The following Duke / Fuqua MBA interview questions and report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant who interviewed on-campus during Women’s weekend. Good luck to them!
I interviewed on campus with a student. I didn’t know who the interviewer would be until the interview. It was a blind interview with a tremendous focus on teamwork.
Interview Questions:
- Highlight a couple of things from your resume and explain why are you here. (This question threw me off as I was expecting to do a typical walkthrough)
- What Team Fuqua means to you?
- Why Fuqua?
- How Fuqua fits with your goals?
- How do you intend to grow as a leader at Fuqua?
- What 3 things are important for successful teamwork? Why? How do you ensure these attributes in your team?
- How did you use your communication skills to ensure team success? (Or maybe to resolve failure, i don’t remember exact wording but I told a story about a colleague not contributing to the project)
- Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of
- What do you do when someone is not pulling their weight on a team?
- How do you respond to feedback?
- How do you give feedback to others?
- How do you request feedback?
- Do you request feedback from your subordinates? Do you do that formally?
- How do you lead team?
- How will you contribute to Fuqua?
- What do you do outside of work?
- Is there anything else you would like to share?
- Any questions?
Conclusion:
The interview was friendly and conversational, however I was shocked by the amount of similar questions. She grilled me with teamwork, feedback, and school-specific questions so much that I was running short of stories to tell. I actually had to go back to the same story and offer a different angle or more detail a couple of times. I am still not sure if I she was digging for specific, unsatisfied with my answers, or simply curious. She took a ton of notes, literally two full letter-size pages. Interview lasted about 45 minutes.
Advice:
My advise to anyone interviewing at Fuqua: prepare at least 5 teamwork stories and make sure you know a lot about the school, including the correct pronunciation. They seem to be very sensitive about it…
Clear Admit Resources
Preparing for your Duke / Fuqua admissions interview? Check out Clear Admit’s other resources:
- Clear Admit Duke / Fuqua Interview Guide: Strategic tips for approaching Fuqua’s interview questions, and more.
- Interview Archive: More firsthand accounts from Duke Fuqua MBA applicants themselves
- Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview: Blind Interviews vs. Non-blind Interviews
- Podcast Episode 23: 5 Most Common MBA Interview Questions You Need to Ace
