Before reading this post on UC Berkeley Haas MBA, I suggest reviewing the Director of Admissions for the Full-time MBA Program's excellent Tips for Acing the Admissions Interview. I also suggest that you listen to the short podcast on interviewing found at http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/podcast/audio/haas_mba_interview_tips1.mp3. The advice is very simple and clear and applicable to most schools. If you think you will get special insight about the Haas interviews from listening to this, you will likely be disappointed, but still it is worth a listen.
The reports of interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com make it clear that you need to know your resume completely as you will be asked about content in it ("Walk me through your resume"). Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game.
You also need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on basic interview strategy.
I see no reports and have not been told about any trick questions really. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.
Interviewers (students, adcom, or alumni) are usually friendly and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. Most interviews are conducted with students on-campus or alumni off-campus. I did read some reports of relatively weak student interviewers, so don't be surprised if this should happen. Regardless of how your interviewer performs, just be relaxed and positive. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend Haas, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare. For more about Haas, you might want to read this.
Campus interviews are scheduled for 30 minutes and usually last 30-45 minutes. Alum interviews seems to last about 45 minutes to an hour.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
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February 07, 2009
February 06, 2009
Wharton's Director of MBA Admissions & Financial Aid, J.J. Cutler
In January, Wharton announced they had had a new Director of MBA Admissions & Financial Aid, J.J. Cutler. This is what Wharton says about him:
Some more information about his experience can be found in the job announcement for his previous position:
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant." If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
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The first "J." stands for Jonathan, by the way. As he entered PENN undergrad in 1989, he is approximately age 38. As you can tell from the above, he has no adcom experience, but is clearly an involved Wharton alum. I think it is very interesting that the Wharton approach was to hire someone without prior admissions experience. It is also interesting that they did not promote someone internally. While I will not predict a shake up in their admissions processes for Fall 2010 yet, I would not be surprised to see one coming. In his (JC) interview with Clear Admit (CA), I found the only interesting part to be the following:
CA: How might the admissions process at Wharton change under your tenure? Do you have any plans to do things differently than your predecessor? JC: Yes. In the short term we are right in the middle of round two, so nothing is going to change today. And I am just a few weeks into the job, so I think it’s premature to make changes right away. Longer term, I do think that innovation is a hallmark of Wharton’s curriculum and a hallmark of the way in which we view all of our processes, including admissions and financial aid. Going forward, we will be looking for innovative ways to attract the right candidates, as well as to be innovative in terms of the transparency of our process. We want to continue to arm prospective applicants with the tools they need to provide us with the best applications they can. To that end, we will continue to providing opportunities for students to come tour our campus, to sit in on classes. And we’ll look for innovative ways to expand on these offerings. And we will also be going out and doing global presentations about Wharton so that applicants around the globe know what we have to offer. So I do think that there are lots of ways we will continue to be innovative. But in the short term, for rounds two and three of this year, we will continue with the process as it currently exists.
Some more information about his experience can be found in the job announcement for his previous position:
Prior to Lindi Skin, Cutler held the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing for ARAMARK Healthcare. In this role, he led the marketing team, driving its leadership position across the enterprise and innovatively communicating that position to the marketplace.
He earlier worked with Johnson & Johnson in roles with increasing responsibility for several divisions, including: Leading OTC brands at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, including Tylenol([R]) PM, Motrin([R]) IB and Pepcid([R]) AC; and Biologic products at Centocor, including the company's leading product, Remicade, where he led new market development for a variety of chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Cutler is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Senior Scholar of the Department of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College. He earned his bachelor's degree in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and his Master of Business Administration in Strategic Management and Operations from The Wharton School. Cutler serves on the Board of Directors for the Independence Visitors Center Corporation in Philadelphia.
---------------------------------------Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant." If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
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ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学
MIT Sloan MBA Interviews
Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest downloading a copy of MIT's excellent guide to behavioral interviews, The MIT Sloan Interview Guide, because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below.
The behavioral interview method is not old:
“Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970.”
In fact, the STAR technique outlined in MIT’s guide was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:
Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn't have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way.
In his book "Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life" (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own "behavioral dimensions" (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.
In addition to the MIT SLOAN Guide, I suggest also taking a look at the slightly different guide to the Star Technique that MIT Career Services provides.
The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this (taken from the MIT Sloan Guide):
• Situation: define the situation or “set the stage.”
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome
Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so in an interview say what you thought as well as what you did. Don’t just present “the facts” but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.
As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message. Specifically think of examples you can use to highlight your intelligence, creativity, leadership skills, interpersonal communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.
Since your interviewer will know your file well, you need to have alternative stories for answering behavioral questions. Unlike MIT's behavioral essays, you need not limit your answers to topics from the last three years. My suggestion is to have a mix of stories ready to deliver from different times in your life.
You can find behavioral questions in the interview reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. In addition, the list of behavioral questions found at MIT Career Services site is actually quite good for preparing for answers to wide variety of questions.
Beyond answering, behavioral questions, you need to know your own application completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Re-read your essays and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly.
You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions as well. While the answers may be analyzed using behavioral analysis, don't be surprised if you get asked questions like "What do you want to after your MBA?" or "Why Sloan." See my previous post on basic MBA interview strategy.
The interviewers, all admissions staff, are generally reported to be friendly. They are the only ones who conduct interviews.
Based on reports, interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes with 45 minutes to 60 minutes being most common.
For more insight into MIT, please see here.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
The behavioral interview method is not old:
“Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970.”
In fact, the STAR technique outlined in MIT’s guide was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:
Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn't have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way.
In his book "Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life" (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own "behavioral dimensions" (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.
In addition to the MIT SLOAN Guide, I suggest also taking a look at the slightly different guide to the Star Technique that MIT Career Services provides.
