Interviews
Published: February 17, 2014
Berkeley / Haas MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
My interview was very conversational and friendly. I didn’t stumble and remained positive and enthusiastic throughout. The questions were: 1) Where is your name from? Where did you grow up? Oh really? So are you watching the Olympics then? Hockey? Is that your sport? 2) Why don’t you run me through your resume. 3) So what does your company do? 4) Which business segment at your company would you say is the largest? Was it PE or VC funded? 5) So why are you pursuing an MBA? 6) Why Haas? 7) In your career at your company, could you give
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Published: February 16, 2014
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
I’ll keep this short and simple. -There were two members of the Adcom in my interview: an interviewer and an observer. -The interviewers cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes: ensure your answers are crisp. Note: I did not receive an offer of admission. (There were also some follow up questions that I omitted here, probing for more information here and there) • Small talk about my travel plans. • Pretend that we were sitting together on the flight over here. Tell me about yourself. • Why did you choose to work at a consulting firm?
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Published: February 16, 2014
NYU / Stern MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Adcom / On-Campus
I interviewed as part of Stern’s Spotlight on Women in Business/Stern’s Women in Business Conference. The first day included a half hour interview with an admissions representative (she was actually a member of Stern’s Office of Career Development who also happened to be a Stern alumna) followed by a coffee chat, Stern Stories: a panel of women discussing their experiences at Stern, evening reception (chance to mingle with fellow interviewees and meet faculty, current students and admissions members), and a ticket to Stern’s weekly Beer Blast. The interview was relatively low pressure: 1) Why Stern? 2) Walk through
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Published: February 16, 2014
Duke / Fuqua MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early action / Second-year student / On-campus
Description of visit and interview atmosphere: I visited the school before the early action deadline and had my interview during the visit. I had also scheduled to attend a class in the morning, followed by lunch with current students. My interview was in the afternoon. I had specifically scheduled my interview on Friday so I could attend “Fuqua Friday” and experience the diverse and super friendly Fuqua community firsthand. The interviews are held in the interview rooms in the admissions lounge. While we, prospective students, waited in the admissions lounge for our interview, I was pleasantly surprised to see how
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Published: February 16, 2014
Berkeley / Haas MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
The alumnus was very flexible in finding a time that was convenient for both of us. We met at his office. After brief introductions and small talk, we started into the interview. It was all-around pretty casual, with no big curve-ball questions. There were none of the typical behavioral questions. Most questions focused on my motivation in pursuing an MBA. – Why do you want to get an MBA? – Have you considered whether your goals would be more likely achieved in continuing to gain experience in the industry? (I work in a fairly specialized field to which
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Published: February 12, 2014
UNC / Kenan-Flagler MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Adcom / On-campus
My interview went really well. Here are the interview questions: 1) My interviewer’s opening question was why an MBA? Why now? 2) What was I most proud of? 3) If I had any regrets or had I made any decisions I wish I could take back. 4) Tell her about a time when I exhibited teamwork. 5) What risks do you see in taking 22 months off from your career to attend a full time MBA program?
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Published: February 12, 2014
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Adcom / Off-Campus Hub
Questions asked: 1. Walk me through your resume 2. Why MBA? (long discussion) 3. Why at this point in your career? 4. Something you want to change about yourself? 5. Something you’d never change about yourself? 6. Tell me about your undergraduate school. 7. Anything else you want to tell me? 8. Anything you want to ask me? Overall it was a pleasant experience. I was surprised by how friendly the Adcom was.
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Published: February 12, 2014
UVA / Darden MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Skype
I am an Indian applicant, and I was invited to do a Skype interview with an admissions committee member. For anyone in this particular situation I would strongly suggest that you ensure that you prepare your interview room accordingly. Ensure that the net connection is good and the room in which you are interviewing looks professional. Do some research online and prepare accordingly. Moving on, note that this is a blind interview. The adcom member that I interviewed with had no idea about who I was. In the beginning of the interview she gave me 20 minutes to speak about
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Published: February 12, 2014
UNC / Kenan-Flagler MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Adcom / Skype
I was interviewed by a member of the Adcom. It was a blind interview. My interviewer was very friendly and amicable. I expected a very conversational style with follow-up questions from my prompts, but the interview was mostly Q/A type. Meaning, she asked me a question and I replied. My response did leave room for follow-up questions, but that was not the case. She asked me a bunch of questions, and the interview concluded with when I should be getting a response. Questions asked-: 1) Resume walkthrough. 2) Career goals 3) Why MBA 4) Why
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Published: February 11, 2014
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
The interview was held off-campus (November 23, 2013), with an alumnus who graduated in 2008, in Sao Paulo / Brazil. It was part of a full day of interviews organized by the department of admissions, and lasted about 1h15min. Questions asked: 1. Walk me through your resume (asked several questions on my CV, focusing on skills I developed in each job and career changes) 2. Tell me about a situation when you learned something from someone different from you 3. Hobbies? 4. Tell me about a situation when you failed 5. What are your short- and
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Published: February 11, 2014
MIT Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
I was not living too far away from the campus (about a 2 hour drive), and thus I visited the campus an hour before the time of my interview. The atmosphere was good similar to any good school. And especially the interviewing room was even better. Earlier I thought that the interview might take too much time as I had heard from others that sometimes many questions are asked. But in my case, it was not so long and I was done in just around 15 minutes. The interviewer checked my resume at first and asked things which he wanted
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Published: February 11, 2014
MIT Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
My interviewer began the questions by asking me to explain what my prior employer does, my contributions there and why I decided to move to my current job. Then she asked why MBA now and why Sloan. She followed up with whether I would return to my employer after graduation, and I told her my manager is open to it and I am definitely open to it. Then she asked three behavioral questions – a time when I had to rally a team and a time when I had to say “no” to a boss. Then she asked about a
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Published: February 11, 2014
