Who Loves PowerPoint?

The University of Chicago does! In fact, they now require it as part of their business school admissions process.

There are a few potential benefits to this new change. First and foremost, it shows that prospective students are technologically savvy enough to create four pages of PowerPoint slides. Because such presentations are so ubiquitous in the business world, this is crucial knowledge for any prospective business student to have.

Secondly, this provides a more "free-form" aspect to the application. This provides applicants a way to compensate for less-than-ideal test scores by showing off their creativity. Rose Martinelli, Chicago’s associate dean for student recruitment and admissions, points out that this also serves as “a free-form space for students to be able to say what they think is important, not always having the school run that dialogue."

Personally, I hope this leads to some far more exciting PowerPoint presentations than what one might normally sit through...

If you are interested in seeing more interesting ways to tackle admissions essays, take a look at these sample MBA essays.