Columbia Essay 2: practice taught you more than theory. 大家能聊聊思路么

ray_anne

有ideas, 可是觉得不能突出从中学到了什么。我作销售管理，有sales planning, 有dealer management, 有process design, 按理应该有很多实践>理论的例子，可是就stuck在这里了，大家帮忙把我一锤子敲醒吧~

kaikai23

What is the theory? Why it should be applied to a specific case? Becasue the writer did good analysis and homework, and took initiatives----the case falls into the bracket for the theory.
Then, move on to articulate how you applied the theory...Theory is like the skeleton, while soft skils are meat part. You leveraged resources, communicated, worked in a team environment, and polished leadership.
That's how you put theory into practice, and understood that one needs to pay attention to the soft-side as well. Then mention a bit how the program itself could add value to your soft-skills...

knightwhite

看了yifan的分享，我也分享一下我的这篇essay的思路吧。文章题目是practical experience taught you more than theory alone，既然强调了ALONE，我觉得adcom还是要看申请者有没有理论实践相联系的能力。

我的文章基本结构是：
1。因为理论知识，成功的解决了一个现实难题。
2。理论非常好，但是通过实践发现了一个未知领域。
3。大力描述如何在这个未知领域探索，学会了新的知识，了解了新的现实，并提炼了自己的新的理论 - 经验和知，并在以后继续将自己的新的理论付诸于实际操作。
4。总结：理论是必须的，但是实践更可贵，因为实践提供了无限的机会。然后再次强调master class和自己从master class中受益的决心。

看了大家的yifan和jason的分享，觉得受益也很多。其实同样一篇文章，真的有很多角度。就像jason说的那样，从自己感觉最深刻的角度来写，可能essay会更容易打动别人。

cannedpineapple

"实践胜于理论" 也是一种理论/做事的方式。

所谓的"理论"指的是一种思想；所谓的实践就是见机行事。如果每次都是见机行事，那就是一种新的理论思想了，表示在任何一个场合都不相信营销理论是可用的。

ray_anne

Without practice, you will never know which theory is appropriate. Without theory, you will not be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and practice will be wasteful and never-ending.

The two sentences above, of course, are also a theory of how to approach theory and practice.

这句话真的很BH~不过我喜欢你写的例子：-）

我是sales function，focus就是how to sell more and better, 是一个typical实践胜于理论的岗位。所以在文章的结尾我会写在经历了这么多年 practical experience后，渴望去一个能把practice和theory完美结合的MBA program

对有丰富工作经验的人来说，大可以自信的展示。这篇论文恐怕对一些刚出学校又要进入MBA学习的人来说要好好动动脑子。

minivicki

读了正－反－合这个concept，感觉头好晕啊。。。而且

topmba2009

Absolutely right, which is why a good essay will balance telling what you did (the practice) and why you did it (the theory).

And also absolutely right, which is why not everyone gets an interview or gets into CBS. It's so much easier to say, 'his GMAT of 770 is better than mine, which is 700', but not so easy to say, 'his essays were better than mine'. In my opinion the essays are so much more important, and so much harder to get right, and I'm not sure how many people on CD realise this. Even Yifan, who got an interview, has a different view from myself, who has never applied. Most people turn to alumni (for instance Yifan, in three years) for help with essays, and they tell you how they would have written an essay. So everyone follows Yifan's framework, which is very good too, and easier to understand to boot, and I become the only one using this 正-反-合 framework. Maybe because of that I get in, and not everyone else. Again, following the past successes of everyone else, is exactly what ensures that you end up failing to get in.

But really, after a while it becomes so ridiculously complicated trying to follow what others do, or what you think others will do, or what you think others will think you will do... and so on. Again, it's a complex world. I tend to prefer to write an essay based on my own views. So 正-反-合 it is.

-- by 会员 jelt2359 (2009/12/7 4:51:50)

I really started to see how your mind works! Maybe that is why your got into the Lauder program....

Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis.  

cannedpineapple

Absolutely right, which is why a good essay will balance telling what you did (the practice) and why you did it (the theory).

And also absolutely right, which is why not everyone gets an interview or gets into CBS. It's so much easier to say, 'his GMAT of 770 is better than mine, which is 700', but not so easy to say, 'his essays were better than mine'. In my opinion the essays are so much more important, and so much harder to get right, and I'm not sure how many people on CD realise this. Even Yifan, who got an interview, has a different view from myself, who has never applied. Most people turn to alumni (for instance Yifan, in three years) for help with essays, and they tell you how they would have written an essay. So everyone follows Yifan's framework, which is very good too, and easier to understand to boot, and I become the only one using this 正-反-合 framework. Maybe because of that I get in, and not everyone else. Again, following the past successes of everyone else, is exactly what ensures that you end up failing to get in.

But really, after a while it becomes so ridiculously complicated trying to follow what others do, or what you think others will do, or what you think others will think you will do... and so on. Again, it's a complex world. I tend to prefer to write an essay based on my own views. So 正-反-合 it is.

topmba2009

Without practice, you will never know which theory is appropriate. Without theory, you will not be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and practice will be wasteful and never-ending.

