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Published: February 14, 2006
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R2 / Alumni
I had my Round 2 interview with an Alumnus. My interviewer was great and I was able to connect with him gradually as we discussed various things. While some of the questions were direct, others were indirectly positioned to understand the person that I am and the motivations behind where I am today and where I want to go. My interviewer spent a couple of minutes quickly glancing over my Resume and catching the key elements. His questions addressed the following: Career Progression Why I attended my undergrad school and major Future goals and how Wharton fits in Any new
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Published: February 14, 2006
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: On-campus / Student / Round 2
Previous posts provide a good array of the questions I received, so I will focus more on the environment of the interview. I also posted information on my visit to Kellogg in general. Please visit my blog for more details – NoKeating. Good luck! My interviewer was a 2nd year student with an interest in Marketing. She worked for General Mills prior to obtaining her MBA, and would return in a similar capacity when she is finished. She attended Northwestern undergrad as well. Needless to say, we had absolutely nothing in common – which I actually used to tweak some
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Published: February 14, 2006
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alumni Interview / Round 2
I met my Kellogg interviewer at a Starbucks. Luckily, it was fairly quiet and easy to talk. He started the interview by saying that the Kellogg interview was just another part of the application, equal to the essays, GMAT, etc. He also said that sometimes he recommends people and they don’t get in and sometimes he doesn’t recommend and people get accepted. Basically, he said, there was some correlation to his recommendation and acceptance. The interviewer was pretty formal. There was little to no casual chatting. He did open up more at the end about his Kellogg experience and became
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Published: February 14, 2006
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: R2 / Alum
I just had an alumni interview as part of Round 2 for the class of 2008. We met at a local coffee shop and stuck to a half-hour session as is requested by the HBS adcom (according to my interviewer). The questions were pretty straight-forward / expected. The interview was friendly and I felt it was easier than other school interviews (like Stanford) because of fewer behavioral questions out of “left field.” Then again, perhaps that depends on your interviewer. The alum had read my application (except references), whereas this was not the case at my other interviews (Stanford/Wharton/Kellogg). Here
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Published: February 14, 2006
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum
The interviewer was nice and friendly, and he appeared quite professional during the interview. As we met each other, he said he was sorry because he forgot to tell me I wouldn’t need to dress up for this interview. Then there came his ice breaker – “do you know what my first question is?” While he grinned at me, I thought the first question would be something like “why MBA”, but he turned out to ask me about a bullet in the “Additional” section on my resume. So I explained to him what happened, and added what it has meant
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Published: February 13, 2006
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Experience
Originally published by Business as Unusual This was a real shocker to me. I interviewed on campus so that I could meet with some of the students working in the non-profit clubs before the interivew. Unfortunately, because of scheduling problems and horrible SPRINT reception in the campus, I couldn’t do so. (I have switched to Verizon :)) The person who interviewed me seemed a little …. ummm ….. mean. I got the impression that he was not interested in my answers. He interrrupted me several times and would snub me every 2-3 minutes. It seemed like he did
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Published: February 13, 2006
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: On campus / Second Year Student
I interviewed on campus with a second year student. I had my resume for her and following are her questions for me: Take me through your resume. What are your likes and dislikes for your current job? Tell me about a challenging group situation. What are your goals? Why do you want an MBA? Why now? Why Anderson? What are your passions outside of work/business? Anything else you want to tell me or want to ask me? I think the interview went well – I don’t have a feeling that I bombed it. But, you can’t tell because they don’t
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Published: February 13, 2006
Cornell / Johnson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / On Campus
Interviewed on Campus. The woman I interviewed with was incredibly personable and friendly. She had my resume on the table when I came in and explained that the interview would be more like a conversation. I spent a lot of time taking her through my resume. While I was doing so, she guided me to tell her the following information: Why go to business school now? Why Cornell? How do you generally solve problems? How do you think you’ll be able to handle leaving the hustle and bustle of NYC to come to small-town Ithaca? Seeing as though you have
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Published: February 9, 2006
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum
This was by far the most conversational interview I have had. It was conducted on February 8 in his office. He said it would last approximately 45 minutes to an hour, and it lasted exactly one hour. He started by introducing himself and explaining how the interview fit into the application process, then he complimented me on my resume and my accomplishments. I don’t remember him asking very many explicit questions other than: What prompted you to apply to Stanford? Describe a time when you have proposed an idea that was not initially well-received. How did you handle it? What
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Published: February 5, 2006
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum
I had my kellogg interview today with an alum. it went well overall i think.lasted 1 hour. very standard questions why mba why kellogg why now? how will you contribute to kellogg? what defines a leader? give me an example when you were creative? tell me about yourself? tell me about a failure/achievement – why(for achievement) and what did you learn (from failure)? The interviewer was taking detailed notes throughout
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Published: February 2, 2006
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alum
After having several interviews with alum, students and adcom, I found this one unique. Although I had previously had an alum interview, I did not find it to be as comfortable/casual as this one. Having said that, the interviewer still managed to maintain a respectable level of formality, seriousness, etc. I.e. the tone was relaxed but the context what quite serious and he nonverbally made it clear that “we are here to do business.” I was thus very impressed with the ability of the interviewer to make me feel so comforable while at the same time sticking to the agenda.
