First Public Wharton November 2011 interview Report

Update: My updated analysis of Wharton MBA interviews for Fall  2012 is now up. 

The first public Wharton Interview Report is now up on the Clear Admit Wiki:

"I just had my interview with a 2nd year Wharton student today. The interviewer was very friendly and tried to keep things casual. We had a similar professional background (finance) and even shared the same past employer. The interview went smoothly and roughly as expected. There were a few standard, introductory questions at first and then three behavioral questions. They were similar but not exactly the same as last year's list. The general questions were:

-Tell me about yourself/walk me through your resume (I explained why MBA here)
-Why Wharton?

I don't remember the exact wording but the behavioral questions were something like:
-Describe a time when someone convinced you to change your opinion. How did they do it and what was your response?
-Describe a situation where team members initially disagreed with you and you convinced them of your view. What was your strategy and their response?
-Describe a time when you had to manage someone either much more or much less experienced than you. What was your strategy and their response? Were you successful?

At the end there were also some questions about my personal interests and then there was an opportunity to ask him questions. Total time was almost exactly 30 minutes."

While there is no way to verify whether all interviews will consist of contact like the above until we have multiple reports, this is a pretty good indication of what to expect.
Without further public reports, I can't say whether the two non-behavioral questions above are optional or standard or whether the report was inaccurate.  That said, during their interview chat, Wharton adcom emphasized knowing the resume.

-Adam Markus

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I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you are interested in my interview preparation services, please see here.

For those looking for overall counseling services, if you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  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. See here for why. 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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Wharton has insufficient hub interviews for international applicants: WTF!

My analysis of Wharton MBA interviews can be found here.  This is my rant about their applicant unfriendly admissions committee.

First, let me state that I generally find MBA admissions offices in the US, especially at schools like HBS, Stanford, Chicago, Kellogg, Tuck, and MIT to work really effectively at handling their interview processes.  I guess that is why I find it so amazing that Wharton can't get it together.  As reported in GMAT Club (See here), international applicants are finding it impossible to get interviewed in their home countries and are finding the only option is to visit Wharton. This was never a problem for Wharton applicants before because they had plenty of alumni available to interview them, but this year adcom eliminated alumni interviews and replaced it with... well, seemingly NOTHING.

I first heard this was a problem from my own clients, but see that it appears to be a wider problem.   While I know that Wharton is not famous for its logistics curriculum, one would assume that the Wharton MBA holder who serves as admission director there would have made some allowance for this.  Perhaps making people spend money on last minute international air travel to the US because they were unable to grab a hub interview space in their home country is justifiable in someone's world view, but not in mine.

It is not as though this is an isolated incident. Last year, Wharton adcom screwed up completely with their new approach to interviewing (See here). I wouldn't even bother discussing their earlier scandal before the current adcom crew was in place.

I don't know what these people have against being customer friendly, which is what MBA applicants are, but all I can say is WTF!

Finally, I should add that Wharton Adcom can't get their own story straight because their website says the following:

"All applicants will have the option of interviewing on Wharton’s campus or with an admissions staff member in one of our selected major cities around the world. "

Since obviously all applicants don't have that option, Wharton adcom should alter their interview information to reflect that not all applicants will have the option to interview in selected major cities around the world.   Is it so much to expect a school to provide accurate information about its own admissions processes?

Now, back to work.
-Adam

Comments regarding BW Article on Technology in MBA Applications

I just posted the following comment on the BusinessWeek article "MBA Admissions 2.0: Technology Makes Inroads":


"This article is actually  inaccurate  regarding the specific questions discussed. It creates the misleading impression that technology is actually required when answering questions for NYU and Booth:
1. Booth's 4 page presentation question is in fact, not a test of Power Point as it does not allow for a dynamic use of Power Point, but simply requires 4 static pages.  It is certainly a presentation, but it is as much a technological inroad as using MS Word is to type an essay.  It certainly is a creative, but for many years, NYU has allowed applicants to  make such presentations.  Booth was simply the first school to require one.
2. NYU does not ask "candidates to share something about themselves in a creative way—using a USB drive, DVD, or CD" as this is simply one option.  It would have been accurate to state that. It is not helpful to MBA applicants to tell that will asked to do that.  Applicants can also write an essay, make a presentation, draw a painting, actually there are many possibilities and NYU is very clear about the options.  It is a pity that this article could not convey that the audio/visual recorded option is just one such option.
 -Adam Markus, MBA Admissions Consultant and Blogger"


For my analysis of Booth's essays for 2012 admission, see here.


