Our archive of over 2,000 MBA admissions interview questions includes self-reported accounts from applicants. Please use the dropdown menu to view filter reports by school.
Had an interview recently? Please submit your MBA admissions interview report!
Published: November 25, 2013
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
Overall: • Length: 1 hour (exactly) with 10 mins for questions, around 4 mins to prep for presentation and 2-3 mins to present • Alum was very friendly and easy to talk to • Alum had a list of questions LBS provided and he highlighted the ones he wanted to ask me about (there were probably 4 pages of questions and he asked me about 10-15) Questions: • Tell me about your background • Can you explain what you do in your daily work? • What would your co-workers say is your leadership style?
Read more
Published: November 25, 2013
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Admissions event in Sao Paulo
The interview was held off-campus, in a company building owned by an alumnus, in Sao Paulo / Brazil. It was part of a full day of interviews organized by the department of admissions, and lasted about 50 minutes. My interviewer was an alumnus that graduated more than two years ago. He created a friendly atmosphere and conducted a very conversational interview. He began by providing me with some of his background and experiences. I was asked just a few basic questions, to which he added some comments and personal remarks. The questions asked were as follows: 1. Walk me me
Read more
Had an interview recently?
Want to share your interview experience with other applicants? Fill out this brief form and we’ll post your report to our Interview Archive.
Submit an Interview Report
Published: November 25, 2013
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R1 / Adcom / On-campus
My interviewer told me that the following questions were from a script he was supposed to follow: 1) How did you find and join your current employer? 2) Give an example of a time when you chose to be a team member and not a team leader. What lessons did you learn from that decision? 3) Explain how you deal with different types of people at work. 4) What is a quality that you admire in someone else that you wish you possessed yourself? 5) What do you plan to do after you earn your MBA and what steps have
Read more
Published: November 21, 2013
Published: November 20, 2013
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
Alumnus asked me to meet him at a hotel bar. I was on time but he was 45 mins late. The overall interview was very conversational. He did not take any notes and even declined to have a hard-copy of my resumé. He said he had already taken a look at it, and that would be enough for him. This is how it went – He introduced himself – Resume walkthrough – He talked about his own experience – Why an MBA ? He insisted a lot on this question – I asked about
Read more
Published: November 20, 2013
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year student / Skype
The interview was very casual and straightforward. Since it is very short and the interviewer has quite a lot of required questions to ask, you don’t really get time to do small talk. The student had only access to my résumé, which he looked at to keep track of what I was saying. I appreciated the fact that he was very punctual and cheerful. The questions I got were: Walk me through your résumé (with some additional questions around specific points) Why do you want an MBA and why now? He insisted a lot on the “now”
Read more
Published: November 20, 2013
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year student / On-campus
The interview was held on campus. It was with a second year student and lasted for about 50 minutes. I was surprised by how friendly the interviewer was and this led to a very conversational interview. The interviewer began by providing me with some of his background and experiences. As it turned out, we shared a number of similar interests and the conversation developed from here. I was only asked four standard questions and got the impression the interviewer just wanted to get these out of the way so that we could continue with the conversation. The questions asked were
Read more
Published: November 20, 2013
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Group Interview with Second-Year student / On-Campus
I got there early and waited in the waiting room with the other interviewees for my time slot. There were 18 of us, and one student came out at a time to lead six of us back to the interview room for the team-based discussion. I’m a military person, and in my group we had an aerospace engineer, a business development person for a construction company, two real estate investors, one consultant, and an accountant. The second-year students gave us 30 seconds to introduce ourselves, and then they read off the team-based discussion question (which we’d already been emailed, but
Read more
Published: November 20, 2013
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
The atmosphere as I checked in was very friendly. When I got to the room in the Student Center where they had us meet, the ladies who welcomed me were smiling and affable and gave me a packet of info about the school, visiting, a map, and a note from Dee Leopold. Since I got there so early, I sat down with a few other interviewees and we discussed our backgrounds. Ten minutes before the interview time, an adcom member led us upstairs to another waiting room. Then one by one, an adcom member came out, called our name, and
Read more
Published: November 18, 2013
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The interview was held in a coffee shop in the alumni’s area. It lasted about 60 minutes and was straight and to the point, without much introduction or simple chat in between. I hoped for a casual conversation but was informed beforehand by a friend that this interviewer is a bit tough. The normal questions appeared – Why MBA, why now, why Ross. I wasn’t asked explicitly for my career goals (ST and LT) but inserted on my own through the other answers. When my answers weren’t clear enough, he pressed harder (but the atmosphere was business-like and did not
Read more
Published: November 14, 2013
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
My interview was at the alumni’s office. The interview lasted about an hour and was very much a relaxed conversation more than a formal interview. The questions asked were along these lines: Tell me about your work experience so far Why am I doing an MBA Why did I apply to LBS What do I know about LBS What are my strengths He asked me about group experience and how I work in a team How do I deal with stress Explain a failure I’ve had and what it taught me Presentation Topic
Read more
Published: November 12, 2013
MIT / Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-campus
Here are the questions the MIT Sloan interviewer asked: – Elaboration on how I convinced senior management to adopt the model I wrote about in my application – Elaboration on my leadership role in my extracurricular activity – Describe a time I had to resolve a conflict. How did I do it? How did I feel? – Describe a recent initiative I took – Describe a time an idea was rejected. How did I feel? – Why an MBA? Why now? – Anything I want to add since application submission –
Read more
Published: November 12, 2013
Published: November 11, 2013
Tepper MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-campus
Interview was pretty informal. It was blind, but the adcom had a copy of my resume in front of her. Questions asked: -Walk me through resume -Specific question on one of my positions (position X) -Tell me more about global experiences during Position X -Do you have an example of working in a team/what type of leader question -Why did you move from Company X to Company Y -What did you learn moving from Company X to Company Y -Short term goals? -How are you qualified for short-term goals? -Why Tepper
Read more
Published: November 10, 2013
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus/ Off-campus
My interviewer was in a hurry from the time we started. He started by saying that he was looking for a 15-20 minute interview and it lasted for 20 minutes only. He wanted the answers to not last more than 1 -1.5 minutes. He asked the following questions: 1. Tell me about yourself (he wanted only top line and interrupted when I was getting into details. After that I just gave him a brief idea) 2. Why MBA 3. What do you want to gain from an MBA to get into consulting. 4. Why Ross
Read more
Published: November 10, 2013
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
I felt the interview went well, was a casual, friendly discussion. Alum admitted how Kellogg classes are made up of good people. Asked some of the following: Talk about your professional background / work history, with specific questions about the various experiences. Why you came to this country? (I’m not working in my home country) Why Kellogg (specifically)? Why a MBA, and can’t you do that without Kellogg? What’s your management style?
