When Robert's image pops up on a screen on the wall, all eyes in the room are transfixed on the handsome 30-year-old Brit who is applying to the MBA program at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

    The eyes belong to the seven members of the school's MBA admissions committee who sit, like film critics, to judge the candidate's video performance. Robert is in a dark suit, with a blue shirt and red tie. He comes across confident and articulate, doing nothing at least to put him in the reject pile.

    "Hello there," he says in his clipped British accent. "So how do I like my colleagues to see me? First of all, I'd like them to see me as somebody who is fun and outgoing, who is good to work with and can actually introduce some fun into stressful working environments. I think some of the most valuable activity I've done has evolved around when we were able to break down some of the social barriers between inter-department teams to enable us to work more effectively together."

    Welcome to the brave new world of MBA admissions.

    Rotman, which required applicants to answer two pre-recorded questions on video last year as a pilot, is now introducing them as a screening tool for admissions. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management said on July 29 that it would also require a video component to its MBA application this year. Kellogg joins Yale University's School of Management, which is also going to the videotape for this upcoming MBA application season.

    Other B-schools are dabbling in video, but most still offer alternatives to camera-shy candidates. The University of Texas' McCombs School of Business and NYU's Stern School of Business both accept video responses to questions that allow candidates to choose from several different answer formats, including the traditional essay. UCLA's Anderson School of Management offered a video option last year, but scrapped it when some students didn't have access to the necessary technology. Most recently, the admissions team at Europe's INSEAD has hinted that the school may introduce video interviews in its upcoming application cycle.

    Some admissions officials hope that requiring applicants to answer unexpected questions on video will show candidates unscripted and unrehearsed. That's become increasingly difficult at a time when applicants are increasingly hiring admissions consultants to sharpen their resumes, polish their essays, and coach recommenders.

    Already, some consultants are responding to the change by offering coaching to help applicants with the video prompts. Chicago-based consultant The MBA Exchange says it is adding a "video specialist" to its team to provide guidance and feedback to applicants as they plan for video-based interaction with their target schools. "His academic and professional credentials span theatre, psychology, and multimedia communication, enabling us to advise clients on both content development and authentic delivery," says Dan Bauer, CEO and founder of The MBA Exchange, which plans to offer video coaching at no extra charge to clients who pay for the firm's "comprehensive" consulting package.

    For a business school's admissions staff, the use of video also can save time because it's often used as a replacement for written essays, which take longer to read and assess. "It is easier and it provides a little bit more variety than just sitting down with a static application," says Niki da Silva, director of MBA recruitment and admissions at the Rotman School in Toronto.

    当罗伯特的形象闪现在墙上的大屏幕时，房间里所有的视线都聚集在了这位长相英俊的英国小伙子身上。现年30岁的罗伯特正在申请就读多伦多大学(University of Toronto)罗特曼管理学院(Rotman School of Management)的MBA项目。

    这些目光来自该校MBA招生委员会的7位委员。他们一个个正襟稳坐，像影评人那样评判申请者的视频表现。罗伯特穿一身深色西装，蓝色的衬衫上系着一条红领带。他看上去信心十足，侃侃而谈，至少没有做一些促使招生委员们直接把他放入拒绝名单的事情。

    “大家好，”他用清脆的英国口音说道。“话说我希望同事们怎样看待我呢？首先，我希望他们觉得我有趣、爽朗，是一位很好相处的同事，还能够给充满压力的工作带来一些乐趣。我可以帮助公司打破跨部门团队之间的社交障碍，从而促使同事们更加有效地协同工作，我觉得这是我从事过的最有价值的活动之一。”

    欢迎来到MBA入学申请的美丽新世界。

    作为试点，罗特曼管理学院去年要求申请者以视频形式回答两个预先录制的问题。现在，这所商学院已经将其作为正式的招生筛选工具。西北大学( Northwestern University)凯洛格管理学院(Kellogg School of Management )于7月29日表示，该校今年将要求MBA申请材料中必须包括视频内容。与之相似，在即将到来的这个MBA申请季中，耶鲁大学管理学院(Yale University's School of Management)也将要求申请者提交视频资料。

