I’m an in-town candidate and literally just found out that I got an interview earlier this week. So I scheduled an interview for Friday (I’m in consulting and was out of town) along with a school visit (in-town candidates have to interview on campus). After the info session from 10:30 – 11:30, I had to skip the guided tour for my interview at 12:00. When you check-in, you must provide a printed copy of your resume. I interviewed with a second year Admissions Fellow. While waiting for the interview there were some first year students that they had in place to talk to waiting candidates and it was nice to have something to do other than wait nervously. At the appointed time my interviewer showed up and led me to a small room where the interview was held. He introduced himself and told me the interview would take about 20(!) minutes. We launched into the following questions:
- Why MBA? (mentioned Why Booth and long-term goals in part as well during this; probably headed these questions off)
- Expand on long-term goals
- Why now?
- Walk me through your resume
- Tell me about a time you were a leader
- What would you contribute to Booth? (I mentioned the activities I wanted to participate in, as well)
- What do you do for fun?
- What’s your backup plan if you don’t get into an MBA program?
The questions went by incredibly quickly, I believe we used about 30 minutes going through them, but I felt there was little opportunity to expand, so you really have to come in with packaged answers and try to work in other topics as you answer questions. (This is “as compared” to an off-campus interview I’ve done for another top 5 school.) On the plus side, there was nothing challenging or unexpected and no opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot. I had only about five minutes or so to ask questions, so I tried to make them count, but with the info session earlier in the day, and a lunch with students and class visit right after, I didn’t mind that this portion was comparatively brief.
