I had both my Wharton and Lauder interviews today on campus. First, I attended a Lauder class and met a few other Lauder students in my desired track, which was great. The Lauder interview was with a 2nd-year student in the same track and with some common background elements. The interview was relaxed and unstructured, but we did touch on the following questions:
- Resume walkthrough
- Specific follow-up questions about my work experience
- Why Wharton? Why Lauder? Why Wharton + Lauder and not just Wharton?
- Post-MBA goals? Long term goals?
- Specific follow-up questions about my goals
- Questions on a related subject that we happened to discuss
- Questions for interviewer
Total time: 60 mins (we went over by 15 mins)
My Wharton interview was a half hour later. This was a bit more structured, though also quite relaxed. This time it was with a 2nd-year Wharton student, also with some common background elements. Makes me think that Wharton really tries to match you up with an interviewer that shares a few things in common, which is great, because you have something to talk about right off the bat, and it really puts you at ease. I also noticed that the interviewer had three sheets of paper, each with a number of questions, and picked one from each page:
- Describe a time when you had to deal with an interpersonal conflict in your team
- Describe a time when you had to work with cross-functional teams
- Describe a time when you participated in a negotiation
- Questions for interviewer
Before we got into the behaviour questions, we also walked through my resume briefly. We did not touch on why MBA or why Wharton, but I tried to weave that into my answers a bit. Total time: 50 mins (we went over by 20 mins)
Overall, I felt both interviews went well, though I might have stumbled a bit with one of the Lauder questions. One last thing: I cannot stress enough the importance of school visits. It really helped with my interview this time around.
Misc dates:
- Applied 2012/01/03
- Interview invite 2012/02/09
- Interviewed 2012/02/20