    其他商学院也开始启动视频申请环节，但大多数学校依然给那些不愿上镜的候选人提供了一些替代选择。德州大学(The University of Texas)麦库姆斯商学院(McCombs School of Business)和纽约大学(NYU)斯特恩商学院( Stern School of Business)均接受候选人以视频形式回答问题，但同时也提供了几种不同的回答格式（包括传统作文）供他们选择。加州大学洛杉矶分校( UCLA)的安德森管理学院(Anderson School of Management )去年提供了视频选项，但一些学生抱怨说无法获得必要的技术支持，该校随后又取消了这种申请方式。最近，欧洲工商管理学院( INSEAD)暗示，在即将到来的这个申请周期，该校或将引入视频访谈形式。

    一些招生官员希望，要求申请人在视频上回答意想不到的问题，可以显露出申请者在脱稿和未经排练时的表现。鉴于越来越多的申请者正在聘请入学顾问打磨他们的简历，帮助其修改作文，有的甚至自己动手撰写推荐信，要看清楚申请者的“真面目”已经变得愈发困难。

    果不其然，面对这种变化，一些入学顾问已经做出了回应，他们开始以视频提示的方式帮助申请者提高这方面的技能。芝加哥入学咨询机构The MBA Exchange表示，该公司正在邀请一位“视频专家”加入其团队，向那些打算与目标院校进行视频互动的申请者提供指导和反馈意见。“他的学术和专业资历涵盖戏剧、心理学、多媒体传播等领域，他的加入能够让我们为客户提供内容开发和逼真表演等方面的建议，”The MBA Exchange公司创始人丹•鲍尔如是说。这家入学咨询机构表示，在提供视频辅导时，他们并不打算向那些购买该公司“全套”咨询服务的客户收取额外费用。

    于商学院的招生官员而言，使用视频还可以节省时间，因为它经常被用来替代书面作文，阅读并评估这些文章需要较长时间。“评估视频更容易一些，相对于枯坐着阅读一份静态的申请材料，视频为我们的评审过程增加了一丝多样性。”多伦多大学罗特曼管理学院MBA招生办公室主任尼基•达席尔瓦如是说。

    "We found it incredibly helpful," she adds. "It really allowed the admissions committee to bring more objectivity to the process." Usually, only one member of the admissions committee will interview an applicant when he or she is presented in committee. With video, every member of the panel can see the applicant in action. "It's been helpful to identify superstars and to make some of the tough decisions."

    At Kellogg, MBA candidates will have several minutes to answer a spontaneous, randomized question on a Skype-like screen. "We felt like this was a great opportunity to meet our applicants from wherever they might be in the world," says Kate Smith, Kellogg's assistant dean of admissions and financial aid. "We felt that we were past the tipping point in terms of video technology and comfort with it – most applicants would have used Skype or FaceTime."

    Kellogg's applicants will have the luxury of three tries to record a compelling answer. If they bomb the first question, they can discard it and request another one – they'll receive a different question each time. While it sounds stressful, the admissions team hopes it will lead to more authentic interactions with the more than 5,000 people who apply to Kellogg every year.

    "The spirit of the questions is to get to know our candidates on a more personal level in a spontaneous format," Smith says. "They're designed to bring to life the person we've learned about on paper in the application, including their passions, interests and ideas."

    The video component will not replace Kellogg's personal interviews – a mainstay of the B-school's rigorous application process. Currently, second-year students and alumni conduct many of the in-person interviews.

    Kellogg, says da Silva, consulted with Rotman a few months ago before deciding to launch the video essay. Rotman claims that even jittery applicants have generally given the new video test a thumbs up. "They thought it was a little daunting but they liked it because they knew that at least they would be able to get in front of the admissions committee virtually," she says. "It gave them the chance to tell their story, although it was a little intimidating."

    During its pilot year, Rotman didn't grade the videos. But now it intends to do so. "About 10% to 15% were just not very strong," estimates da Silva. "Then there was a small percentage, about 20%, that really stood out, largely because of the content and not just delivery."