-Adam

Chicago Booth MBA Admission Interviews

If you are preparing for a Chicago Booth MBA interview for entry into the Class of 2014, read this post after you read my general post on interview strategy. If you are looking for my analysis of Booth's essays for Fall 2012 admission, you can find it here. In addition to receiving many reports from my clients, I have reviewed reports of University of Chicago Booth interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com. 

You need to know your resume completely as you will most 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. Booth interviews are conducted blind, so your interview will not have read your application. The only thing they will have is your resume. Most interview reports indicate extensive questions about the contents of the resume. As such it serves form main functions:

A First Impression: Most interviewers will have your resume even before they meet you. For resume-only interviews, it really is their first impression of you.  Make sure your resume is really designed for ease of use by the interviewer.  One of my objectives when helping a client with a resume is always to focus on how effective the resume is for this purpose.

Agenda Setting Device: To a greater or lesser extent, a resume has an agenda setting function in many interviews.  While schools will provide interviewers with varying levels of guidance about what questions to ask, the resume may very well form the basis for some of the questions that you receive. 

Booby Trap:  The resume can blow-up in your face if you are not careful.  Failure to review your own resume closely prior to interviewing can put you in an awkward position if you are not fully prepared to discuss everything on it.

Your Main Depository of Past Experience Answers: Since you have presumably highlighted many of the key things you would actually want to discuss on your resume, it is in essence, a primary source for your answers to past experience questions. Especially when I working with a client with limited English ability, I will tell them to practice explaining “Who What Why How When” questions related to their resume.

In addition, since you might get asked to “Tell me something about yourself that is not covered on your resume,” you can use the resume to figure out what that would be.

Prepare to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. Have a few questions ready to ask your interviewer about the things that are most important to you and your MBA experience. Getting answers to your questions is an equally important part of any B-school interview." 

My colleague, Steve Green, has gone through reports and put together the following list of common Booth questions:

RESUME

1. Walk me through your resume, but make sure you highlight just a couple of key achievements.
2. Tell me about yourself.
3. Why did you pick your major? Why did you earn a Master’s degree?
4. What are you hobbies / other interests and why?

GOALS

5. What are your short-term goals?
6. Why are you pursuing an MBA?
7. What do you expect from your MBA in the long term?
8. Why now?
9. Why Booth?
10. What other schools have you applied to?  
• How do you compare them to Booth?
• How would you decide between two schools?
• Why would you choose Booth over those?
11. What will you contribute to Booth?
12. What do plan to do outside the classroom at Booth?
13. What is your Plan B if you don’t get accepted to any b-schools?
14. You will not meet most of you classmates after the two years at school. How will you make sure you learn the most from this distinguished set of people? How will YOU make sure they learn from you?
15. Clarifying questions about Booth’s program.
16. What professional groups will you join?
17. Which social groups will you join?
18. Booth has classes that present different settings: group-based, individual, project-based. Which ones do you have a preference for? Why?
19. What will you contribute to Booth, or what will you bring to the Booth community?
20. What if you hate your internship - what is Plan B
21. Place yourself 30 years in the future… what would you define then as having been successful?

