The following NYU / Stern MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them!
Prior to the interview I was told that Stern’s interview style was very much a two-way street between interviewer and interviewee. In other words it was very conversational.
Luckily I still did my homework as this was not at all my experience. Although the admissions counselor was gracious and polite her questions were formal and pointed and were certainly not conversational.
Some questions I was asked:
What is a typical workday right now at my job?
If I had 6 months after school to affect change at my current job what would I do and why?
Why did I want to go back to school now?
Why Stern?
What do I think makes a leader/ how am I a leader?
What would I say my biggest failure to date was?
When was a time that I saw an inefficiency at work and resolved it?
What would I say my greatest accomplishment to date was?
What would I like my summer internship to be?
If I got that internship, what three things would I bring to the company that would make me stand out?
Where would I most like to travel/ study and why?
My interviewer clearly knew a lot about me before we sat down. She did not take any notes so it appeared that she was looking more at the big picture. I think it is very important to have done your homework regarding the school- know the faculty you are interested in working with, etc. I also think that she was impressed with my answer for summer internship choice as I was able to cite things about the corporations that would currently make internship experience there useful. This clearly showed that I did my homework and also demonstrated that I had a pulse on what is going on in the business world these days. I would highly recommend having a fine-tuned answer for this.
All in all it was a pleasant experience. I left it not totally convinced one way or another. Good news was I did indeed receive an admissions letter 5 business days after!
