My interview was very friendly and conversational but, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that many of the seemingly unrelated questions centered around one particular doubt the adcom had about my candidacy.
The interviewer first asked me about the details of my work. In my essays, I tried to leave out most of the technical details of my small business for fear of boring the reader to tears. So when I was asked “So what does your company actually do?”, I was a little surprised that they were interested. After answering, I was asked what the steps and thought processes were that led me to start my own company.
I was then asked to talk about a time that I had to accept a solution that I did not agree with. Shortly after, I was asked to describe a time that I had a difficult interaction with a coworker and how I resolved it. Much of the interview involved follow up questions probing for details. The interviewer concluded by revealing that the adcom was a little concerned I was a loner. I think, in my case, most of the questions were designed to find out if I really enjoyed working with people and had the interpersonal skills and disposition to succeed at Sloan.
Though I had several stories prepared, most of the questions caught me a bit off guard. Still, it’s probably a good idea to have some story ideas ready to go. I didn’t get any questions about why MIT, why now, etc., though I was asked if I visited campus and if I knew or had contact with any current students. I get the impression that demonstrating commitment to the school is VERY important at MIT.
