Innovative Contest Draws Talented Students

The effort to identify outstanding business school candidates took an innovative turn last fall, when the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration launched an online business simulation competition.

The competition whittled down 260 participants from around the world as they demonstrated their business savvy in three rounds of increasingly complex challenges designed to mimic “real world” business decisions. The skills they displayed were considered, along with the standard admission criteria, to determine acceptance to the M.B.A. program.

In the end, the judges were so impressed they awarded two full scholarships and seven partial scholarships. The first-prize winners were Samuel (Shen) Chow of Singapore and Vadim Yazvinski, a native of Belarus.

“We hope to get a little viral marketing going so that people spread the word that the Simon School is an innovative place worth taking a look at,” Dean Mark Zupan told the Wall Street Journal in an article about the unique contest.