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumnus / Off-campus
I had a great interview with an advertising director in NYC. I arrived at his office 15 minutes early and he offered me a coffee. He started by asking Why Columbia and Why MBA now. I talked a bit about my resume, then he asked me what role I usually play on teams. The conversation was very relaxed and free flowing from there. We talked about his background and interest in the advertising industry. I asked about the Columbia network post-graduation. He was visiting LA during the holidays, and since I’m from there I gave him a few suggestions. Overall
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Published: February 10, 2014
SMU Cox MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Adcom / On-Campus
The following SMU Cox interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. My interview was conducted by the assistant director of full-time MBA admissions at Cox. She started the interview by reviewing my resume with me step by step and asking some pointed questions for her to get more clarity about my different work experiences. She did not ask me any typical MBA interview questions like “Why MBA” or “Why Cox.” I think the reason is that most of these topics were covered in my essays. She did ask me about a time when I exhibited teamwork. I asked her
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Published: February 10, 2014
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Part-Time / Current Student / On-Campus
This interview was very casual overall, similar to my Ross and Kellogg interviews. I was asked typical questions about “Why MBA,” “Why Booth,” and “Why now” right after going over my resume. The interviewer had me walk through my resume and through each one of my experiences asked follow up questions on what I had learned, any project or group work I did, and times of leadership. He asked me specifically about time management and how I planned on balancing my commitments in the future. The student overall was very friendly and was working off a grid of questions to
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Published: February 10, 2014
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
I am from Chicago, so I had an alumnus as my interviewer. We met in a coffee shop in Evanston, IL. As I went over my résumé, I was asked specific questions about my experience working in teams, having bad team members and my leadership style in addition to how I interacted with my co-workers when I was going over my résumé. I also got a feeling that the interviewer really wanted to know about my interaction with other people and what experiences I have had out of the norm (study abroad, moving, working with people from other demographics…). My
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Published: February 10, 2014
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
My biggest takeaway from the interview experience is that Wharton really cares about your ability to interact with your peers. I arrived about 20 minutes early and had the chance to meet most of my group members prior to the beginning of our group-based discussion. I also had the opportunity to meet many other applicants as I waited for my group to be called in for our discussion. Once we were in our discussion room our administrators (two current students) introduced themselves, and then our group went around the table providing similar introductions. Next, the administrators gave us guidance that
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Published: February 10, 2014
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions Round 1 / 2nd year student / On-Campus
The interview was a 1-on-1 session with a second year student after the Team-Based Discussion. The interviewer took me to a small office and was pretty pleasant and informal. She had only my resume in hand, but had no prior information about me other than what had come out over the course of the Team-Based Discussion, where she had been a silent observer. I was asked a few questions, primarily about the team interview experience. 1) How did you think the Team-Based Discussion went, and did you feel your team accomplished the goal at hand? 2) What could you have
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Published: February 10, 2014
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Action / Second-year student / On-Campus
I interviewed on campus after completing a campus visit. My interview was with a second-year student. It was a blind interview–she only had my resume. It was a very conversational interview. Here are the questions I was asked: -Walk me through your resume. -Why an MBA now? -What are your short-term and long-term goals? -How will an MBA at Tuck help you reach those goals? -What will you bring to the community at Tuck? -Tell me about a conflict you have had in the workplace. -What would you do if you had a member
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Published: February 9, 2014
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Rolling admission / Alumnus / Off-campus
The interview was conducted by an alum and took place in a conference room in his office. It was a blind interview, but I sent him my CV in advance. Questions: – Walk me through your resume – Why Columbia/ why MBA? – What other schools I’d applied to – My current role – What I had to bring to the table in the classroom setting He was a young and friendly interviewer. He gave me his background too. It felt fairly informal. There was time at the end to pose questions. He had a
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Published: February 9, 2014
NYU / Stern MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
I arrived to campus a day before to take the 04:00 PM tour – this was was very important. Next day the interview was at 9:30AM in the Adcom office. Very informal, no behavioural questions at all. Just a nice conversation, first about my trip to the US just for the interview, the snow, etc. Then: 1. Why do your MBA in New York City? (about the city.. not the school) 2. As an international, how would I find a job in the field that I want? 3. Ok, but why will they hire you
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Published: February 5, 2014
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
First and foremost, this is my first time drafting any MBA related report; this website has helped me out immensely both during the application process and the interviews themselves, hence I thought it’s the least I can do to help others who’ll be in my situation sooner or later 🙂 I applied in round 2 and received the interview decision which I was absolutely ecstactic about. It took some time for the admissions coordinator to locate alumni members in the country I’m in (funny enough there’s 4 or 5 different INSEAD grads at the organization I’m currently at), and initially
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Published: February 3, 2014
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Second-year Student / Skype
I felt like my Ross interview went pretty well because it felt like a conversation, though my interviewer did follow the typical MBA interview format (i.e. professional history, short/long-term goals, why MBA, why Ross/now, etc.). The only differences I found was that I was asked to sell my university to a college applicant and share anything else I’d like the adcom to know about me. Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.
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Published: February 3, 2014
Published: February 3, 2014
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-Campus
Writing this report as I have benefited from reading the other reports, hope it’s of some help. I applied in Round 2 and arranged interviews with two contacts provided by AdCom via email; they responded promptly and I booked my ticket to fly to another city (1 is not based locally). At this point I had been through an interview with another school so I didn’t prepare much except familiarising my essays. Two interviews did not differ in nature so I’ll summarise them into one. Both interviewers did their MBA in 200x and are now partners of private equity firms.
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