Tuesday, July 24, 2007

More b-school essay stuff

B-school essay topics range from stating your motivation for obtaining an MBA to describing specific leadership experiences. These questions dig beneath the paper, scores, and resumes of each candidate. Unfortunately, such questions are difficult to answer and, in the wrong hands, can produce verbose and unrevealing essays.

One twist might be having students pick their own question. I imagine mine might be: "You and 86 other survivors of a mysterious plane crash now struggle within the confines of an unknown island somewhere in the south Pacific. What do you do now? Do you fight for power against the dominant doctor who's got some serious father-son issues? Do you hit on the spoiled blonde chick without any skills, or prefer the brunette who seems tough - a little too tough. Do you humor the has-been musician? Make fun of the fat Hispanic surfer? Hunt wild boar with the old guy with random knives? Make friends with that really Korean couple?"

Wouldn't answering questions about how'd you fit in along the cast of your favorite TV show reveal much more about your personality than broad philosophical questions? Doesn't your answer about disagreeing with Jack Bauer's use of torture show your values than talking about the time you convinced a client to fire 100 FTE's to save costs?

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