The following Northwestern / Kellogg interview questions and report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Good luck to them!
My alumni interviewer and I met at his office during the workday and he started off by saying that his input wouldn’t get me accepted or get me rejected, but he saw the interview as an opportunity for me to share any information that I thought might be missing in my essays, résumé, and the rest of my application and that he could pass along to the admissions committee. He was a pretty friendly guy and the atmosphere was comfortable.
I was pretty familiar with his company and he was familiar with some of my past companies, including some of my former bosses’ bosses. That made the interview more natural and conversational.
We spent a lot of time talking about things on my résumé, including past positions he had some familiarity with and more time spent on my current venture. That was the bulk of our conversations and included a number of follow-up questions, but none particularly probing. It sort of started with “tell me more about you,” but since he had some context for past positions we launched pretty quick into specific questions he was interested in. Beyond questions specific to me, he asked questions about whether I liked certain roles or missed them.
Other questions included:
- Why Kellogg?
- Why an MBA? which led to me sharing more about my career goals
- I have a role that some people with MBAs might want to get into, so he was curious about the desired transition. Wasn’t intensely probing, but he spent some time following-up about my goals and reason for an MBA in a curious way.
- Asked a specific volunteering experience
- What questions do you have for me?
There were a ton more specific questions to my résumé, but those were the main ones that likely others would see. He didn’t seem to really be following a set of questions besides the obvious why Kellogg and why MBA. I really liked that in my questions to him he confirmed a lot of things that appeal to me about Kellogg such as its collaborative and friendly environment, plus it is a very student-driven experience.
The only “downside” was that since it was more conversational my Why Kellogg got split up between questions. Think it could have been slightly more compelling if I had hit on a few more points, but not a major issue. This did seem to be what he took the most notes on, but his notes on my résumé were minimal. I had brought copies of my résumé and offered them, which he appreciated but sounds like he was planning to print it anyways.
I’d say overall an enjoyable and positive interview experience with my alumni match. The experience and info he shared matched my expectations about Kellogg and what I know from friends there.
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