The following UPenn / Wharton interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them!
Overall great experience. On interview day you have the option to attend a lunch with current students, attend a class of your choosing, and depending on the day you interview, attend a happy hour with current students. I opted for all of them and highly recommend others do the same.
For the interview, all the students interviewing in the same time slot waited in the lobby area giving everyone the opportunity to chat, *learn each others names*, and just relax a bit. Definitely make sure to arrive 10-20 minutes early. I have to say, I have been very positively surprised at how personable and friendly all the prospective and current students were, which made the process even better.
For the team based discussion, everyone introduces themselves briefly (20-30 seconds) including the second year students, then the current students outline the instructions for the discussion and then began the timer.
I would say it was fairly easy to figure out who did well and who did not in my group of six. Three of the six were very shy and barely spoke after giving their one minute pitch. Don’t let that happen to you! If you are shy, practice with as many people as you can before interview day. If you were granted an interview it was because the school was very interested in you, have confidence, practice your heart out with other people, and don’t let your nerves ruin your interview. That being said, there was also one person in the group that seemed overly controlling and would not give up on their idea for the prompt. Don’t be that person either. Have a great idea, think it through, but also realize that there is a high likelihood your idea will be scrapped anyway. Be ready to be flexible. The person in my group who I felt did the best had an interesting inclusive idea, spoke up frequently but also frequently asked everyone else for feedback and opinions, and most importantly, came off as a nice person. The interview went by in the blink of an eye, so enjoy it and relax.
The one on one interview lasted 10 minutes but it felt like 2. The second year student was extremely friendly and made the interview feel like a normal conversation. It’s a toss up on what you might be asked in the one on one, but you should definitely be prepared to answer: why Wharton, why now, what are your career goals, what would you contribute, and how do you think the team based discussion went.
Leaving the interviews everyone I saw was all smiles, it really is the best interviewing format I have experienced at any school. My final thoughts are, practice as much as you can to build your confidence and on the day of just relax. Being too quiet is deadly because it leaves the interviewers with nothing to grade you on. Enjoy the process and good luck!
Preparing for an upcoming interview at Wharton? Click here to get the Clear Admit Wharton Interview Guide.
After your interview, be sure to add your first-hand interview report to the Clear Admit Interview Archive.
