I was emailed with the interview invitation and matched with someone based on location. I matched with an alum from the Class of 2020. It was meant to be a blind interview, meaning that it was resume-based and he had not seen my application. I set up the meeting on Zoom once we locked down a time to meet. We originally planned for 45 minutes, but the interview ended lasting a hour and 20 minutes.
The questions he asked were generally:
– Tell me about yourself.
– Walk me through your resume in 1 minute.
– Why MBA? Why now?
– Why CBS?
– What’s your plan B?
– What was your experience with the GMAT? What score did you get?
– What other schools are you applying to and why?
– What are your long-term and short-term goals? He wanted me to lay out in detail my long-term plan of what would be my competitive advantage.
– What’s a time you failed?
– Is there anything else you’d like me to share with the admissions team?
I wrapped up my interview today, and I will likely hear a decision back within the next two weeks. Overall, I really enjoyed the interview as it felt more like a conversation with someone who was genuinely trying to know more about you. From what I’ve seen, my interviewer tended to ask more follow-up questions than other interviews which resulted in our interview going longer than anticipated.
What was surprising was the level of detail he wanted to dive into when following up on questions. With other program interviews, they stayed pretty high-level rather than diving into the weeds. I also didn’t expect him to dive into so much detail when I asked him questions about his experience. He was genuinely trying to paint a clear picture of the program and wanted to share advice with me. I was not surprised at the caliber of questions, thought, and executive presence that he carried as that’s something I expect from a CBS graduate.
A piece of advice I would have for interviewees is to practice being thrown curveballs or being asked for details that are difficult to recall. Being able to answer questions succinctly under-pressure is a great skill to start honing down on. Additionally, make sure you have a very clear story of who you are holistically alongside why an MBA is a next step along your journey. Being able to present these pieces together in a concise way makes it easy for the interviewer to understand who you are without trying to piece it together themselves.