The two sentences above, of course, are also a theory of how to approach theory and practice. So if you apply what I've just said to the statements themselves, you end up needing to 'practice' the theory of the statements, as well as theorising on how to 'practice' the statements.

It's complex, but that's the whole point: it's a very complicated world. There's never one "right" answer. How have you tried to find your own answer, or perhaps more accurately, do you know how your answer has found you? Do you know how that answer has changed over time as it is shaped according to the environment (as a previous poster has noted), but also, (and people often forget this) according to your own biases and experiences?

How our answers are shaped by our own biases and experiences:

For instance, why are there so many disagreements in the world? Israel and Palestine continues their long, long battle. Do they in fact understand how each of their own views are shaped by not just what is truly happening in the world, but how their biases and experiences are causing them to each view the same exact event in different ways? Closer to China, there is the Tibet issue, Xinjiang issue, Taiwan issue. Why do smart, respected, influential and reasonable Chinese people get angry and disagree with equally smart, respected, influential and reasonable Americans and French people over these issues? The temptation is always to blame it on the environment- (they don't see this.. they don't see that...) rather than examining one's own biases (and this is true for everyone, for basically all issues) and acknowledging that there might be a different (also correct) way of looking at things, because different people have different assumptions and experiences to inform your decisions.

That is why none of these issues seem to have 'right' answers. Or, put another way, depending on who you ask, everyone has a different 'right' answer, and seldom do people say, 'but I think they are right too' (because this means admitting that you are wrong). When we talk about needing to adapt both theory and practice at all times, it is easy to apply that to the current situation, but not easy to apply it to yourself. And that kind of humility, of willingness to admit mistakes, and of keenness to accept the diverse opinions of ours, might be one of the most valuable skills that you can train.

Finally, this is all very abstract, so I will illustrate with Yifan's example. First I had considered what's wrong with the old approach to come up with a new idea. But after I had come up with my new idea, I would have immediately turned around and asked.. what's wrong with this? Why might everyone else think something else, and why might they be right and myself wrong? Only when I later convince myself that they are right and I am wrong, and that I should follow their idea, will I then take a step back and now, with both their and my ideas in my head, and understanding why both may be right and why both may be wrong, then make a decision that integrates the viewpoints of everyone, and also makes it easier for me to 'sell' this new integrative idea to my team.

-- by 会员 jelt2359 (2009/12/7 3:32:19)

谢谢分享！
你说的是“正-反-合”的模式, 是比较robust的framework。但考虑到文章只有500字，恐怕详述一个正反合的例子不是那么容易。

cannedpineapple

Without practice, you will never know which theory is appropriate. Without theory, you will not be able to learn from the mistakes and successes of others, and practice will be wasteful and never-ending.

The two sentences above, of course, are also a theory of how to approach theory and practice. So if you apply what I've just said to the statements themselves, you end up needing to 'practice' the theory of the statements, as well as theorising on how to 'practice' the statements.

It's complex, but that's the whole point: it's a very complicated world. There's never one "right" answer. How have you tried to find your own answer, or perhaps more accurately, do you know how your answer has found you? Do you know how that answer has changed over time as it is shaped according to the environment (as a previous poster has noted), but also, (and people often forget this) according to your own biases and experiences?

How our answers are shaped by our own biases and experiences:

For instance, why are there so many disagreements in the world? Israel and Palestine continues their long, long battle. Do they in fact understand how each of their own views are shaped by not just what is truly happening in the world, but how their biases and experiences are causing them to each view the same exact event in different ways? Closer to China, there is the Tibet issue, Xinjiang issue, Taiwan issue. Why do smart, respected, influential and reasonable Chinese people get angry and disagree with equally smart, respected, influential and reasonable Americans and French people over these issues? The temptation is always to blame it on the environment- (they don't see this.. they don't see that...) rather than examining one's own biases (and this is true for everyone, for basically all issues) and acknowledging that there might be a different (also correct) way of looking at things, because different people have different assumptions and experiences to inform your decisions.

That is why none of these issues seem to have 'right' answers. Or, put another way, depending on who you ask, everyone has a different 'right' answer, and seldom do people say, 'but I think they are right too' (because this means admitting that you are wrong). When we talk about needing to adapt both theory and practice at all times, it is easy to apply that to the current situation, but not easy to apply it to yourself. And that kind of humility, of willingness to admit mistakes, and of keenness to accept the diverse opinions of ours, might be one of the most valuable skills that you can train.

Finally, this is all very abstract, so I will illustrate with Yifan's example. First I had considered what's wrong with the old approach to come up with a new idea. But after I had come up with my new idea, I would have immediately turned around and asked.. what's wrong with this? Why might everyone else think something else, and why might they be right and myself wrong? Only when I later convince myself that they are right and I am wrong, and that I should follow their idea, will I then take a step back and now, with both their and my ideas in my head, and understanding why both may be right and why both may be wrong, then make a decision that integrates the viewpoints of everyone, and also makes it easier for me to 'sell' this new integrative idea to my team.