Both my Harvard and Wharton interviews were on campus and had an extremely relaxed vibe. At Harvard I met with a “consultant to the admissions office” who was an alum I guess on contract to the admissions office during their busy season. The interview lasted a strict half hour, which included a few minutes of introduction and time for my questions at the end. In general, I experienced the following line of questioning:
- Resume walk through (not as much emphasis than at Wharton)
- Why MBA
- Why Harvard
- What’s the plan post-MBA
- Extracurriculars (now and what I planned to do on campus)
The hardest questions from Harvard related to my actual essays – they wanted more detail. They also asked me to describe a week at my job.
Most importantly, I felt that both Harvard and Wharton used the interviews as a “jerk test”. It seemed easy to bond with the interviewer and therefore mandatory to do so. When I was accepted I got a very nice note from my interviewer.
