Interviews
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
Published: February 3, 2014
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Second-year Student / Skype
Interviewed about 10 days after the Round 2 application deadline with a 2nd-year student. Overall I feel like it went really well. There were a couple areas I wish I would have explained a little better, but I am happy with how I did. The interview was very conversational, and for the most part, no unexpected questions. Here is a general summary of the questions I was asked: -Tell me about yourself. -Why an MBA now? -Why Anderson? -Why are you looking to change careers? -What do you envision yourself doing when begin working in X
Read more
Published: January 29, 2014
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Second-Year Student / On-Campus
I arrived in LA over the weekend to attend an info session and class Monday, and interview on Tuesday morning. The interview was blind and conducted by a 2nd year student. We engaged in a bit of small talk, I mentioned a class I attended (and was asked for the professor’s name – Bruce Carlin, great class!), and then I gave him a copy of my resume. Some of the questions were (not verbatim): – Walk me through your resume (While at it I covered short and long-term goals, though it seemed that this was going to be the 2nd
Read more
Published: January 29, 2014
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Second-Year Student / Skype
A blind interview with a second year student, who was really friendly and was really excited about Ross. He had an artistic and creative personality, which really clicked with me. 1. Walk me through your resume 2. Why an MBA and why now? 3. What kind of consulting are you looking to get into? (Follow-up question for short term goals.) 4. Describe an experience in a team and what you can offer to Ross as a team player 5. What criteria did you use to define your school search? 6. Which social clubs do you
Read more
Published: January 29, 2014
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year / On-Campus
The interview was very casual and friendly. No surprising questions. 1) Explain your work history 2) Long term goal 3) Why Ross 4) Interests outside of work 5) Questions for the interviewer – this actually got cut rather short After the formal interview we all went to the second part of the interview which was a group exercise. We broke into groups of 6 and picked cards from a bag. Each card had either a place or a thing written on it. We then developed a case problem and solution using some of the cards we
Read more
Published: January 29, 2014
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumna / Off-Campus
The first interview was with an older alumna at her house. She first asked me casual questions about how I got there and any difficulties I may have had en route. She then took my resume and asked me the following questions: 1. Tell me about your career to date 2. Why INSEAD? France or Singapore? Why? 3. What do I hope to achieve after my MBA? 4. What other schools have I applied to? 5. What is the toughest conflict I faced and how did I handle it? She was very informative about INSEAD and the
Read more
Published: January 21, 2014
New Interview Timeline at Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) piloted a new interview process in Round 1, compressing the timeline to four weeks and notifying applicants who were not admitted sooner than in past years.
“This pilot was in response to applicants' feedback that if the answer is a definite ‘no,’ you'd rather know earlier to save you from spending months obsessively refreshing your email and calculating your odds as well as to give you more time to work on applications for other schools,” read a recent post on the Stanford MBA Admissions Blog.
Read more
Published: January 20, 2014
UNC / Kenan-Flagler MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
My Kenan-Flagler interview questions were as follows: 1. Tell us about all your professional experience post college. 2. Career goals. 3. Why MBA? 4. Why Kenan-Flagler? 5. One of your weakness, and how have you worked on that? 6. Three strengths. 7. Have you read any Business books lately? 8. Leadership experience 9. Teamwork experience 10. Asked about my volunteer activity 11. At Kenan-Flagler, there are a lot of extracurricular activities and rigorous academics – how would you manage? 12. Questions for them.
Read more
Published: January 20, 2014
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumni / Off-Campus
I met with 2 alumni in Hong Kong, both entrepreneurs: one American-born Chinese lady, and one Indian man. The woman was very friendly, while the man was more professional and to the point. But both were nice anyway. First interview was in a coffee shop. It was quite short, around 35-40 minutes. Questions were very standard: – why MBA – why INSEAD – short-term professional goals When I told her my goal was to go back to my current industry / company, she looked surprised and asked me why I made this choice. Coming from
Read more
Published: January 6, 2014
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On Campus
I interviewed with an admissions committee member on campus and the interview was blind. The tone of the interview was very conversational and lasted about 35 minutes. She asked me: – Walk me through your resume – Tell me about why you chose your undergraduate institution – Explain why you are trying to make such a drastic career change – How does Kellogg fit into the goals you have just stated? – Explain your leadership style – Can you give me an example of a time that you used this leadership approach? – Playing
Read more
Published: January 6, 2014
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second Year Student / Coffee Shop – Delhi
I submitted my application for the November Round and got an interview call about a month later. I’m an Indian applicant and one of Tuck’s second year students was in my city for his Global Consultancy Project. So he scheduled a face to face interview and emailed me a week in advance. We met in the lobby of the hotel he was staying at. The interview lived up to my expectations in terms of being very relaxed and conversational. The interviewer introduced himself in detail – where he is from, what he did before Tuck, and what he’s doing at
Read more
Published: December 22, 2013
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-campus Hub
The 1-to-1 portion of the Wharton interview was held in a meeting room of an office in a hub city. There was one admissions officer who conducted the interview. She was cordial but also hard to read. The interview was rather surprising, with the admissions officer simply stating that she had not read my file and asking me to use the 15 minutes in whatever way I wanted. This did throw me for a bit. I ended up using the time to: 1. Describe my views of the TBD component. 2. Give a bit of background (essentially a “walk
Read more
Published: December 22, 2013
