Chicago Booth Fall 2010 Slide Presentation

This is the third in a series of five posts on the University of Chicago Booth's MBA application essays for Fall 2010 admission. The parts are Essay 1, Essay 2, Slide Presentation, Optional Essay, and Overall Plan.


This is the third year that the University of Chicago Booth has required a slide presentation as part of their MBA application. Based on working with four clients admitted to the Class of 2011 and one admitted to the Class of 2010, I am confident that the advice I offer below is effective.  Each of these client's presentations was distinct and provided admissions with interesting set of perspectives on the applicant.  Some of the slides looked really professional, while others were clearly not.  Some were funny, others less so.  Some were high concept, others very simple and direct.  All of these slides worked in their own way.  


It is not often that a school’s essay question gets the attention of the press, but Booth’s Question Three did when it first came out. While the mandatory use of PowerPoint is novel, is this question so odd? See below!

After I analyze Booth's PowerPoint question, I conclude with some specific suggestions for how to brainstorm for your answer.

While Chicago Booth has proven itself to have an absolutely brilliant PR strategy by issuing press releases and otherwise making it appear that this is totally new, I think this is only partially the case, as I will discuss below. Chicago is the first school to require a PowerPoint as a part of the application, but it is not the first to allow the use of one as part of the process.

Slide Presentation
We have asked for a great deal of information throughout this application and now invite you tell us about yourself. Using four slides or less, please provide readers with content that captures who you are.

We have set forth the following guidelines for you to consider when creating your presentation.

1. The content is completely up to you. There is no right or wrong approach this essay. Feel free to use the software you are most comfortable with. Acceptable formats for upload in the online application system are PowerPoint or PDF.
2. There is a strict maximum of 4 slides, though you can provide fewer than 4 if you choose.
3. Slides will be printed and added to your file for review, therefore, flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos, music, etc. will not be viewed by the committee. You are limited to text and static images to convey your points. Color may be used.
4. Slides will be evaluated on the quality of content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation.
5. You are welcome to attach a document containing notes if you feel a deeper explanation of your slides is necessary. However the hope is the slide is able to stand alone and convey your ideas clearly. You will not be penalized for adding notes but you should not construct a slide with the intention of using the notes section as a consistent means of explanation. (200 words maximum, see online application).

Two Prior Uses of PowerPoint in the MBA Application Process:
I think it is important to realize that Chicago is not the first school to allow for the use of PowerPoint or other presentation slide content as part of the application process.
The use of slide presentations has long been a possibility for both NYU Stern and HEC.

NYU STERN
First, it has been possible to create a short PowerPoint presentation as part of the NYU Stern process for years. The Stern question reads:
Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative.
One such method for doing so is an actual presentation. Whether made with PowerPoint or other tools, applicants have been doing this, both successfully and unsuccessfully, for years.

HEC
HEC Paris requires presentations as part of its interview process. The relevant part of the instructions are as follows:
The interview starts with a 10-minute presentation made by the candidate on the subject of his/her choice. The main objective of this presentation is to judge the candidate's communication and presentation skills, the capability to synthesize a subject in 10 minutes while keeping the interest of the audience. The candidate may use any presentation method he or she wishes, such as transparencies, notes, slides, etc.
The presentation is then followed by 30 to 40 minutes of questions and answers, first on the presentation, then on the candidate's motivation and other elements mentioned in his/her application.
Actually, HEC candidates have to make this presentation twice to different interviewers. Now, while it is possible to not use PowerPoint to make one’s HEC presentation, I have never worked with anyone who did that.

I point out the above two examples out merely to show that while Booth's use of PowerPoint is certainly novel, it is not without precedent.

MAKING A PRESENTATION IS A PRACTICAL TEST OF BASIC BUSINESS ABILITY
Consider some of the standard parts of the application and how they reflect on the applicant's abilities:

RESUME: Ability to effectively convey one's core professional, academic, and personal experience for the purposes of getting selected for an interview.

GOALS ESSAYS: Ability to clearly articulate a plan.

INTERVIEW: Ability to effectively convince an interviewer that you are good fit for the organization (in this case as a student in B-School).

RECOMMENDATIONS: Ability to obtain powerful endorsements designed to help convince a selection committee.

Looked at from this perspective, PowerPoint is a fundamental business skill. Like MIT Sloan's cover letter and every school's resume, at some level, Chicago 3 is testing the applicant's basic business skills. Why not test for it?

