Interviews
Published: September 26, 2016
HBS R1 Interview Invites Will Begin to Roll Out on October 4th
Harvard Business School (HBS) Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee took to his Direct from the Director’s blog today to share details about upcoming interview invitations for aplicants who applied as part of Round 1. According to Losee, interview invitations will go out in three batches, on October 4th, October 6th and October 12th.
“Try not to read into which date you hear from us—being invited to interview on October 4 vs. October 12 does not mean you are more likely to be accepted,” he stressed. “We spread out interview invitations to avoid congestion on the interview sign-up pages.”
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Published: September 26, 2016
Duke / Fuqua Interview Report: Round 1 / Second-year Student / On-Campus
The following Duke / Fuqua interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Good luck to them! I decided to interview during the open interview period and I’m glad I did. Knowing that I don’t have to wait for an invitation definitely alleviated all of the stress. I showed up on campus at 9am and sat in the admissions waiting area with a bunch of other prospective students and a few first year student ambassadors. I was pleasantly surprised to see how friendly everyone was – it definitely made me feel very comfortable going into the interview later in
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Published: September 12, 2016
Duke / Fuqua Interview Report: Round 1 / Second-year Student / On-campus
The following Duke / Fuqua interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Good luck to them! The interview was with a second-year student and it was blind. She described herself as an “advocate” for me on the interview committee. The interview was very conversational. It covered the normal interview questions: Walk me through your résumé. Why an MBA? And what do you want to do after your MBA? Why Duke specifically? What types of things do you do outside of work? What do you imagine getting involved with while at Duke? How would your roommate describe you? What
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Published: September 11, 2016
Columbia MBA Interview Report: Early Decision / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
The following Columbia MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by an Early Decision applicant. Good luck to them! 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 the time that he gave me to ask questions (remember to tailor your questions to the interviewer – no point asking a interviewer who graduated 20 years ago which class to take or how was
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Published: August 31, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumni/ Off-campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! I interviewed with two alumni separately in the SF Bay Area. The first interviewer was an alumni who had graduated 8 years ago. We met in her place of work and the interview took place in a small conference room. She was very nice and casual and we had a casual conversation over some tea. I had prepared my answers for a dozen questions, but she only asked me a couple: Why do you want an MBA now? Why INSEAD? After that we talked
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Published: August 31, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 3 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! The interviewer introduced himself quickly. Then he explained that this was going to be more of a conversation. He already had the print out of my resume and the 6 page profile. He then asked me to walk him through my résumé. While I was doing that he asked me a few questions and this walk-through must have taken 8-9 mins. He then asked me my reasons for pursuing MBA at this point of time and also my reason for interest in INSEAD. I
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Published: August 31, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! The interview was in an office environment with an alumnus – CEO of a sustainable energy company. The alumnus was very friendly, greeting me, offering coffee and congratulating me on making it so far. The interview questions were in general a combination of casual, relating to life anecdotes, and professional, relating to my career experience/vision. I was asked about the reason I chose my undergrad degree and about my accomplishments at the companies I worked at. One question that I didn’t expect was about
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Published: August 30, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! I interviewed with two alumni off-campus in Houston, TX. INSEAD alumni can ask a variety of questions as long as they have full answers to the following core questions: Why MBA? Why now? Why INSEAD Why XXX job after INSEAD? The interviews were very relaxing and I was able to connect instantly with both alums. My first interview lasted 2 hours and my second interview lasted 2.5 to almost 3 hours. Both settings were in a cafe / bar. The
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Published: August 29, 2016
Columbia MBA Interview Report: Early Decision / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following Columbia MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by an Early Decision applicant. Good luck to them! This forum was a great resource in helping me prepare for the interview and get accepted to CBS, and I wanted to submit my experience in order to help others in the future. Where as in previous years, it seemed like the CBS admissions office gives you a list of 6 people to contact. This year, the admissions office only offered one alumnus to contact. We set up the interview in a coffee shop – casual setting, very relaxed format.
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Published: August 29, 2016
INSEAD Interview Report: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 1 applicant. Good luck to them! This report I’m writing is about my second interview with an alumnus who was a partner at an investment banking firm. It was by far the most intense and thorough interview I had experienced, which was a bit of a surprise. In fact, it was so thorough that I wound up having a one hour face-to-face interview and then a follow up 45 min phone interview with him and never got to ask him any questions! The interview took place early in the morning
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INSEAD Interview Report: Round 3 / Alumni / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! A few weeks after I submitted my INSEAD application, I was contacted by an INSEAD admission’s officer to schedule interviews with two alumni: an older alumni (10 years post-INSEAD) and a younger alumni (5+ years post-INSEAD). I was instructed to provide each alumni with a copy of my résumé or my completed MBA application form (excluding the motivation essays). Scheduling the interviews with both alumni was relatively straightforward and I was able to schedule both interviews two days apart. I met with the younger
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Indiana / Kelley MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Second-year Student / Skype
The following Indiana / Kelley MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! Background: Indian, Male, almost 7 years of work experience in Telecom projects with 5 of those years spent in Africa, short term goal- product management in technology space, GMAT- 760 Interview Experience: I opened the bullets I had made for my last interview only about half an hour prior to the interview. I was still going through the points I wanted to convey during the interview when the Skype call came and suddenly it was go time.
