Posted by Clear Admit on December 13, 2005, at 10:54 am
Posted in:  Essay Topic Analysis , School: UNC / Kenan Flagler In response to a request from a follower of our blog, we wanted to take some time today to comment on the essays for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. One thing to note about this school’s required questions is that they are referred to as “Self-Evaluation Essays,” indicating that the adcom is looking for applicants to take stock of their experience and provide a sort of appraisal of their strengths, shortcomings, and experiences to date.
1. Describe your career progression to date, highlighting leadership and management positions and reasons for changing jobs or career paths, if applicable. Tell us how your experience, coupled with an MBA degree from UNC, will lead you to your short-term and long-term career goals. (1200 words maximum)
Another instance of the standard career goals essay, with a few more words to work with than you’ll find at most schools. Note that this program places heavy emphasis on explaining your moves and choices to date, and seems to place a premium on experience supervising or directing the work of others. In addition to an explanation of your interest in your goals, the school is also explicitly asking you to comment on your preparedness at this point in your career. This makes it extra important that you describe the way your existing skills and knowledge will be helpful in the future but can only take you so far, and explain why you’ll need an MBA from UNC to get the rest of the way.
2. Describe the major obstacles or challenges you have faced in pursuit of your goals. Tell us how you addressed these challenges and how they have shaped you. (800 words maximum)
Because the adcom is aware that an applicant’s professional objectives and interests will have evolved over time, you don’t need to limit your discussion to the goals you’ve stated in the previous essay; be sure to think broadly about incremental goals that have brought you to this point in your life and career and the challenges you have overcome along the way. The second half of this essay topic indicates that the school wants to hear about your personal and professional growth: the lessons you’ve learned and skills you’ve gained by tackling difficult situations and obstacles. While it would be appropriate to share a personal triumph as part of the discussion in this essay, remember that you do not want to share any information that might make the reader uncomfortable or create a negative impression (writing about defying one’s parents’ wishes in some personal matter, for instance, could make an applicant seem immature or too dependent on the approval of others).
3. Tell us about one major accomplishment or project you worked on that succeeded because of your leadership. Please use the following format for your response:
-Provide a general statement of what was accomplished (50 words maximum)
-Describe the specific actions you took as a leader to make the project succeed (200 words maximum)
-State the time period during which the accomplishment was carried out
-If you received any honors, citations or recognitions for the accomplishment, list them. Indicate whether these were individual or shared honors.
The word limit for this essay is fairly restrictive, so brevity will be important here. To tailor your response to UNC’s format, it would be ideal to provide the requested information in the above order, taking care to highlight your actions as well as the thought process behind them.
4. (Optional) Tell us about any international experience you have, either living or working abroad. Tell us how it has impacted your global perspective. (400 words maximum)
5. (Optional) Regardless of your major, we strongly recommend that all students enter the program with some background in calculus, microeconomics, statistics and financial accounting. If you have not studied one or more of these subjects in college or university, please tell us how you have developed proficiency in these areas. If you have not been exposed to one or more of these subjects, please tell us how you will prepare yourself prior to entering UNC Kenan-Flagler. (400 words maximum)
If either of the above essay questions is applicable, we would encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to share some more information with the adcom about your international exposure or academic preparedness for the program (keeping within the stated word limits, of course).
Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our counseling services for UNC/Kenan-Flagler and other January MBA deadlines. You can set up a free initial chat with one of our admissions consultants by emailing your CV/resume to info@clearadmit.com.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 12, 2005, at 11:10 am
Posted in: General Many of our readers have been kind enough to send along ‘field reports’ from their admissions interviews with the leading MBA programs. For today’s blog posting, we thought we’d offer a selection of these reports:
FIELD REPORT: Wharton Hub Interview
“This was an interview with a member of the Wharton Admissions Committee. I thought this interview was more formal and professional than my non-invite interviews, even stiff and mechanical if you will. The interviewer started off with a brief introduction and we moved on to the questions. The interview lasted about 35 minutes.”
QUESTIONS:
-Brief introduction and resume walk-through
-Why an MBA?
-Why Wharton?
-Describe a team conflict situation.
-Can you describe a leadership example and then try to explain your leadership style with examples.
-What will your classmates say about you after 2 years at Wharton
-Are there any weaknesses in your application that will concern the admissions committee?
-Is there anything that we haven’t covered that you would like to discuss?
-Do you wish to ask me anything about Wharton and the MBA?
FIELD REPORT: Columbia Alumni Interview
“Hi Clear Admit,
Just had my Columbia interview. The interview was very conversational overall – with the alum informally bouncing back and forth between topics.”
