I interviewed on-campus at the Cornell Johnson School last week for the November application round. I drove up the night before from New York City (4 hour drive) and stayed at the Holiday Inn hotel downtown. The morning of my interview I found easy parking at a municipal parking garage in Collegetown and walked up to campus (5 minute walk) instead of trying to find on-campus parking. My interview was with a member of the Admissions Committee in their office. He had a copy of my resume and a report from the application reader. I found the interview to be very conversational and a great experience. It lasted about 45 minutes.
Questions Asked:
- Walk me through your background
- How did you end up at your current job?
- What do you do for fun outside of work?
- Why Cornell?
- Why do you want an MBA?
- What do you plan to use your MBA for?
- How would your friends describe you?
- What other schools are you applying to?
- What are you reading right now?
- What do your parents do?
- What questions do you have for me?
- In addition to these questions he asked many follow-up questions that were specific to my responses. I paired my interview with the information session / lunch / tour with current students, which I found extremely helpful. However, I could not attend a class given my timing constraints. I came away in love with Cornell’s campus. Ithaca seemed like a great place to spend 2 years if you’re looking for somewhere a little more rural, like I am after spending 4+ years in NYC.