Read more
Published: November 6, 2013
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 (ED) / Alumnus / Off-campus
As other people have stated, spend some time to choose your interviewer. Also remember a recent graduate is not necessarily going be easier to interview with… senior alumni can make sometimes better interviewers as they have done hundreds of them and it will be just one more for them and are a lot more confident. Interview was exactly as described here by everyone else. We held the interview at his office in a meeting room. It started off as a normal job interview and slowly changed into a conversation. I also felt that he placed a lot of weight on
Read more
Published: November 6, 2013
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Action / Second-year student / Skype
Received interview invite for my early action application as I was not able to visit the campus (I’m international). The interview lasted for 36 minutes, very relaxed conversational interview. We had 20-25 minutes for his questions and the last 10-15 minutes were for my questions for him. Interview questions: 1) Walk me through your resume 2) Why MBA ( I covered long term, prior exp, MBA, short term) 3) Went in more details of Long term and how i am planning to achieve it 4) Why tuck 5) Example of a successful team you have
Read more
Published: November 4, 2013
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Decision / Alumnus / Off-campus
Applied: 9/30, Interview Notification: 10/15, Interview Scheduled: 10/17, Interview On: 10/21, Report Complete: 10/26, Admission Decision: 11/04 (Denied) I want to take the time to write this report even though I got denied admission to Columbia. This site has been very helpful in my preparation for interviews with MBA schools and I want to give back to the community. *The most important step* in your interview process with Columbia is selecting your interviewer. I made the mistake of choosing an alumnus (’06 grad) that was not able to relate to my goals or my background. I chose him because
Read more
Published: November 3, 2013
Duke / Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: EA / Alumnus / Off-campus
I interviewed in his office, which seemed a bit stressful at start but turned out to be fine. The interview lasted an hour, and the interviewer was very friendly and relaxed, and it felt like a conversation with a friend rather than an interview for a business school. He presented himself, the format of the interview and then we started. Questions: 1) Walk me through your resume (with interim questions and clarifications) 2) Why MBA 3) Why in Fuqua and not other schools 4) How will you contribute 5) Tell me about your greatest achievement
Read more
Published: October 30, 2013
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: ED / Alum / Off-campus
Interview went well overall. There were a few questions worded in a new way or ones I didn’t necessarily expect: 1. “I’m wondering if you ever ran into a conflict with a coworker and how you resolved it.” 2. “If you could only pick one thing from your Columbia experience, what would it be and why?” 3. “Describe a day in the life of your Columbia experience” 4. “If you don’t get into the firms you want for your internship or short term goals, what will you do? Ok, if that also doesn’t work out, what about
Read more
Published: October 27, 2013
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: ED / CBS Alumni Interviewer
My interviewer was a 2007 CBS Alum. He was friendly and cordial via email, and very flexible when setting the time and location. Ultimately, we decided on this past Friday, October 25th, at 5:30pm. He thought of a few different places to have the interview and then he asked if we could do it in his home for a quieter setting. Given the location and his vibe thus far, it did end up being as I expected – conversational and less formal. He asked the following questions: – Tell me about yourself/what are your interests and hobbies – What
Read more
Published: October 23, 2013
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: ED / Alumnus / Off-campus
I submitted my application about a week before the Early Decision deadline. I was notified I was selected for an interview about two weeks later, and was able to set up the interview within four days. From the list of available interviewers, it took three tries before someone was able to conduct it. While the instructions for arranging the interview said to give people two business days to respond, everyone got back to me within a few hours and was very gracious. My interviewer graduated in May, so she had a lot of recent experience with CBS. She came up
Read more
Published: October 14, 2013
Duke / Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Action / Alumnus (2009) / Off-campus (Singapore)
Very friendly interviewer. Ended up chatting for nearly 75min. Here were the questions from my interview: 1) Walk me through your resume 2) Why MBA? (He cross-questioned and probed me on this part for a good 15 min) 3) Why Fuqua? (When I mentioned ‘Team-Fuqua’, he asked me to state specific examples on how I would contribute to different teams in Fuqua) 4) Who I’ve spoken to and why I think I get the school’s culture? 5) Asked me to detail a situation when I managed a difficult team-member / employee / stakeholder 6) Asked
Read more
Published: October 14, 2013
Oxford / Saïd MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Faculty / Off campus Hub
I have an international experience so I think my interview was an exception but not sure. It was more of a conversation rather than a Q&A. The interviewer started off talking about my company comparing it with its competitors asking me to comment on whether or not the comparison was right or wrong. Then, we moved to my education. He asked me to comment on education in Pakistan, India Pakistan relations, the current Indian Prime Minister. ( I am from India) In between there were a few standard questions – Why Oxford, Why MBA and why now, If I don’t
Read more