QUESTIONS:
1) He started with questions about my current responsibilities and a lot of details about my company and its focus. He asked me specific details about the project I am working on.
2) He asked me if I would stay with my current employer after the MBA and if not, what my plans were.
3) He asked why I was interested in Columbia and why I wanted an MBA.
4) He asked about my activities outside of work.
5) He asked how I chose my career path.
6) He seemed unfamiliar with my undergraduate institution, so he asked for me to tell him more about it.
7) The interviewer then asked what my father’s occupation was. He also inquired about all of my family members. This part of the interview was very friendly and conversational.  We had a bit of an industry discussion (related to my career).
9) We then had a casual discussion about literature and our favorite authors, etc.
10) Turning back towards my candidacy, we had a detailed discussion about my hobbies and volunteer work.
11) We closed the discussion with a focus on my long term goals.
FIELD REPORT: Darden/UVA Hub Interview
“This was an interview with Ms. Kathleen Grant, a member of the Darden Admissions Committee. The interview was very relaxed. She talked a lot about Darden and how they are unique. Then, we moved on to the questions. The interview lasted nearly an hour.”
QUESTIONS:
1. Introduction
2. Resume walk-through
3. Why an MBA?
4. Why Darden?
5. How did you first begin investigating Darden?
6. Describe how you experiences will help make a contribution to the Darden community.
7. Are there any questions about Darden that you wish to ask?
FIELD REPORT: Harvard Interview
“I really enjoyed my interview very much. The woman that interviewed me is part of the adcom at HBS. She is also an alum from the school. She was very friendly and actually made a lot of small talk with me, which made the interview much easier for me to do. I also noticed that she was taking many notes as I was speaking.
QUESTIONS:
She didn’t ask me any behavioral or leadership questions (except for describing a time when one of my projects failed). She was mostly interested in hearing me walk through my resume and talk about my current role at work. She was very interested in hearing my perspectives on my target industry and why I was attracted to it. The one interesting question that I got was what book I was currently reading. I mentioned two books, one contemporary fiction which she wasn’t really interested in and one best seller. I could see that she was taking many notes on my answer, to my surprise.
It almost reminded me of a blind interview, because all she had in her hands was my resume. She never even asked me if I had time to visit the campus. In the end, I asked her a few questions about her experience as an HBS student.”
FIELD REPORT: Kellogg Alumni Interview
“Dear Clear Admit,
I had my Kellogg interview today. We had a detailed discussion and the interviewer seemed pleased that I had done a lot of research about Kellogg and what I could gain from the program. The questions were casual and a lot of informal chat was mixed in. The interviewer had a sheet on which he was making notes in different sections. He also seemed to have a piece of paper with some standard questions. Although the overall tone was friendly, there were a fair number of probing questions in between each answer I gave.”
QUESTIONS:
-Walk me thru your resume.
-What are you long term goals?
-What are your short term goals?
-How will you go about achieving my long term goals?
-What is your most significant accomplishment?
-Major failure?
-Have you dealt with conflicts in team? How have you resolved them?
-How would you motivate a team?
-Have you faced any challenges working in a multinational team?
-What have you done (major accomplishments) outside of work?
-Have you faced any major challenges outside of work?
-Why Kellogg?
-How did you learn about Kellogg?
-How would you contribute to Kellogg?
-Why are you interested in Kellogg from a personal perspective?
-What would Kellogg students say about you after a few months?
Thanks to all of our readers for continuing to supply us with field reports! We’ll be sure to make an effort to share all of your reports in the coming days.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 9, 2005, at 1:25 pm
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline Welcome once again to another edition of Fridays From the Frontline (FFF). For the uninitiated, FFF is a weekly column in our blog that explores a selection of the week’s best content from the MBA blogosphere. This column not only helps applicants and students stay abreast of what’s happening in MBA admissions and at b-school, but it also serves as the backdrop for Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging awards.
While things were relatively quiet on the blogging front this week, there are still a number of applicants battling issues ranging from essay writing, interviews and post-acceptance career decisions. Ty Coon offered an excellent summary of the waiting game and how contemplating application volume and reading the BW Forums can combine to make one rather nervous. Meanwhile, SgHama voiced his complaints regarding Chicago essays 3 and 4 and their less traditional topics. Of course, when compared to last year’s topics, these questions seem relatively tame. In fact, here are two questions from last year’s Chicago application (to give readers a sense for how off-the-wall things used to be):
#2) Chicago GSB is seeking a mascot to represent our new facility, The Hyde Park Center, what would your choice be and how will it represent the attributes of Chicago GSB?
