Applying Oneself, Creatively

Some B-schools are offering unusual ways for applicants to express themselves, showing admissions officers a more complete picture

by Alison Damast

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The admissions staff at the University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business University of Colorado at Boulder could hardly believe their eyes when MBA applicant Kim Curtis walked into their office last fall carrying a box holding a 14-inch organic-chocolate ganache truffle cake. One by one, the admissions officers emerged from their offices to steal an admiring glance at Curtis' culinary creation, which she had labored over for two days in her kitchen.

Curtis, a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu cooking program in Chicago, was one of a number of applicants who jumped at the chance to respond to a creativity challenge posed by the school's admissions office. "When you are just your grades and GMAT score and an essay, it's very two-dimensional," says Curtis, a senior software engineer who cooks in her spare time. "I felt the school was looking for more of what I am and what I can create, and that made me more interested in becoming part of their program."

Character Exploration

Leeds is one of a small but growing number of B-schools that are putting a new twist into the application process, experimenting with the format that usually uses written essays to shed light on a student's specialties and interests. Admissions officers are posing questions to applicants that require them to showcase their creativity, encouraging them to submit art projects, slide shows, and unconventional projects with their applications. Some schools, like Leeds, are just beginning to experiment with optional creativity essay questions, while other schools are making them a mandatory part of the application. The University of Chicago, for instance, will require applicants this fall to submit up to four PowerPoint or similar slides with pictures, graphics, or text, along with the two standard essay questions. NYU's Stern School of Business has had an application question for years that gives applicants an opportunity to talk about their life experience outside the conventional essay structure.

Admissions directors say they are including these questions because they want to get deeper insight into applicants' character and problem-solving skills. "We're trying to break the mold," says Rosemaria Martinelli, Chicago's director of admissions. "I think the admissions process in MBA programs needs to be shaken up and a lot more things need to be looked at than the standard essay questions."

When admissions officers throw these types of questions out to B-school applicants, what comes back at them can be surprising. A 50-pound bag of concrete, a computer with an ice pick stuck through it, and a self-portrait are just some of the unusual items now sitting in the office of Anne Sandoe, director of Leeds' MBA program. "It just gives you insight into peoples' personality that is very difficult to get on paper," Sandoe says. "Although we do meet and interview many of our candidates, it's nice to see what is on the other side of their brains."

Free Rein

Sandoe says Leeds offered the extra-credit creativity challenge to applicants this year for the first time in an effort to distinguish the program from what she terms other "vanilla" MBA programs. Applicants had to adhere to a few guidelines—submissions couldn't be heavier than 50 pounds or larger than 2 cubic feet—but otherwise had free rein. Though the question was optional, over 75% of the approximately 300 full-time day MBA applicants responded to it.