What’s Wharton really after with the TBD? “You want to show the Admissions Committee that you work well in a team environment, can adapt and show a keen sense of understanding not only the problem at hand, but the dynamics of the group as the discussion unfolds. Oftentimes the most important skill you will need is the ability to listen, before contribution,” Brown says.
“The other interesting aspect to this type of interview is that it is really hard to prepare,” he notes. “You are either good in these situations or you are not.”
Prepping the specific scenario is obviously important, but this does not help you much in terms of how to contribute as part of a group situation made up of similarly motivated peers who all want the same outcome, he says. “Your own self awareness and understanding of how you handle team discussions will be important as you do prepare,” Brown advises.
Even with the implementation of the TBD—which, incidentally, is required for admission—Wharton still gives applicants an opportunity for a short one-on-one conversation with an admissions team member immediately following the TBD. “This is a great chance to share your story, goals, career plan and passion for the school,” Brown says. “Treat this portion of the interview as you would treat any of your blind interviews.” he offers.
If you are prepping for your Wharton TBD, don’t miss: Former Wharton Admissions Staffers Weigh in on How to Prepare for New Wharton TBD Prompt
Ross Rolls Out Its Own Group Interview
Other schools, of course, were paying attention to Wharton’s debut of the TBD, and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has since followed suit, launching its own version of a team-based exercise in 2013.
“The group interview is designed to give us insight into your team work, interpersonal and communication skills,” Ross Director of Admissions Soojin Kwon said in a video blog. “We will be observing the group’s discussion and the communications within the group.” That said, group interview is a bit of a misnomer, she adds, since Ross will be evaluating participants as individuals, not as a group, and since no questions will be asked.
The exercise lasts for 30 minutes, with the first 10 devoted to introductions and an icebreaker. Each participant will be given two random words to weave into a 60-second story to share with the group, Kwon says. Applicant reports from past years have indicated that one of the words has been a place and the other a thing (e.g. fire station and cheese or grocery store and tree). During the remaining 20 minutes, the members of the group will work together to connect their word pairs into a business challenge and solution they then present to the group’s observers, second-year Ross MBAs who have been trained for the job.
Is Ross looking for you to be aggressive and a leader or a team player as part of the exercise? “Good teams are made up of diverse people with a wide range of skills and backgrounds—we don’t have a singular definition of what it means to be a successful team member,” Kwon offers in response. “We are going be looking at how people interact with each other on the team and how they interact with people who have different styles from them.”