LEADERSHIP

22. What is your leadership style, and how do you function when you are not a leader in a team?
23. Tell me about your leadership style?
24. What is one area of weakness you would like to work on regarding your leadership style why earning an MBA?
25. Discuss a time when you had to manage a difficult team or teammate, and how did handle that experience?
27. Tell me about one occasion in which you displayed leadership.
28. Tell me a solution you have recently proposed to your employer (asked for an example in my last setting)
29. Can you tell me about a time when you made an unpopular decision
30. What is your most defining leadership experience
31. Describe your leadership style with an example
32. Tell me about your leadership experience. What/who has influenced your leadership style?
33. Please give me an example of a leadership-based conflict you experienced.
34. Tell me about a leadership failure you experienced. How will it help you at Booth?

TEAMWORK

35. What role do you take on in a team? How have you handled a team-based conflict?
36. Can you tell me about a time that you led your team / convinced your team to do something
37. Can you tell me about a time that you led a team over a period of time
38. Can you tell me about a time that you resolved conflict within your team
39. Can you tell me about a time when you disagreed with someone at your level

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

40. Tell me about a time you encountered a challenge?
41. Tell me about a decision you made that you later regretted.
42. You have had a lot of success in the past. How do you handle failure?
43. Tell me something you feel passionate about.
44. What do you think is a weakness that people can have inside or outside of work
45. Tell me something about you that I could not know from reading your resume
46. What are 3 things your friends would describe about you?

OTHER

47. What are the differences you've found between different nationalities while working in a multinational?
48. How is a regular day in your line of work?

CONCLUSION

49. Is there anything that we have not covered that would like to point out, on or off your resume?
50. Do you have any questions for me?

The quality of the interviews really varies. The reports on both sites are with students and alum. Some interviewers are reported to be great and some are not. I think it is important to keep in mind what Chicago says:

Interviews are conducted by admissions staff, students, or alumni. They are held on campus or in a location convenient for the prospective student. All interviews, regardless of who conducts them, receive equal weight in the evaluation process.

While that is true, the reality is that if you can choose, most applicants should take admissions staff. Students and alumni can vary in quality and level of fairness, but on balance admissions officers are more likely to treat you fairly and will be professional. That said, if you think you may do better with alumni, act accordingly. From my perspective, some older Chicago alumni tend to have an outdated view of the school and this can hurt some interviewees who do not intend to focus on finance.  I have noticed that here in Japan, the interviewers now tend to be more recent graduates.  Based on some of my client reports, those applicants with relatively weak English speaking skills are likely to find an alumni interview easier if it is conducted by someone of the same nationality.

5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking about 45 minutes.

Best of luck with admission to Booth for Fall 2012!

-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.

Kellogg MBA Admissions Interviews

This post has been updated for admission to the Kellogg MBA Class of 2014. 

Just as with essays, interviews for the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management MBA applicant interviews are all about fit.

My comments below are based on reviewing reports from my clients as well as those found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com (As I have mentioned previously, both companies should be praised for collecting these reports for all to see. I should state as a matter of disclosure that I am a member of AIGAC, a professional organization, with consultants from both organizations). These reports reveal that there are five key things to consider when preparing for Kellogg interviews:

1. You need to know your resume completely as you will most 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. Kellogg interviews are conducted blind, so your interview will not have read your application. The only thing they will have is your resume. Most interview reports indicate extensive questions about the contents of the resume. As such it serves form main functions:

A First Impression: Most interviewers will have your resume even before they meet you. For resume-only interviews, it really is their first impression of you.  Make sure your resume is really designed for ease of use by the interviewer.  One of my objectives when helping a client with a resume is always to focus on how effective the resume is for this purpose.

Agenda Setting Device: To a greater or lesser extent, a resume has an agenda setting function in many interviews.  While schools will provide interviewers with varying levels of guidance about what questions to ask, the resume may very well form the basis for some of the questions that you receive. 

Booby Trap:  The resume can blow-up in your face if you are not careful.  Failure to review your own resume closely prior to interviewing can put you in an awkward position if you are not fully prepared to discuss everything on it.