#3) If you could step into any celebrity’s shoes for a day, who would it be and why?
Beyond essay writing and deadline planning, we also found a great posting from Axechick, who recently attended a welcome event for Columbia students and is excited to join the CBS community next fall. Finally, BeatTheGMAT reports that his fundraising efforts have begun to pay off, indicating that one Beat The GMAT! Scholarship has been assured for April of 2006.
Heading over to the MBA campuses, we found a host of blog entries that covered recruiting news, classes and various social activities. First-year Jerry Blank reports on his internship search at Yale and jokes that school can sometimes get in the way of the whole recruiting thing. Meanwhile after a great deal of interviewing, Marquis has signed on the dotted line with McKinsey (and offered a ‘review’ of BCG’s HR department). Our congratulations go out to him! With more on the job hunt, Guillaume, a second-year at LBS shares the career-related epiphany he had in the shower (with some interesting thoughts on Google, MSFT and Apple).
Focusing on non-recruiting related campus activity, we find Mark from HBS offering extensive thoughts on the grade disclosure issue that has rocked the Harvard campus (see more on this topic here). If grades are of concern, then so are final exams according to JP at Houston. Finally, The Divine Miss N offers another great summary of social options at LBS (including the fact that some of her fellow students have formed a band), Anders explains his vacation and exams schedule at CEIBS and Vijay comments on “busyness” at the Indian School of Business.
That’s the news for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted by Clear Admit on December 8, 2005, at 11:19 am
Posted in: General There’s been a flurry of admissions news in recent days, so we thought we’d use today’s blog entry to offer a run-down of the latest information.
Application Volume
As we reported here back in October, application volume is up in R1 at several leading MBA programs. In fact, BusinessWeek has just published an article (First-Round Frenzy) which reports that seven leading schools have reported increases in R1 application volume this year. This includes a 39% increase at Tuck. The article also quotes Clear Admit’s Alex Brown:
Alex Brown, a senior admissions counselor for consulting firm Clear Admit, says if a school is experiencing a significant increase in application volume, as Tuck did, then “that’s more than enough incentive to get that application in soon.” …Brown generally advises his clients to avoid round three if possible, because it’s statistically more competitive, and many applicants who wait until the end tend to sacrifice quality.
The report from BusinessWeek seems to confirm the impact of the upward trend we’ve reported in GMAT test-taker volume over the last few months.
Interview
As expected, both MIT and Stanford have begun sending out interview invites to R1 applicants (Stanford got started a couple weeks back, with MIT joining the fold last week). HBS and Columbia continue to offer interview invites while Chicago and Wharton have already finalized their interview selection and are busily meeting with those candidates they liked. Cornell has recently begun asking R2 applicants to interview.
For the latest on interviews, see the Clear Admit interview tip postings (at left) and check in with the various discussion threads at BusinessWeek, Studylink, Student-2-Student and the Chicago forums (MIT, Stanford, HBS, Wharton, CBS, Chicago, Cornell).
Decisions
The activity has also been quite intense in the decisions area. Here’s a quick rundown: Darden, Tuck, Cornell and Columbia have all been accepting early action (EA) and early decision (ED) applicants in recent weeks. Columbia has also denied some ED applicants and ‘bumped’ others into the regular round (for further evaluation). Wharton and Chicago have denied all of their non-interview applicants from R1.
That’s a snapshot of some of the latest news in MBA admissions. Stay tuned to this blog for more information as it becomes available. You can also email the Clear Admit team if you have any admissions news you’d like to share.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 7, 2005, at 3:07 pm
Posted in: General The topic of grade nondisclosure has undeniably been the hot topic on the HBS and Wharton campuses this fall (the policy is also under review at Chicago and Stanford). Proponents of the existing policy, which prohibits students from sharing their grades with recruiters and prohibits recruiters from asking about them, argue that it allows students the freedom to expand their horizons and challenge themselves without worrying about the negative repercussions of less than stellar performance in a tough course. Meanwhile, the potential introduction of optional disclosure at HBS and a proposal to recognize the top quartile of each class at Wharton are motivated by concerns of academic performance and recruiting competition (Business Week published an article a few months back that provides a nice summary of the factors involved).
In last month’s edition of The Wharton Journal, several students weighed in with their thoughts on the GND issue. These range from comments on the flaws in the arguments of some disclosure proponents, subtler alternatives that would just as effectively promote academic performance, an argument that grade nondisclosure causes academic performance to take a back seat to extracurriculars, and a discussion of the merits of – and strategies for – doing as little work as possible and still “getting the P.”