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Published: February 1, 2006
NYU / Stern MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Adcom / Round 2
I had my Stern on-campus interview on February 8, 2006. As soon as I checked in, the Admissions Office gave me a Stern T-Shirt and a folder containing information about specializations and clubs that I had mentioned in my application. The interview lasted 30 minutes and my interviewer asked a lot of questions; as a result, it was less conversational than other interviews I’ve had. She was not able to answer all my questions but I had lunch with a student afterwards and his input was really helpful–I highly recommend doing this if you visit Stern. There was also a
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Published: February 1, 2006
NYU / Stern MBA Admissions Interview Questions
The interviewer did not have me go through my resume. The questions were as follows: What did you gain from your undergraduate experience? Why should we accept you/ what would you bring to the program? If you had to pick two extracurriculars at Stern what would they be? Describe a time at work that you were in the riders seat and you wish you were in the driver’s seat, or vice versa. When you were looking at MBA programs, what were the qualities you were looking for? How would your colleagues describe you? Do you have any questions for me?
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Published: January 31, 2006
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Student
My early morning interview was fairly short – 20 minutes – the interviewer had to be somewhere else. She was a 2nd year and seemed to have a list of generic questions that she went through. The interview was totally blind as I hadn’t even submitted my application at the time. The first was “This is your first visit to Tuck and you haven’t had a chance to sit in on a class or take a school tour. How do you know that Tuck is the right place for you?” The remaining were: Walk me through your resume Why an
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Published: January 31, 2006
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alumnus
I was given three names to contact. Besides their names and year of graduation, I didn’t have any other info on them. The interviewer only had access to my resume. Interview lasted 40 minutes. I don’t think he had a script of questions but he was given an outline of areas to cover in the interview. It was very conversational. He would tell me about his experiences throughout the interview. 1. Why MBA? Why now? Why Columbia? 2. What other schools did you apply to? Where are you in the process? Why Columbia over those schools in particular? 3. What
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Published: January 31, 2006
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alumni / San Francisco / Regular Decision
1) Walk me through your resume. 2) Where do you want to be/what do you want to do? (why mba?) 3) Why Columbia? 4) Columbia is known as a finance business school, why does someone with your background want to attend Columbia? (interviewer had finance background) 5) What kind of leader are you? 6) What makes you different? 7) Any questions for the interviewer? The interviewer was very friendly as it was very conversational and it seemed like he was genuinely interested in my story. Make sure you are prepared and have a good answer to sell yourself why you
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Published: January 30, 2006
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum
I had my interview with a Wharton alumni (class of 2004), and wanted to share my perspective. I had a somewhat unique situation, as it turns out one of my good friends from college is also friends with the guy who would up as my interviewer…so there was a little prep/massaging done prior to my entering the room. Regardless, I think my experience makes it clear that the interview follows a distinctive format. First thing the guy said was “I don’t want this to be incredibly formal if you don’t.” So I just nodded my head and said, “Sounds good
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Published: January 29, 2006
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: On campus / 2nd Year Student / Round 1
To begin the interview, the student mentioned that he was originally from New Jersey, close to where I currently live. After some small talk about finals (I was there during finals week) and my method of transportation to the GSB (the El, which I don’t recommend for a first time trip), we started the formal part of the interview. Most of the questions were quite straightforward: Tell me about yourself? Why do you want an MBA and what are your future goals? Why the GSB and why now? Is there anything about your application that you would like the adcom
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Published: January 27, 2006
