My Wharton Interview Experience

I had my Wharton interview early in the day at the Alum's office. I reached his office around 30 minutes before and so we started 20 minutes before the stipulated time. The alum had some 10 years of experience after MBA and 8 years before MBA. So he was quite mature and adept at interviewing. It was a tough interview, I must say. He guided the interiew process well and asked several follow-up questions on my experiences. Whenever, I told him about some experience whether community or professional, he asked about how xyz behaved or tell me about one person you really liked in that community engagement. I think he was trying to gauge the depth and honesty of the experiences. We started pretty slowly and by the time we had finished we were zooming at 100mph :-)

Some of the questions I remember were:-

1. Walk me though your resume. He asked several follow up questions and situational questions.
2. Why Wharton? Why MBA? Career goals?
3. Why do you think Wharton is the ideal place to help you realize your long-term goals. I mentioned about several programs at Wharton which would help me and the diverse student body, alumni etc. So he said I know these programs are good but why do you think Wharton is the right place. I mentioned several other points. We then moved to another questions.
4. He then asked me to mention three strengths and weeknesses. He asked me to elaborate on each of the points. I tried to provide examples from my experiences for each of the strengths and how an MBA from Wharton would help me overcome my weaknesses.
5. Next question was... 70% of the Wharton applicants are good enough to be admitted. So why should we select YOU? I gave several reasons and tried to give examples for all of them.
6. What other things would you like to add which you believe have not been covered in your essays, aplication, and interview. I could not think of any point left, I had used all my cards...so I said I feel we have covered all the points. He then said anything like low GPA or low GMAT or gap in study or employment. I said, Nope.
7. Next...he handed over the stage to me...It was my turn to ask questions. I asked 3-4 questions on his experiences and I added my experiences in between as well. He then provided me his business card and asked me to send an email in case I have any other question. He also asked which other schools I have applied to and interviewed with. He was then kind enough to walk with me till the gate of his office.

During the interview, he was taking notes in a booklet with the label " The Wharton School". He stopped me in between my answers few times so that he could take down notes.

It was a rigorous, sweet, and tough interview! Looking forward to the decision of the Wharton's AdCom. My fingers are crossed !

No news from HBS yet...let's see which school is interested in knowing more about me next...

My Chicago GSB interview experience

I had my Chicago GSB interview in the morning today with an alum in his office. He is an entrepreneur and heads his own company. I reached his office 20 minutes early. We started the interview 10 minutes before the stipulated time. He didn't have a copy of my resume. I had brought 3-4 copies so i gave him one. The interview was ok. The inetrviewer was passionate and enthusiastic. It was more of a discussion than interview. The alum had some 20 years of total experience, so he handled the interview quite maturely. Some of the questions i remember were:-

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. How do you find if a person is a team player or not while interviewing the candidate?
3. Why MBA? What are you career goals...and why Chicago?
4. Then he asked me how do i plan to repay my loans and when do i think would be the right time to start working on my long-term goals.
5. Then he asked me about some of my community service experiences.
6. Then he asked which other schools i am applying to...and then he explained the interview process and beyond :-)

Then it was my turn to ask questions, I asked 3-4 questions which provided me an opportunity to learn more about the communal culture and experiential learning approach. He also talked about one of his club experience. Then it was the time to go..he gave me his visiting card and said i can mail him if i have any further questions.

All in all it was ok. Lets see what happens :)

No news yet from Wharton and HBS...lets see which school is interested in knowing more about me next.

Catch ya all later...

My Kellogg interview experience

I had my Kellogg interview today at 10am with an alumni. It was interesting and interactive:-)
No tough questions...he was very cool and enthusiastic person. Most importantly he allowed me to guide the interview the way i wanted. He started with "walk me through your resume" and he followed up with questions on each of my experiences, which covered my learnings, leadership style, teamwork, challenges and the way i approached them, etc. These questions covered all my professional and community experiences. Then he told me that you seem to be pretty much enjoying your current job, so why MBA now? Then why Kellogg? He then asked which other univs am i applying to. Then my GPA and GMAT score. Then it was my turn to ask questions...I asked him a few questions which provided me more insights on the communal learning environment at Kellogg.

All in all it was a good interview. I hope AdCom love my essays and provide me an opportunity to be a part of Kellogg SOM :-)

My Wharton app finally changed to Complete -Round 1. Lets see which univ is interested in interviewing me next.

My Cornell Interview Experience

I had my Johnson interview this week with one of the AdCom members. It was good to have an interview after 3 years :-) The interviewer was very skilled and made me feel comfortable. We shared some laughs and also talked about some of our other interests. The questions were pretty standard though at times he asked follow-up questions.

Some of the questions were:-

1. Why MBA? Why now?
2. Career goals and how would Johnson help?
3. Tell me about your leadership experience. There were some follow up questions on this.
4. Tell me about your team-experience. What do you don't like about working in teams?
5. What other activities are you interested in?
6. What other programs are you applying to? what is common between these programs and what are the distinguishing points of Cornell.
7. What are your strengths? Which three of your qualities would you like me to tell the AdCom?
8. Then he passed the ball to me and said i can ask some questions to him. I asked a few questions.

So, all in all it was a good interview. It was very interactive and interesting. Lets see what happens :-) The result would be out on 17th Nov.

Catch ya later...gotta rush to sleep..:-)