Top-level: It was a relatively low-stress typical interview with fewer ‘situational/behavioral’ and ‘how-would-you-contribute’ questions than other schools.
Tips for applicants:
Don’t forget your driver’s license.
Make sure to ask the interviewer to repeat their name and email very clearly so that you can write it down and thank them after the interview since Skype closes pretty quickly.
Only name-drop a current student or recent alum with whom you truly had a memorable conversation because the ad-com or second-year student interviewer will likely know them better than you.
Because of an earlier issue with my transcript, my invite and interview were subsequently delayed to December 9th. There were very few sign up spots available. My interviewer was blinded until I met the current second-year over Skype. Unlike other business schools, Cornell wants to confirm your identity and will ask for your license, which I had left in another room by mistake, but this turned out to be okay. My interviewer commented on having access to my resume. As it was the evening, my interviewer appeared tired, was in a poorly lit room, and needed to get up to charge his laptop.
There was clearly some sort of pre-set question list. Questions included:
- Why Johnson?
- Why MBA?
- Do you work in teams?
- A follow up question to my why MBA answer was, How did you get access to the opportunities to shadow/apprentice/take on extra work?
Because Johnson is a smaller program, my interviewer knew all of the current 2nd-year students who I mentioned I had spoken too, even pointing out to me that they were abnormally warm and helpful people.
There was some time to learn about my interviewer’s background, why they chose Johnson, their recruiting experience, and what they liked and did not like about the program.
Compared to other school interviews, I felt like it was more difficult to highlight my knowledge/research of the school and tell STAR/CAR stories because of the confined often yes/no nature of the questions.