Anyone who has been or wants to be a businessperson will have spent countless hours preparing and delivering presentations. If you want to go do IPO Roadshows, sell a room of people your services, convince a Board of Directors, etc, you will need slides and those slides will be made with PowerPoint. It seems totally reasonable to me to ask anyone to use it because they will have to anyway.

Especially if you don't know how to use PowerPoint, my suggestion is NOT to focus on style, but on your content. That actually is true for anyone (even those who are PowerPoint Gurus) and is clearly the message that Booth is delivering: This question is not designed to evaluate the applicants’ PowerPoint expertise, but rather to reveal how people think and communicate their ideas. This question, like the rest of the essay questions, is designed to provoke critical thought and self-reflection, not just their creativity. It is the message within the slides that is important, not the presentation.

Rose Martinelli's comments above clearly indicate that the focus is on the message, not the overall aesthetics of the presentation.

IS THIS REALLY A TEST OF PowerPoint SKILLS?
NO. I think it is a test of your ability to prepare a very simple presentation about yourself. Remember that you are preparing slides for a presentation that will only be delivered on paper and unlike a presentation that you would deliver, you are not able to take advantage of what PowerPoint can do:
Slides will be printed and added to your file for review, therefore, flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos, music, etc. will not be viewed by the committee. You are limited to text and static images to convey your points. Color may be used.

In fact, for anyone who has actually is good at PowerPoint, they may find it necessary to compromise on their aesthetics and technical skills in order to most effectively answer the question. Especially those who believe in providing a minimal amount of content per slide might find it necessary to increase the amount of content they include.

As someone who previously made the transition from text heavy slides to minimalist ones when delivering sales and marketing presentations, I know that if I had to answer this question, I would have to compromise on what I consider to be my own best practices for making PowerPoint slides.

NOT A TEST OF YOUR ABILITY TO DELIVER A PRESENTATION, BUT A TEST OF YOUR ABILITY TO PREPARE ONE
Always remember that you are being tested on your ability to prepare a presentation, not to deliver one. Hence, you should always first think of this as a text that will be read, not one that will be spoken.

If you still think you need to learn more about PowerPoint, I suggest reading Presenting to Win by Jerry Weissman, the Silicon Valley PowerPoint Guru. When I first read Chicago's question, I looked for a book focused on the story telling aspect of PowerPoint and I think this is it. You can read my mini-review and buy the book here. Visit Weissman's site here.

WHAT ABOUT THE NOTES?
Given Booth's very specific instructions about the Notes, you should think about them as an opportunity to explain something in the slide in greater depth, but not as a speech for the slides:
You are welcome to attach a document containing notes if you feel a deeper explanation of your slides is necessary. However the hope is the slide is able to stand alone and convey your ideas clearly. You will not be penalized for adding notes but you should not construct a slide with the intention of using the notes section as a consistent means of explanation.

Let's Think About Length
You will have four slides plus 200 words for the notes to communicate your message. Regarding the notes, Rose Martinelli has further stated that the notes document "should not exceed one paragraph per slide." Depending on your perspective, this might seem like a great deal of text or not very much. Given that the notes give you about 50 words to further clarify each slide, the actual total amount of content is really likely to be in the 300-600 word range depending on what you do with the slides.

IS THIS AN ESSAY IN DISGUISE?
Rose Martinelli says:
In many respects we are looking for similar things in the slides as we would in the essays. We are looking for organized thoughts, strong communication skills, and the ability to convey ideas clearly. We will also be looking at an applicant's ability to be insightful and their willingness to express themselves in a new medium. In some respects, this question adds an element of risk to the application that has not been there before.
I think it is helpful to conceive of as have exactly the same function as an essay, but you should consider...
including visual imagery AND/OR
using bullet points AND/OR
using metaphors AND/OR
being non-linear AND/OR
minimizing or eliminating introductions and conclusions.
Rose Martinelli states:
Well, as you know, the Chicago GSB [Booth] has a reputation for challenging norms. In some respects that is what the PowerPoint is doing. Traditional essays, although helpful in the application process, tend to be confining. Essay questions do not allow applicants to fully stretch beyond the question and communicate their strengths, weaknesses, passions etc. The PowerPoint slide is our way of giving applicants a blank slate on which to communicate with us. There aren't many restrictions for an applicant, and they have free reign to communicate to the committee whatever they feel is valuable for us to know. An applicant can expand upon their application or they can go beyond it and reveal something completely new. This is their opportunity to express themselves without guidance or restriction.
Thus you would best advised to not simply take an essay and divide it among the four slides. Instead, show creativity. One effective way to organize your slides is to have each slide make one key point or communicate one key idea about you. And in a real sense, this is no different from what a good paragraph should do.

