Selection

Although one should target to admit a variety of students for a whole university, there is usually a particular type of applicant being accepted when a small department is recruiting new resident - and this very choice governs what type of department it becomes.

For this, KL and I have an eternal disagreement: If two candidates are equal in the overall assessment, should we take the one more knowledgeable, or the other who is more presentable ?

Those who know the personality of KL and me would easily predict the difference in our answer. My standard argument is: Presentation skill could be trained in a latter day, but there is much basic knowledge which could not be picked up again once you passed the stage.

PS. My logic is based on the recruitment system of government officials in the Tang dynasty – again worked out by Fang Xuanling. Of course I may well be wrong; there are many people who make no improvement in their presentation after years in the field.