The following Duke / Fuqua interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them!
My interview was with a 2nd year student on 13th Nov’15 at 9am EST on Skype. It was a blind interview and he mentioned that he had only my résumé and nothing else. He started by asking me the local time at my place (which was 7:30pm) and then he noticed that I was in the office. So he said that he would try to make it quick so that I can go home! He started informally with “How was your day?” but moved on pretty quickly to formal and traditional interview questions. In fact, he mentioned that he had a guideline paper with him which had a list of questions and he would ask some of the questions from the list in random order.
Following is the set of formal questions that he asked me. In some questions, I have included some comments or context etc in bracket:
1) Walk me through your résumé.
2) Tell me about a time you functioned as a leader and achieved something great. What made the achievement great and what made it possible?
3) Describe a situation where you, as a leader, faced a conflict in a team. How did you manage the conflict and what did you learn?
4) What is the best piece of constructive feedback that you have received and how are you working on it?
5) Describe another situation where you applied the learning from the above feedback.
6) Describe a teamwork experience where you failed at something. What did you learn from the failure?
7) Tell me about a time you contributed significantly to a team as a member and how it affected the outcome?
8) Why do you want to get an MBA?
(The response to this question also included a bit of chit-chat on the goals)
9) Why Fuqua?
10) How has your past experiences or qualities prepared you for Fuqua?
11) You are one of a large pool of applicants. What differentiates you?
12) What is your biggest weakness? How are you working on it and how will Fuqua help you overcome it?
(He added on to my points about ‘how Fuqua will help me’ in a great detail)
13) How do you plan to further improve your leadership qualities at Fuqua?
14) What are the other activities you are planning to pursue at Fuqua?
15) Do you have any questions for me?
(We had detailed discussions on all three of my questions, had some light moments as well!)
Although the questions he asked were from a list, still the interview was very conversational. He kept on giving feedback / appreciation at my points and also added on points from his perspective. At the end of the interview, he gave a clearly positive feedback stating that I had done very well in both contents as well as English. Then he also went on to say that he was looking forward to meet me in person. So, that was a clear indication.
Apart from unusually high number of behavioral questions, what surprised me was when I had described the constructive feedback with the situation and how I took care of it, he asked me about another situation where I applied the same learning. But, I quickly remembered another situation where I had applied the same learning and described the complete situation as it had actually happened.
Overall, the interview was super-friendly and nice. Although Fuqua was always at the top in my list, at the end of the interview, I was even more sure about Fuqua being my first choice. He made me feel like a part of the family already.
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