Your Main Depository of Past Experience Answers: Since you have presumably highlighted many of the key things you would actually want to discuss on your resume, it is in essence, a primary source for your answers to past experience questions. Especially when I working with a client with limited English ability, I will tell them to practice explaining “Who What Why How When” questions related to their resume.

In addition, since you might get asked to “Tell me something about yourself that is not covered on your resume,” you can use the resume to figure out what that would be.

2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on MBA Application Interview Strategy as well the list of questions below. You should expect to have to answer questions regarding teamwork (Examples where you demonstrated it, how you handled problems on teams, and how you would handle a low-performing team member in group work at Kellogg are common examples).  Be absolutely comfortable explaining core questions regarding fit (Why Kellogg? Why the Kellogg community is right for you?  Contributions?) as these always come up.   Be ready to ask questions and obviously make those questions fit to the person you are talking (admissions officer, student, or alumni).

3. Kellogg interviewers do not really ask any unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions,instead, as previously stated, you can expect more standard questions. My colleague, Steve Green, has collected the following common questions:

RESUME: Career

• Tell me about yourself. / Walk me through your resume. PROBE ANSWERS
• Tell me about [particular accomplishment]
• Tell me about [particular promotion or change]
• What is missing from your resume that you’d like to tell me about?
• What led you to your first job?
• What made you change careers? (+ Follow-up)
• Why did you decide to switch into the field that you chose?
• How have you grown over the years?
• Tell me about what's challenging in your current role. (+ Follow-up)
• Why did you choose ________________ for your career?
• What are your current responsibilities?
• What do you clients say about you?
• What do you outside of work?

RESUME: Education

• Why did you choose your undergraduate school?
• Why did you choose your major?
• Tell me something about your undergraduate experience?
• What was your legacy at your undergrad school?
• Why did you choose ________________ for your career?
• What are your current responsibilities?
• What do you clients say about you?
• What do you outside of work?

TEAMWORK 

• Tell me about your teamwork experience.
• Describe a difficult team situation you have had to deal with in the past?
• Tell me about another teamwork experience.
• What would you do when a team member wasn’t pulling his own weight?
• What would your teammates say about you?
• Discuss a team failure you were part of.

LEADERSHIP

• Who do you admire as a leader?
• Have you held leadership positions at work?
• Tell me something about your leadership experience?
• Have you faced any challenges as a leader? How did you deal with them?
• How has your leadership style evolved since college?
• What kind of leader are you?

WHY MBA / WHY KELLOGG

• Why do you want an MBA?  
• Why now?
• Why Kellogg?
• Are you good with numbers?
• What are your goals?
• How will Kellogg help you achieve those goals?
• How do you envision yourself being involved in the Kellogg community?
• What clubs will you participate in?
• How will you enhance the diversity of the Kellogg class?
• What unique contribution do you bring to Kellogg?
• What other schools did you apply to?
• If you got into all of them, which would you attend?

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• If you could hit the reset button, what would you do differently?
• Anything that may be considered a weakness in your application you would like to explain or expand on?
• How have you grown over the years?
• What are your two main strengths?
• What are your two main weaknesses?
• If time and money were not an issue, what would you do?
• What three words would you use to describe yourself?
• Who is a good negotiator?
• Have you ever been in a negotiation where it wasn't win - win, rather, win-lose or lose-lose.
• What do people misperceive about you in first meeting?
• If I asked your colleagues about you, what would they say? What feedback have you used to do better?

CONCLUSION

• What questions do you have for me? / Do you have any questions for me?

4. Interviewers (adcom, students, or alumni) usually try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. As some adcom interviewers are 2nd year students, be aware that a campus interview might not be with an admissions officer. I know of a few instances when student interviewers were not necessarily that friendly to the applicant. In any case, this is an interview about fit (just like Kellogg Essay 3), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of the Kellogg community 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. If you have not previously read my Kellogg essay analysis, I suggest doing so as it contains my analysis of Kellogg's culture.

5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 30-45 minutes.

Best of luck with admission to Kellogg for Fall 2012!

-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.