Now that we have looked at the overall context for this question, let’s think about what is actually being asked.

What was the question again?
THE CORE PART OF THE QUESTION: "we invite you tell us about yourself" is very simple. I could restate it as "please help us understand who you are."

WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT WRITE ABOUT:
1. As the beginning of the question states, Chicago has already asked for "a great deal of information throughout this application." This is stated in contrast to what they want you to tell them. Therefore don't focus on facts that they can find elsewhere in the application.
2. In Essay 1, you have already discussed your goals and why you want an MBA from Chicago, so don't discuss goals and why MBA here.


SO WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE ABOUT?
IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU!
Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want Chicago to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?
2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?
3. If you were going to tell admissions four things about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should Booth care?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you, what is it?
5. Do you have a personal interest (painting and poetry for example) that would work effectively in a PowerPoint?
6. If you have a sense of humor and/or creativity, how can you express it here? I suggest doing so if you can.

As you can see, these questions would lead to very different kinds of responses. There is no one way to answer this question, but I believe there are right ways for every applicant to do so.

Previously, one of my readers asked three very good questions about the Slide Presentation. I am reprinting them in slightly altered form below.

1) In your opinion, should one use a minimalistic approach involving images to convey one's ideas?

I think this will really depend on you. The important thing is to effectively convey something important about who you are to the admissions committee. If that can be done effectively with more images that is great, if it can be done effectively with minimal or no images that is also great. The important thing is that your reader understands the significance of any images you use. Luckily, you have the notes for that purpose. Just as in "real" PowerPoints, images or any graphic element can be used effectively or badly. Always ask yourself, "Why am I using this image? Does it really help them understand me?" If it does, keep it. If it is mere decoration, think about eliminating it or replacing it with something that will have a positive impact on Chicago's ability to understand who you are.

2) Would a little bit of humor do good e.g. a cartoon?
Keeping in mind what I just wrote above, I think humor can be used effectively. You must practice extremely good judgment when using humor for any application. Don't make a joke simply to make one. Use humor if it is effective in conveying something that will compel Rose and her colleagues to want to interview you. That said, I have had a number of clients who successfully used humor in their applications for Chicago Booth.

3) Is Booth looking for an analytical assessment of one's personality in these slides?

I think they are looking for a meaningful assessment of your personality. I will not say "analytical" because that is just one possibility. If by "analytical" you mean a detailed explanation for your character making use of standard forms of argument, it is fine to do it that way, but not the only way. I use the word "meaningful" because it does not necessarily require logic or analysis to do so. For example, an image with some kind of description may provide Chicago Booth with great insight into who you are. Since Chicago is specifically being "non-traditional," you certainly can be also so long as you answer the question.

Finally, think big and be creative. To answer this one effectively will take time, but if you want to get into Chicago Booth, put in the time.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

シカゴ、ビジネススクール, MBA留学

Steve Green's NYU Stern Admissions Event Report

My guest blogger Steve Green has submitted the following post.

-Adam 

Steve Green's Report on the NYU Stern Admissions 9/15/2009 Event in Tokyo

I have just returned from the NYU Stern Admission Event in Tokyo.  There were about 70-80 people in attendance tonight. 

The main points covered:

1. Stern students love Stern:  The entire first-third of the video presentation consisted of students emphasizing how great their classmates, clubs and social lives – including socializing with professors- were at Stern.  The presenter tonight (Chris Gaeta, Senior Associate Director, MBA Admissions) expanded on the topic of the Stern community in detail:  He emphasized the popularity and success of Stern students in national case competitions, and the presence of 40+ clubs.  My advice:  If you are applying to Stern, be sure to demonstrate exactly how you will contribute to the Stern community, be sure to sound like someone your future classmates would love to have on their teams.
   
