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Rohit Singh
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Thu, 09 Aug 2007
On Powerpoint As An Admission Requirement
GoogleDude's complaining about Chicago GSB requiring MBA applicants to
also send in a 4-slide Powerpoint, allowing the applicants to express
their creativity. I agree with the G-dude.
Using Powerpoint well is an amazingly useful skill; in fact, I was surprised how valuable it is in research. These days, much of the dissemination-of-ideas in research happens by talks given using Powerpoints. And the majority of such talks are terrible. But there are some real gems and the people who give them stand out. Clearly, one can argue that it's valuable for students (including B-school guys) to be good at this lingua franca of presentations.
The problem is, using Powerpoint to evaluate someone's creativity is a rather narrow reading of "creativity" (why not allow video resumes?). Also, as G-dude says, most people are born with very bad skills at Powerpoints. Only those immersed in Powerpoint-rich environments start to get any good at it. A Powerpoint-based admission requirement is just favoring certain job types.