The following Cornell Johnson MBA admissions interview questions were provided by an applicant who was recently admitted to Johnson!
I applied to Johnson in round 1 through Consortium and was visiting the school for the Johnson Women in Business weekend. The admissions office reached out to me a couple of weeks before my visit and asked me if I wanted to interview during my visit on campus. The interview took place at the beginning of the JWiB weekend, around 10am in the morning. The atmosphere was very relaxed as lots of other JWiB participants were already there and we all were having breakfast together. I was interviewing with a 2nd year student, whom they tried to match up with me based on my background and career goals. He picked me up from the waiting area and told me that he only had my resume and had not seen the rest of my file.
Questions:
1. Walk me through your resume. This is a standard question that comes up at most interviews. My resume is a bit complicated as I have lived and worked in 4 different countries and have a rather untraditional background, so it took me some time to explain certain things to the interviewer.
2. Why MBA? Why now? Also a common question. I spoke about my experiences and what has led me to consider graduate school.
3. Why Johnson? I spoke about the 3 times I visited the school and the things that stood out to me the most. (Do your research, it helps a lot to have good examples)
4. What are your post-MBA goals? How can Johnson help to achieve those?
5. What will you contribute to Johnson?
6. Tell me about a challenging team experience?
He also left some time for me to ask questions. (be prepared to ask questions relevant to your situation). The interview lasted 35 minutes in total and was very relaxed and conversational.
Admitted in Round 1.
For more Cornell Johnson MBA admissions interview questions, visit the Johnson Interview Reports Archive.