2. Stern loves Stern students: Stern faculty do things like play flag football with students and respond to student emails at 2:00am and 3:00am. Stern supports students actively through its career center and 20+ career counselors. Stern provides merit-based scholarships to “nearly 30% of students.  Note: Round 1 candidates get priority for scholarships as well as for graduate fellowships, which are worth up to $21, 000.
3. Stern is in New York City:  Stern’s “extended classroom” consists of access to companies based in NYC as well as “exclusive Stern NYC Case Studies” and the Stern Consulting Corps (SCC) that dispatches students to serve as consultants to NPOs in the Big Apple. My advice is NOT to mention that you want to go to Stern because its in NYC but to describe the specific access points between Stern and particular things in the city that attract you. 
4. Stern has a lot of teachers and they’re really smart:  The 300 professors at Stern are the 3rd most productive group of faculty (Chris did not qualify if this is national or global) and this group includes Nobel Prize winners. His Power Point presentation mentioned over half a dozen professors by name, so if you are applying to Stern you should know who is teaching what.
5. Stern’s curriculum is customizable:  Only two of seven first-year classes are mandatory, accounting and statistics.  Students choose their other courses from nearly 200 electives.  Stern offers 22 specializations and 40+ global learning options that take students overseas for up to two weeks in a term. Furthermore, Stern students may take up to 25% of their classes from other NYU schools.
6. Optional Essay #4 is not really optional (Just as I tell my clients every year!)  This was actually highly useful advice that will save applicants time otherwise spent fretting about whether or not to write this essay. Chris urged everyone to write something here that could not be included in the rest of the set, including explanations of any weak spots (e.g. bad grades in university) or why a supervisor would not write a recommendation letter.  He pointed out the this essay does not have to be as long as the other ones and said, in fact, that something as curt as 3 sentences or bullet points would be acceptable.
7. “Be bold on your resume!”  Just as I advise clients, Chris urged applicants to produce a resume that is a “brag sheet,” a list boasting their greatest accomplishments. 
   

For questions regarding this post, please contact me at h.steven.green@gmail.com. To learn more about my graduate admissions consulting services, please click here.
- H. Steven ("Steve") Green, グリーン・ハロルド・スティーブン

ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング 大学院 合格対策 エッセイ MBA留学

Harvard Law School LL.M. Essay Questions for Fall 2010

Harvard Law School has "updated" their Master of Law application page for Fall 2010 admission, so I am updating my post Harvard LL.M. program as well.  This year HLS only has an online application. That is the big change! Actually the application has not changed for years, so this post is only slightly modified from my prior versions of this post. The deadlines: For the LL.M. class beginning in September 2010, the application deadline is December 1, 2009. (We strongly encourage all application materials be delivered by November 15, 2009.)

While almost all my clients are applying to MBA programs,  I have extensive past experience working with applicants applying to LL.M. programs.  For Fall 2009 admission, I worked with three LL.M. clients.  You can find their results here (after MBA).   Of my two LL.M. clients who applied to Harvard Law School, both were admitted.   For me, working with very high caliber LL.M. clients is quite interesting.  Before establishing my own consulting service in 2007, about 30% of my clients were LL.M. applicants, but these days, it is a rather limited aspect of my work.  It seems that LL.M. applicants don't seem to find me as easily as MBA applicants.   

As I discussed in an earlier post, I think everyone who applies to top LL.M. programs should think about the Harvard Law School essay questions even if they don't intend to apply to Harvard. Harvard has a more difficult set of essay questions than other LL.M. programs ask and most who apply to Harvard will be utilizing their content for other schools. So, even if you don't apply to Harvard, you should be aware of what some of your strongest competition will be doing. Harvard has four essay questions (Taken from the online application) and gives a total of 1900 words.

The Personal Statement questions:
Personal Statement: Please read parts (a) and (b) below carefully and write an essay addressing both questions, with part (a)constituting at least half of the total length. Your entire statement should be no more than 1500 words—anything exceeding the word limit will be disallowed. Please type or word-process your statement, with your full name on the top of each page and your signature at the end, and attach it to your application.
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future. 
Important: Your personal statement must address the above questions specifically, and must be solely the product of your own efforts. We reserve the right to disqualify a statement written by, or with the help of, someone other than the applicant.

Now while (a) and (b) are the main questions, there are actually two other essay questions:

Academic interests [Indicate two or three areas of interest.]: Please tell us why you are interested in these areas and they relate to your career goals. (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words. 

Career Plans: Please elaborate on your plans: In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)

Clearly no applicant should duplicate the content they write in essay (b) and in these two shorter questions, yet I believe many applicants do because they treat these two shorter questions as simply application questions and not essay questions. If you think of them as essay questions, you see that, in fact, Harvard gives 1900 words maximum to each applicant. This is more than you are likely to write for any law school with the possible exception of schools that don't specify essay length.

Now let's analyze the questions:
(a)Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue.
Question (a) is what makes Harvard's essay different from most other LL.M. applications. It is a real test of your analytical and legal thinking. It is also test of your ability to communicate something important in 750-1000 words. You will probably need at least 500 for (b) and (a) must be at least 750 words long. From my experience the most effective way to write (a) is to:

1. Identify a legal issue that you know really well and can provide a nuanced perspective on. Ideally it should also relate to what you intend to study at Harvard, but at minimum should be a reflection of your best legal thinking.

