First the GMAT. Now This.

^{Isn't this how we got here in the first place? Photograph by Jeff Jacobson/Redux}

One of the nation's top business schools wants to ensure that the art of boring businesspeople at meetings never dies.

The University of Chicago, which has the fifth-ranked M.B.A. program in the country, is requiring prospective students to submit a PowerPoint-style presentation with their applications starting this fall.

The purpose isn't to outline brilliant business plans, but to let applicants tell the admissions board all about themselves. The admissions board hopes this will allow applicants to show off their creativity.

The presentation can be no more than 4 slides and is limited to text and static images. Other slide presentation programs besides PowerPoint can also be used.

"We wanted to have a freeform space for students to be able to say what they think is important, not always having the school run that dialogue," Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions, told the Associated Press. "To me this is just four pieces of blank paper. You do what you want. It can be a presentation. It can be poetry. It can be anything."

Frankly, it sounds like the Chicago admissions board is trying to make its own job a little more entertaining. How many times can anyone read about how an applicant worked deep into the night to finish that fairness committee presentation?

Still, the PowerPoint requirement seems fitting for a place where the unofficial motto is: "Where fun comes to die."

by Zubin Jelveh