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Dartmouth / Tuck Interview Report: Round 2 / Second-year Student / Skype
The following Dartmouth / Tuck interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 Applicant who was waitlisted. Interviewed in February by a second year student. It was a very routine and relaxed interview. 30 mins of questions from the interviewer and 15 minutes afterwards spent answering my questions to him about Tuck and his experience. Here’s the order: 1. Walk me through your résumé. 2. Why do you want an MBA? 3. Why do you need an MBA to get to your short-term goal? 4. Why do you want an MBA from Tuck? (Interrupted me
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Michigan / Ross MBA Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following Michigan / Ross MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! This interview made me understand what a conversational interview really means! And I also realized it is very important to have all points ready in your mind! The alumnus had been interviewing since 12 years, and it really showed through in the interview! He was a pro – and it was my most fast-paced and thorough interview experience compared to my 3 other interviews. my alumnus-interviewer was already seated in a corner of the cafe in the hotel. I
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UCLA Anderson Interview Report: Round 2 / Second-year Student / Skype
The following UCLA Anderson interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! My MBA2 interviewer described the interview timeline to me – about 30 minutes for him to ask me questions and 5 minutes at the end for me to ask him questions. Walk me through your résumé. I gave an overview of my work at the companies I’ve worked at and my non-profit experience I can read what you’ve written, but give me some more flavor of your work at X (my 1st company). Described work responsibility, impact, and initiatives I drove.
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Northwestern / Kellogg Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following Northwestern / Kellogg interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! I got my interview invite around Jan 25 and I scheduled it for the furthest possible date…14 days after the invite. I drove to my alumnus interviewer’s startup within my city and reached there 45 mins before time in the afternoon. It was pretty hot in my vehicle especially in business formals so I thought I’ll go up to his company and sit at the reception for 45 mins instead of sitting in my vehicle. Well, we instead started my
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USC Marshall MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / Skype
The following USC Marshall MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! I was invited to interview after being placed on the waitlist originally at the decision nofitication date. I submitted supplementary application materials and was contacted about 10 days later. I am not sure if this means they are still having movement from the waitlist. It was a straight forward interview application based but mostly just judging on experiences and your view of the MBA. Asked you the standard MBA questions you will come to expect (why mba, why now, why here? )
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Harvard Business School Interview Report: Round 2 / Adcom / Off-campus
The following Harvard Business School interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! This interview was different from what I had previously done in that it was 2 people interviewing me, both whom where members of the admission committee. One had read all application materials vs. other had only seen my CV. Started with questions about professional experiences in different sectors? Why the change from one to the other? Did you want to remain in the same sector post-MBA or are you looking to switch again? Why are you looking to switch again?
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INSEAD Interview Report: Round 3 / Alumni / Off-Campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Interview took place in a coffee shop and my interviewer came dressed in a suit and tie. I luckily had erred on the side of caution and had worn a suit as well. This is one of my final interviews and I was very relaxed and felt that the interview was very conversational and not so formal as I thought it might be, especially since it was with alumni (but I guess this can vary depending on the person who is interviewing you). The alumni
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USC Marshall MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / Skype
The following USC / Marshall MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Pretty straight forward interview which I was invited to after being waitlisted without interview. Was a skype interview with member of adcom and was blind interview (only had seen my résumé). Standard questions: • Why MBA? Why now? Why Marshall? • Short / Long Term goals • Team-work experiences / anecdotes • How would your peers/colleagues describe you? • Examples of leadership in the workplace Gave me about 5-10 minutes to ask any questions/follow-ups
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IESE Interview Report: Round 4 / Adcom / Skype
The following IESE interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! Very informal interview, probably the most comfortable of all the interviews I have done. Started off with some small talk and background on my interviewer and then switched over to my experiences and extra-curriculars. • Asked the standard why mba? why now? why european mba vs. USA? • Professional experiences and career goals (short/long term) and how the european mba plays into that? • Leadership examples / problematic experiences in the workplace • Family background questions / family dynamics
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INSEAD Interview Report: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them! First interview was with an ex-BCG consultant who graduated from INSEAD 20+ years ago. The interview took place at a local coffee shop near his office. Although he showed up in suits but the entire interview was very relaxed, and felt more like a conversation. The entire interview lasted about 90 minutes. Some of the questions that I could recall: What do you think about online market research? What role does (my ex-company) play when there’s already so many free online
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NYU Stern Interview Report: Round 3 / Adcom / On-campus
The following NYU / Stern MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! Prior to the interview I was told that Stern’s interview style was very much a two-way street between interviewer and interviewee. In other words it was very conversational. Luckily I still did my homework as this was not at all my experience. Although the admissions counselor was gracious and polite her questions were formal and pointed and were certainly not conversational. Some questions I was asked: What is a typical workday right now at my
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Duke / Fuqua Interview Report: Round 3 / Skype / Adcom
The following Duke / Fuqua interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them! I submitted my application on the day of my deadline, May 4th, for the class of 2017. I’m not sure if that was the reason I was interviewed by the Admission Officer director, but I’m glad I did. The interview was very conversational and relaxed, but it was clear that he had a set of questions to ask me. Also, I was interviewed by video skype and it was very conforting seeing his face during the conversation. Here you
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Babson Olin MBA Interview Report: Round 3 / Second-year Student / Skype
The following Babson Olin MBA interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 3 applicant. Good luck to them! I interviewed with a current student. It was approximately a 40-minute interview with all standard questions. No curveballs. It was a blind-interview as he had only seen my résumé (said to use examples from application if desired) – Walk my through your résumé. – Why MBA? Why Babson? Why now? – Position desired after MBA and how you intend to obtain it – Biggest failure? Greatest achievement? – What would you bring to the cohort?
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