2. Write a long first draft, say 1000-2000 words.

3. Expect to go through at least four more drafts before it is close to being finished.

4. Show it to a lawyer or other legal expert who can assess whether what you say is actually accurate and impressive. With my clients, I always tell them to do this. Even if I am very familiar with the legal issue my client is analyzing, I ask them to try to get expert advice. If expert advice is not available, find the next best thing, a fellow legal practitioner whose opinion you trust.

5. If you use an admissions consultant, you should ask him or her to assess this essay within the context of your entire application and in comparison to other applicants who were admitted to Harvard. For the record: In addition to the two admitted for Fall 2009, two of my previous clients graduated from HLS in 2008. Prior to that, I had clients graduate from HLS in 2007 and 2006.   If you are interested in learning more about services, please see my website.

(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.

This is actually a standard question though somewhat different from the standard catchall questions that most other schools ask. The real task is to think what you don't need to include here, which requires looking at the next two essays first, so we will come back to this question.

Academic interests
For most other schools, this would be a standard part of the main question, but Harvard does it a little differently. This means that in (b) you don't have to discuss your academic interests in detail because you will doing it here. In the context of your answer, provide the list they ask for. You can only focusing on two or three areas of legal interest in the application form.  I suggest you come across as someone with a very focused academic plan. Your academic plan at Harvard should be consistent with your future career plans.

Please elaborate on your plans. In which country (or countries) do you intend to pursue your career? (Note: Please limit your response to no more than 200 words.)

You should use this space to provide a specific career plan. You will have already talked about your future in (b), but at a more conceptual level. Here you should provide details of your future plans.

One thing to keep in mind: HARVARD IS FOR LEADERS. It does not matter if your leadership is as a judge, a prosecutor, a leading attorney in your field, a government expert, a scholar, or an in-house legal counsel, Harvard is looking for people who will make a difference. Your career plan is the place to show how you will use the legal knowledge you acquire at Harvard to become a credit to the legal profession. In (b) you will focus on "why?"

Now back to (b):
(b)Please tell us something about yourself—in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.

Given that you don't need to provide the details of either your academic plan at Harvard or your career plans, there is plenty of room in (b) to focus on what Harvard wants to know:

1.Why do you want an LL.M. at Harvard? Explain clearly the reason(s) for obtaining an LL.M. and at Harvard in particular.

2. Connect to the past: You need to reveal something about yourself, in particular your motivations for pursuing a legal career and need to trace that motivation to your desire to pursue an LL.M. Tell a story that reveals something about you. If you are having difficulty understanding how to do that, I suggest taking a look at my earlier posts on law school essays.

3. Connect to the future: You need to explain why an LL.M. will help you achieve your future goals. The details for that plan will be discussed in your career plan essay. If you are having difficulty formulating goals, please click here.

A great (b) answer should effectively provide the conceptual backbone that connects all four essays because essay (b) is about your past and future motivations as a legal professional. Those motivations should certainly impact what legal issue you write about in (a) as well as your academic plan at Harvard and your future career plans.

Putting together a great HLS application is a time-consuming labor of love, but if approached early enough, it really is manageable.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are interested in my admissions consulting services, please see here.
 -Adam Markus
アダム マーカス


ハーバード 米国ロースクール 米国大学法学院 大学院入学 カウンセリング コンサルティング 合格対策 合格率 エッサイ LLM留学

Adam and Steve at THE MBA TOUR on 9/3

Steve and I attended The MBA Tour tonight. The location, the Keio Plaza, was rather nice and real improvement on The Palace Hotel (now being rebuilt). The crowd was good and with 39 schools in attendance, it was a large event.

Below we discuss the event, which undermined my old pen theory. We also discuss general issues of MBA school selection and provide some suggestions about the school selection process.

While the video is not great, it is much better than on 9/1. We suggest watching it with a nice snack and your favorite drink. Whatever you drink, make it a double.

Finally, I should disclose that my blog is a North America and Asia Resource Partner of The MBA Tour.



-Adam

Steve and Adam's Audiocast at The World MBA

Steve Green and I attended The World MBA Tour here in Tokyo tonight.

I had initially posted this as video that was so awful that I had wanted to just upload the audio, but unable to do it myself, I initially posted the video. Luckily, one of my clients was kind enough to create an audio only file.

Steve and I talk a little about the event and then engage in a conversation focused especially on first round MBA application and present trends.

We hope the commentary is interesting.

By the way, you can find all our videos (including the bad one that I have just removed from this blogpost) at http://www.youtube.com/user/GradAdmissionsGurus.



-Adam