When I was in grad school for CS, I recall talking to the dean of the department who said that his preferred approach for recruiting CS students would be to hav

When I was in grad school for CS, I recall talking to the dean of the department who said that his preferred approach for recruiting CS students would be to have them write a five page essay on any topic of their choice. Anyone who could write a coherent essay would probably make a good researcher. Unfortunately, he was never able to put this into practice - the university administration only considered grades and GRE scores.