So, how do on-spot essays help in evaluating the candidate? PaGaLGuY spoke to Mr. MJ Xavier, director, IIM Ranchi who pioneered the change. He said, “A written analysis helps you understand whether a person can think logically. Normally, students who have studied in a convent school are good speakers but their command on the written language is not as good. The students tend to make grammatical errors while writing. This is a good way to test the students.”

Great lakes also had a similar view on the shift to the written essay. Speaking to PaGaLGuY exclusively on the change in policy, Mr. Easwar Krishna Iyer, director admissions, Great Lakes said, “These changes have their own reasoning. We believe that genuine writing skills and thinking on the feet ability will be better demonstrated by a live hand-written essay rather than by a well thought through online essay. This process will lead to a better sync between a student’s verbal and written abilities. I brought in the same change when I was the head of admissions in my previous school and it worked.”

As far as recommendations are concerned, the institute thinks that it will reduce paperwork and time spent on the entire process. “We want to collect recommendations only from those students to whom we are planning to offer a seat. If we select only 1 out of 10 students, why collect from the remaining 9? Thus, we are collecting recommendations/ references – the only difference is that instead of the process being ex-ante, we are doing it ex-post,” Mr. Iyer added.

Applicants will be given two sheets of paper and they will have to complete the essay in 30 minutes. They will need to write an essay on only one of the three options which will be provided to them on the spot. In the previous online format, aspirants had to write an online essay on three topics whereas the current format will allow them to choose a topic among a medley of topics. There is no other change in the admission process though, and the aspirants will also need to sit for group discussions and personal interviews. The institute refused to disclose the weightage given to essays in the entire selection process.

However, the new changes are not set in stone. “They are not significant policy changes. We only have a few tactical changes. If it doesn’t produce the desired result, then we always have the option of falling back on our current practice,” said Mr. Iyer.

PaGaLGuY spoke to some b-school students who told us that applicants might not be interested in writing essays and collecting recommendations during the application stage itself. The students told us that the applicants might want to put in the hard work only after they are called for the admission process. Hence, in their opinion, the new change might help the institute get more applications. Another grey area with online essays is content plagiarism. Many b-schools abroad have also had to contend with the issue of plagiarism in online essays. However, Great Lakes did not explicitly state this as the reason for the shift in policy.