conduct many of the in-person interviews.

    Kellogg, says da Silva, consulted with Rotman a few months ago before deciding to launch the video essay. Rotman claims that even jittery applicants have generally given the new video test a thumbs up. "They thought it was a little daunting but they liked it because they knew that at least they would be able to get in front of the admissions committee virtually," she says. "It gave them the chance to tell their story, although it was a little intimidating."

    During its pilot year, Rotman didn't grade the videos. But now it intends to do so. "About 10% to 15% were just not very strong," estimates da Silva. "Then there was a small percentage, about 20%, that really stood out, largely because of the content and not just delivery."

    Rotman is making some adjustments. During the pilot, a standard question was asked of all applicants and then a second question was randomly chosen from a bank of some 25 queries. Each question required a response no longer than one and a half minutes.

    But the element of surprise was sometimes lost when applicants anonymously began posting the questions on message boards. So this year, the standard question has been tossed and the list of questions has been expanded to slightly more than 100—half of them on the candidate's values and the remaining half on their experiences and interests.

    As for Robert, he easily passed his screen test. The admissions committee at Rotman thought him confident and articulate, though it had questions about other aspects of his application, including the fact that he was currently unemployed. So even his stellar on-tape performance didn't completely sway the admissions staff.