Originally published by Pursuit of my Dreams
I received the Duke’s telephonic interview invite unexpectedly, much after I lost all my hopes. I scheduled my interview with a second year student.
Preparation Material: My application, Duke’s website, Accepted and Clear admit Interview database, and How to interview like a top MBA
Interview Experience: A lady picked up the phone and quickly called the interviewer. He started by introducing himself, his activities and his goals. After the friendly greetings, a deluge of questions followed. He listened my responses well, kept acknowledging my responses and asked many follow up questions.
The main questions were-
- Walk me through your resume.
- Why you want to do MBA ?
- Why have you applied to Fuqua ?
- What are your short and long term goals?
- How are you and Fuqua a proper fit for each other?
This question surprised me. I thought I had already answered this while answering Why Fuqua. However, this question gave me an opportunity to highlight my knowledge of Fuqua and its culture. He sounded satisfied with my response. He even gave few examples from his own experience.
- How will your friends you? What three adjectives will they use, and why?
- Tell a weakness that you will address at Fuqua?
I went a step ahead explaining how i will overcome my weakness in Fuqua.
- Tell an example of a team conflict that you had, and how did you get through ?
- What are you most proud of? My response was followed by two follow up questions.
- Why you are so interested in [My short and long term goals]? Is the interest from childhood or you have developed this recently? Which Incidents led you towards this goal?
- Name any three persons that you would like to pick for a team? Why will you pick them?
- What were your Undergraduate extracurricular activities.
- Which is the course you liked most in Undergraduate studies?
- Tell me about a living person whom you admire. Why?
- Any other question you would like to ask.
Phew! It might seem unrealistic, but all this was within 30 minutes. After the interview, I send him a thank you email.
Result: Admitted!
