this explains so much.

I kind of understand how and why Duct Tape offers scholarships for the best prom formals made from Duct Tape. A) it's great publicity, B) it displays creativity and ingenuity, and C) I'd bet the individuals that design and make their own clothes from Duct Tape would make great engineers and/or troubleshooters.

What I don't understand is this: exactly what does Twitter display about being college material? How can tweeting demonstrate any abilities that would be an asset to a college student? The essays that were required for scholarships from everything like an MBA program to the KFC and Amazon cash prize scholarships displayed an ability to write (even if it was formulaic and "unoriginal," as the MBA program in the article claimed), and an ability to do unpleasant things to get a chance at a reward.

The MBA program hopes that using technology might bring life back into an application process that got "boring." Hate to tell you, sweetie, but "boring" is part of life, and to try to teach kids otherwise is what helped to create the Occupy movement.

Oh, wait: most of my colleagues are spoiled brat Occupy types that got lucky enough for their degree in women's studies, African-American post-Colonial literature studies, and Harry Potter studies (I only wish I was kidding on that last one), to actually help them find a job instead of proving them worthless to employers.

If programs want to incorporate media into their application process, they need to look at full-length blogs, or the sum total of someone's Twitter account if they must use Twitter as a yardstick to award a scholarship.

Because, seriously, one of the main sources of whining about the papers I assign isn't "I don't know what to write about" but "Does it have to be that long?" And, with the exception of the research paper (6-8 pages), the papers I assign are usually a minimum of 3 pages. The whining about length of the weekly blogging assignment--three 300 word posts (Comp I) or two 500 word posts (102) per week--is far worse, especially from kids that have gotten used to Myspace, Facebook, and texting. Using a single, 140 character message as a basis to award a scholarship is just going to exacerbate that problem.