I had my interview on campus with a current student on Feb 14, 2020. It was one of the “Discover McCombs” day and there were about 50 prospective students. I arrived 15 minutes before my interview at the admissions office.
My interviewer arrived with only my resume, and after exchanging greetings, I was escorted to a “group study” room down the hall. He gave me some background about himself and explained straight away that it was a blind interview, that he had a set list of questions, and that he’d be making notes throughout the interview.
Here are most of the questions I was asked:
- Tell me about yourself (I walked through my resume, explained career choices, and stated short-term goal).
- What are your short- and long-term goals? (I stated goals and explained motivation for them)
- Why MBA? Why McCombs? (This involved clarifying multiple smaller questions and ended up being more of a conversation for about 10 minutes)
- How do you intend to contribute to your class?
- What clubs and initiatives are you most interested in?
- Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person.
- Tell me about a time when you had to teach someone.
- What constructive criticism have you received?
- What did you learn from the application process?
- What was your strongest and weakest part of the application?
- Which other schools did you apply to and why is McCombs the best choice? (This one caught me off-guard; I went for honest truth and explained the criteria I used to narrow down schools and why McCombs is towards the top of the list.)
- Is there anything you’d like to tell the admissions committee?
- Do you have any questions for me?
Although it felt like a lot of questions, the interview only lasted about 30 minutes. We spent another 10 minutes conversing about clubs, student culture, practicalities around living in Austin, etc.
Overall, it was a very friendly, conversational experience, no different than interviews I’ve experienced at other schools. The day overall was fun as well, interacting with current students and other prospective students. If you are planning on choosing an on-campus interview, I advise going on the “Discover McCombs” days.
