Process

Goal of the selection process

The goal is to select most valuable students.

Image of the participant

    • Has a general understanding of the IT industry and its trends.
    • Has an advanced level English.
    • Is able to acquire information and learn.
    • Has an entrepreneurial or analytical mindset.
    • Is motivated for the course and for the IT industry in general.

Criteria for valuation

    • Intelligence (in general) and social intelligence
    • Proactivity and vision
    • Current background and potential

Step 1. Online application

Candidates should first fill an online registration form. This form includes following fields:

• Short bio and achievements (< 5 lines)

• Your expectations from the course

• What IT trends do you see? And what are the most interesting for you and why?

• What areas/industries do you consider the most promising for IT introduction?

• Name a success story in IT you like and/or IT person (scientist, engineer, business guy) you admire?

• Social network profile (e.g. Livejournal, Facebook, etc.)

Step 2. Applications selection and interview invitations

Applications are evaluated by two course curators independently. The most questionable entries are discussed later and the final decision is made. After the evaluation and selection of the most interesting applications, their authors are invited for the interview. Interviews are taken during one week, participants are able to choose time that suits them better from the list of the interview days. Participants are notified that each stage of the interview takes about half an hour. So the interview should be completed in 1.5 – 2 hours.

Step 3. Interview

Interview examination includes three steps:

1 . Written task. Includes 5 questions. Each should be answered in English.

2 . Interview with the course curators.

3 . Conversation with another participant. Impression on the candidate should be reported in e-mail not later than in the following two days.

Written task is completed independently in a separate room. Interview with the course curators is taken in a form of a conversation. It is performed both in English and in Russian. Participant is asked both, questions based on his written task and some additional questions.

Final conversation with another participant is taken in a form of free conversation. The following template is prepared and shared among participants to initiate discussion:

1. Common interests, friends.

2. Fields of their interests.

3. Motivation for the course.

4. Would you like to start a project together (during the course or in a real life)?

5. General recommendation (reasons for acceptance for the course).

Step 4. Final selection

At this stage the less formal approach was taken to identify which candidates should be invited to the course. In some cases candidates were requested for their CVs. Curators made decisions regarding particular student taking into account 'Image of the participant' and 'Criteria for valuation' in context of composing an interdisciplinary and diverse group. So the final student profiles mix should allow a certain level of serendipity.

Some details

Few notes about admission campaign in 2010 can be found in the corresponding blog post (in Russian).