    Rotman is making some adjustments. During the pilot, a standard question was asked of all applicants and then a second question was randomly chosen from a bank of some 25 queries. Each question required a response no longer than one and a half minutes.

    But the element of surprise was sometimes lost when applicants anonymously began posting the questions on message boards. So this year, the standard question has been tossed and the list of questions has been expanded to slightly more than 100—half of them on the candidate's values and the remaining half on their experiences and interests.

    As for Robert, he easily passed his screen test. The admissions committee at Rotman thought him confident and articulate, though it had questions about other aspects of his application, including the fact that he was currently unemployed. So even his stellar on-tape performance didn't completely sway the admissions staff.

    她还表示：“我们发现这些视频非常管用，的确增加了招生委员会工作流程的客观性。”通常情况下，当一位申请者进入面试环节时，他或她面对的只是招生委员会的一位成员。有了视频之后，每一位委员都可以看到申请者活灵活现的样子。“这有助于我们识别超级明星，并做出一些艰难的选择。”

    在凯洛格管理学院，MBA候选人需要在几分钟内，通过一个类似Skype的屏幕回答一个自发的随机性问题。凯洛格管理学院负责招生工作和助学金事宜的副院长凯特•史密斯表示：“我们觉得这是一个与申请者见面的绝佳机会，无论他们来自世界哪一个地区。我们认为，就视频技术而言，我们已经经过了一个转折点，现在很适应了——大部分申请者会用Skype或FaceTime。

    凯洛格管理学院的申请者将享有三次机会，来录制一个令人信服的答案。如果觉得第一个问题有点难度，他们可以放弃，并要求回答另一个——每次的问题都是不同的。虽然这听起来挺有压力，但招生团队希望，通过这种形式，他们可以跟每年申请就读凯洛格管理学院的5千多人进行更真实的互动沟通。

    “这些问题的精神在于，用一种自发的形式，了解我们的候选人更加个性的一面，”史密斯说。“其设计宗旨是，让那些我们已经通过纸面了解的候选人活灵活现地出现在我们面前，从而让我们更加深入地了解他们的爱好、兴趣和想法。”

    这种视频内容不会取代凯洛格管理学院的个人面试——这是这所商学院严格的申请程序的中流砥柱。目前，二年级学生和校友对许多候选人进行了面试访谈。

    达席尔瓦透露称，几个月前，在决定推出视频申请环节之前，凯洛格曾经咨询过罗特曼管理学院的意见。罗特曼管理学院声称，即使是那些紧张不安的申请人，通常也对这种新的视频测试称赞有加。“他们认为，这种形式有点令人望而生畏，但他们非常喜欢，因为他们知道，至少他们事实上能够站在整个招生委员会的面前。这样他们就有机会讲述自己的故事，尽管这听起来有点吓人。”她说。

    在试行那一年，罗特曼管理学院并没有给这些视频材料打分。但现在，这所学校打算这样做。达席尔瓦估计称：“其中大约10%到15%并没有给我们留下深刻的印象。真正脱颖而出的是一小部分，大约20%吧，它们胜出的主要原因在于内容，而不仅仅是表演的精彩程度。”

    罗特曼管理学院正在进行一些调整。在试行期间，所有申请者都被要求回答一个标准问题，第二个问题则是从一个大约由25个问题构成的问卷库中随机抽取的。每个问题要求的回应时间都不超过一分半钟。

    但有时候，一些申请者开始以匿名形式在留言板上张贴问题，从而使视频问答环节丧失了出其不意的效果。所以，罗特曼管理学院今年取消了标准问题，并将问题清单扩大至100多个——其中一半与候选人的价值观有关，剩下一半则涉及他们的经验和兴趣。

    本文开头提到的那位罗伯特轻松地通过他的试镜。罗特曼招生委员会认为他信心十足，能言善道，尽管该委员会对其申请材料的其他方面有疑虑，比如他目前处于失业状态等等。看来，即使镜头前的发挥非常出彩，也不见得能够完全打动这些苛刻的招生官员。（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科