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Off campus
Posted by Pupstar78 My Kellogg interview was held at McKinsey’s offices in the SF’s Bank of America building. I had a 10:00 a.m. slot — Kellogg alumni ran the 1:1 interviews — 12 applicants per hour starting with the 9 a.m. slot and ending with the 1 p.m. slot. I was matched up with a recent Kellogg alumn (’01) who had pursued brand management (my intended post-MBA field) following Kellogg. There was an added bonus — following her consumer products stint, she went to work for a bay area consumer tech company, and had a good sense
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Published: January 27, 2006
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum / Super Saturday
I interviewed at UCLA as part of Super Saturday before end of Round 2 interview deadline. The day started off with a Information session from 9am – 10am. The adcom mentioned that there were a lot of people interviewing on the day and all the interviews will be conducted by either alumni or students. After the information session, we were asked to hang around the admissions office where first year students were available to mingle with us and answer any questions. I think this was a nice touch by the school to help the applicants to learn more about the
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Published: January 27, 2006
UCLA / Anderson MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Alum / Super Saturday Interview
I interviewed on Jan 28th, 2006, a Super Saturday. I interviewed with a recent alum. As others have mentioned, it was a blind interview; I gave my interviewer my resume when I got there. Some questions: Walk me through your resume (starting with college). This included sub questions like why did you choose your major, why did you make that job transition, what made you interested in that, etc What are your post-MBA career goals? What are your two weaknesses? Can you give me examples? What do you do outside of work? My interviewer also focused a lot on the
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Published: January 24, 2006
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Almunus / Off Campus
January 06, Chicago. The interview was with an alumni (MBA ’01) in Chicago. We met in Starbucks in Sears Tower (downstairs from my office) and spent about 1 hour and 15 mins for the interview. The interview was very informal, as expected. To summarize, the interview was just a discussion with me in focus. Questions: What do you like to do, at work and for leisure? What did you work on today? What is your progress at work? What were challenges as work? To what other schools did you apply? Why Columbia? The interviewer asked me about the admissions process
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Published: January 23, 2006
Ross MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Off-campus / alumni
It started very formal, with the interviewer reading a description from an official packet, then launched into a series of standard questions. After about 5-10 minutes, it became much more conversational and fun, less formal. Interview portion lasted about ~25 minutes with 10 minutes of me asking questions. Her questions: Tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume Specific questions about my resume (she had asked for it before and was prepared with detailed questions) Why MBA? What hope to achieve during MBA, what specifically at Ross? What do I bring to the table, what one thing will I
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Published: January 23, 2006
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2
My interviewer was a male second year student (formerly in the military) who was very friendly and did try to sell the school. We talked a lot about my work experience – and I did highlight the fact that I had worked with colleagues abroad, etc. We also talked a little about my China experience – he found the fact that I was in Beijing during the SARS epidemic quite interesting. (He lived in different countries in Asia so is more or less familiar with the place). We also talked a little bit about my hobbies. He asked me the
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Published: January 23, 2006
MIT / Sloan MBA Admissions Interview Questions: adcom / R1
As others have noted, you will probably only get asked 1-2 main questions, and then spend the whole interview getting probed on those. So it’s important to prepare high-yield examples in advance, preferably from work – especially since you can’t use any of the topics in your essay. My interviewer primed me on the interview style beforehand, and told me because of the nature of the interview, it was perfectly fine to pause and think about it before providing my example. I did this prior to both questions to collect my thoughts, and he didn’t seem to mind. Specific questions
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