The admissions officer met me in the lobby and brought me to a small conference room, where I was introduced to a sector consultant. Since I saw a number of the professors who teach in the program walking around, I’m not sure if it is a good or bad sign that a sector consultant interviews. Supposedly, Oxford invites around 40% of candidates to interview. The invitation email says the interview will last 30 min, the interviewer told me it would be 45 min, and it lasted about an hour with only a few minutes for me to ask questions.
Two admissions persons told me it would be relaxed in nature. It was very aggressive. Not a single smile, until the admissions officer came back into the room to escort me out.
The questions were what skills would you like to develop in this program? Why did you score as you did on your GMAT? Describe a conflict at work and what you did to resolve it? What are the geopolitical implications of tracking, specifically Saudi Arabian and US relations? (Quite politically fueled if you ask me) What are your plans after the program?
There were no business related questions. There were no questions on accomplishments. It was really just geared at underlining the negatives. imperfections and without exaggeration, putting me on the defense. There was no dialogue or conversation.
What I would conclude from the interview was that it was a very male oriented university, looking for rather the old school type of student, rather than authentic individuals. Even if you listen to the lectures, the perspectives used by the professors highlight male consumer behavior as the paradigm. The interviewer was very uncomfortable when I started mentioning the differences between men and women using technology. Further, he even snapped at me once and lost his temper.
Its a great program, has fantastic professors, and I’m sure attracts an amazing cadre of students. I think I just had bad luck, when it came to who interviewed me.
My advise, prepare to be picked apart and don’t believe the “laid back conversation”, because there was no dialogue.