The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this (taken from the MIT Sloan Guide):
• Situation: define the situation or “set the stage.”
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome
Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so in an interview say what you thought as well as what you did. Don’t just present “the facts” but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect.
As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that person. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message. Specifically think of examples you can use to highlight your intelligence, creativity, leadership skills, interpersonal communication skills, and conflict resolution skills.
Since your interviewer will know your file well, you need to have alternative stories for answering behavioral questions. Unlike MIT's behavioral essays, you need not limit your answers to topics from the last three years. My suggestion is to have a mix of stories ready to deliver from different times in your life.
You can find behavioral questions in the interview reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. In addition, the list of behavioral questions found at MIT Career Services site is actually quite good for preparing for answers to wide variety of questions.
Beyond answering, behavioral questions, you need to know your own application completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Re-read your essays and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly.
You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions as well. While the answers may be analyzed using behavioral analysis, don't be surprised if you get asked questions like "What do you want to after your MBA?" or "Why Sloan." See my previous post on basic MBA interview strategy.
The interviewers, all admissions staff, are generally reported to be friendly. They are the only ones who conduct interviews.
Based on reports, interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes with 45 minutes to 60 minutes being most common.
For more insight into MIT, please see here.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
February 05, 2009
Duke Fuqua MBA Interviews
In my experience, Duke interviews are all about fit. Frankly, I would not characterize them as hard when compared to those of other top schools. For some of my clients, I think the hardest part was that their interviews were conducted in a busy hotel lobby by a student interviewer. One would hope that Duke would have a budget to either have a room for this or at least take the interviewee to a hotel coffee shop. Other clients report better off-campus interviewing conditions.
In addition to my experience, I have reviewed reports of Duke University 's Fuqua School of Business interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com
1. You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. That said, don't be surprised if the interviewer is using a standardized list of questions.
2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on interviewing. Typical Duke questions include:
-Walk me through your resume.
-Why MBA?
-Why Duke?
-How will contribute to Fuqua?
-What are your short term and long term goals?
-Tell me about a time when you received a negative feedback and you did not agree with it?
-Tell me about a time when one of your team members did not participate well?What did you do?
-Discuss your strengths and weaknesses
- Tell me about a situation where you worked with a team and there was a difference in opinion and how you helped reconcile the situation to come to a solution.
-Do you have any questions for me?
3. While there are occasional unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions, especially from alum and adcom, this seems to be rare.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly, passionate about Duke, and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit (just like Duke's essays), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of Team Fuqua and how you will contribute to it. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
In addition to my experience, I have reviewed reports of Duke University 's Fuqua School of Business interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com
1. You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. That said, don't be surprised if the interviewer is using a standardized list of questions.
2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on interviewing. Typical Duke questions include:
-Walk me through your resume.
-Why MBA?
-Why Duke?
-How will contribute to Fuqua?
-What are your short term and long term goals?
-Tell me about a time when you received a negative feedback and you did not agree with it?
-Tell me about a time when one of your team members did not participate well?What did you do?
-Discuss your strengths and weaknesses
- Tell me about a situation where you worked with a team and there was a difference in opinion and how you helped reconcile the situation to come to a solution.
-Do you have any questions for me?
3. While there are occasional unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions, especially from alum and adcom, this seems to be rare.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly, passionate about Duke, and consistently try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit (just like Duke's essays), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of Team Fuqua and how you will contribute to it. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 45 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
Questions? Write comments, but do not send me emails asking me to advise you on your application strategy unless you are interested in my consulting services. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. Before emailing me questions about your chances for admission or personal profile, please see my post on "Why I don't analyze profiles without consulting with the applicant."
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA留学 インタビュー 面接
McCombs MBA Interviews
My comments below are based on my experience and my review of McCombs School of Business in University of Texas at Austin MBA interview reports found at accepted.com.
I think that there are five key things to consider when preparing for McCombs interviews:
1. A recent report indicated that interviewers had a two page list of questions. In addition to common questions, there were a few interesting questions reported, See especially the 11.15.2007 report. Also make sure to take a look at the 7.7.2007 report as this shows that some interviewers use behavioral questions. For more about behavioral questions, see here.
Also see my previous post on strategic interviewing for more about how to handle many of these questions.
2. The interviewer will only have access to your resume, so know the contents well, but unlike with some other interviews, assume the agenda for your interview will be set by the list of questions that interviewer has and not your resume.
3. I see no reports of any trick questions really, but you must be prepared to address weakness, failure, and what you want to learn at McCombs. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly and try to create a friendly interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend McCombs, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. You may want to look at an interview I conducted with a former client who was a McCombs Adcom member. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Must interviews last about 45 minutes with some going for an hour and a few lasting only 30 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
I think that there are five key things to consider when preparing for McCombs interviews:
1. A recent report indicated that interviewers had a two page list of questions. In addition to common questions, there were a few interesting questions reported, See especially the 11.15.2007 report. Also make sure to take a look at the 7.7.2007 report as this shows that some interviewers use behavioral questions. For more about behavioral questions, see here.
Also see my previous post on strategic interviewing for more about how to handle many of these questions.
2. The interviewer will only have access to your resume, so know the contents well, but unlike with some other interviews, assume the agenda for your interview will be set by the list of questions that interviewer has and not your resume.
3. I see no reports of any trick questions really, but you must be prepared to address weakness, failure, and what you want to learn at McCombs. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.
4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are friendly and try to create a friendly interview atmosphere. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend McCombs, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. You may want to look at an interview I conducted with a former client who was a McCombs Adcom member. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.
5. Must interviews last about 45 minutes with some going for an hour and a few lasting only 30 minutes.
If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
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