1. Booth Essay 3 Decision
Tree
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2. Booth Essay 3 Decision
Tree
It's very rare that we post blogs at the
height of the deadline season, but
something is coming up a lot that a
quick post might help people with and that is what to do with Booth
Essay 3 when your presentation isn't
coming together like you want.

3. Booth Essay 3 Decision
Tree
With the deadline bearing down, not
everyone is able to make things
happen exactly the way they want and
the compulsion to use a "great essay"
(from another school) rather than
create a Powerpoint presentation is
quite strong.

4. Continuation
However, there are many experts on
record - including us, in our Booth
Strategy Memo that all clients receive saying that you basically must use a
presentation format. So, what should
you do?

5. I decided to put together a little
Decision Tree that I think reflects a few
realities. They are:

6. Continuation
A presentation is the most desirable
outcome. There are a number of
reasons for this. First, it measures a
"business" skill that is not evident
anywhere else. Second, it shows effort
and interest in the school because
other than NYU or MIT, you would not
be creating a slideshow like this for any
other school.

7. Continuation
Third, and most importantly, it is for the
reader. The poor, overlooked,
overworked reader never gets
considered by clients when making
decisions, which is crazy because that
person has the biggest say in whether
you get in or not. Look, when you have
to read a thousand essays in a single
cycle, you don't want to read another
essay.

8. Continuation
A PPT presentation is something cool
to look at that gives that person a bit of
a break and another way to evaluate
without having to read. every. single.
word. So that's why you *should* do a
presentation.

9. Continuation
There is nuance within that general
rule. Analogy: most people feel that
fish is better for you than chocolate.
But what if the fish is farm-raised and
maybe three days past the sell date?
What if it's straight up rotten an full of
dangerous bacteria? Surely it's not
better than.

10. Continuation
Or what if the chocolate is the finest in
all the land, made with organic this and
that and full of heart-healthy properties
of the raw cocoa bean. Are we still
sure the fish is always better than the
chocolate? Of course it's not. The
same is true for "presentation vs.
essay." Yes, like fish, the presentation
is usually what we want to be reaching
for. But not always.

11. Here is my Decision Tree for this:
I would say the decision tree looks like
this:
1. (Best) A great presentation. See
above.

12. Continuation
2. A good presentation. Even if you
don't blow it out of the water, just
having a theme, something easy to look
at, and a baseline level of effort is
STILL going to be better than the BEST
essay you can write.

13. Continuation
3. A great essay. Okay, first essay
sighting. If you can't get your
presentation to at least "I'd serve this
fish to my family" quality, break out the
chocolate ... as long as it's amazing.

14. Continuation
4. A mediocre presentation. If you
essay is not GREAT, you are still better
off with even a C-level presentation.

15. Continuation
5. A good essay. Please see how far
down the list this goes. You are only
using a "good" essay if all you have is a
legitimately bad presentation. Which
means you should never use a good
essay, because do you know how hard
it is to put together a bad presentation
in 2014?

16. Continuation
6. A bad presentation. Still better than
an essay that does not rise to the level
of good, although let's hope it doesn't
come to that.

17. Continuation
7. A mediocre essay. Let's hope you
don't even have any of these.
8. (Worst) A bad essay. Obviously.

18. Hopefully you find this helpful if you are
debating what to do at the 11th hour.
Maybe you have a great essay and a
mediocre presentation - boom, use the
essay. Or maybe with just one more
all-nighter you can get that presentation
up to "good" - boom, use the
presentation.

19. Good luck out there.

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please visit
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services offered by Amerasia, please email
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free consultation.