The outcry is presently loudest at Harvard, where the vast majority of the student body opposes the policy. An article in the Harvard Crimson provided an overview of the situation last week, while The Harbus featured a letter sent to the administration by student body representatives outlining the reasons for their classmates’ objection to the proposed change. For an in-depth look at one student’s perspective, readers can investigate HBS blogger Mark’s detailed response to each of the arguments used in defense of disclosure.
While it’s very easy to become swept up in the application process, it’s important that candidates for admission to these schools are aware of this issue and the way it might come to bear on their respective business school experiences. As the first class that will be affected by a change in policy, applicants might want to take this factor into account when speaking with current students at these programs and finalizing their school selection.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 6, 2005, at 1:42 pm
Posted in: Essay Topic Analysis , School: Virginia / Darden To round out our list of essay tips for the top 15 US MBA programs, we wanted to take a moment today to comment on this year’s essay questions for the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. This school’s approach is unusual in that it does not impose length restrictions and leaves it to the applicant to determine the length of his or her essays. While applicants who’ve already completed several applications to other programs will no doubt find this refreshing, it’s very important that you not go overboard given the chance to write without constant attention to word count and page limit. There are two main considerations of which you need to be mindful; the first is that the person reviewing your file will only have so much time to spend on your essays, and you don’t want to overwhelm him or her with prose. The second is that one of Darden’s main selling points is its focus on the case method. It’s quite possible that these length-limitless questions are designed to gauge an applicant’s ability to distill information into a concise statement, structure a discussion, make his or her point, and move on.
Use your best judgment in determining the appropriate length of the following essays.
1. What led you to pursue an MBA? How do you plan to leverage your MBA in meeting your short- and long-term goals?
This is another instance of the classic career goals essay. We would recommend a discussion of 750-1000 words, devoting roughly equal portions to your career progress to date, specific goals, and reasons for seeking an MBA from Darden. This is the place to include a good deal of specific information about the program’s unique curricular and extracurricular offerings to fully demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and understand how the school would help you to meet your objectives.
2. How does Darden fit with your background, personality, and learning style?
While the school’s first question attempts to understand your professional motivations for applying, this one is fishing for information about your attraction to the school on other levels. Your goal in this essay is twofold: to allow the adcom to get to know you a bit better by giving them a sense of your background, personality and learning style, and to again showcase the research you’ve done on the school and explain why it represents a good fit with these three qualities. It’s crucial that you describe how you arrived at your positive impression of the program, ideally recounting a visit to campus and conversations with alums and current students. This essay is also a great place to include some information about the ways you would contribute and enhance the learning experience of your fellow students. As for length, 500-750 words would be ideal.
3. Describe how your experiences have shaped your leadership philosophy and style.
As we commented this summer when we originally posted Darden’s essay questions and deadlines, this question represents an interesting combination of last year’s topics “Write your life story in one page or less” and “Describe your most rewarding leadership experience…” In tackling this question, it would be wise to reflect on and think broadly about your experiences to date, and to draw from both professional and extracurricular involvements for examples. You’ll want to steer clear of generic comments about things that “a leader” should do and instead firmly ground your answer in your own opinions and experiences; remember that vivid anecdotes are the most effective way to bring your story to life and make a strong impression on the reader, so it will be important to share a number of specific stories. One way to structure this essay would be to open with a few sentences on your leadership style, and then present two or three specific situations from your past that imparted a crucial skill or taught a lesson that’s been important to the development of your leadership approach and philosophy.
Contact Clear Admit to learn more about our counseling services for Darden and other December/January MBA deadlines. You can set up a free initial chat with one of our admissions consultants by emailing your CV/resume to info@clearadmit.com.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 5, 2005, at 4:09 pm
Posted in: General The Financial Times recently published its second annual ranking of European business schools. Here are the ten schools that topped this year’s ranking (the full list of 50 is available here):
1. London Business School
2. INSEAD
3. IMD
4. IESE Business School
5. Instituto de Empressa
6. HEC Paris
7. University of Oxford Said
8. London School of Economics and Political Science
9. City University: Cass
9. Imperial College London: Tanaka
These results represent the combination of four previously published FT rankings (full-time MBA, EMBA, non-degree executive education, and European Masters in Management programs). To help readers to decipher the ranking, the paper also published an article about how to read the table, explaining how the four rankings were combined into one and explaining the main drivers behind each (post-degree salary and faculty research being the most prominent factors).
To accompany the ranking, the Financial Times is also featuring a number of articles on the evolving nature of business education at European schools. One of the most interesting in this month’s series offers a discussion of the positive and negative implications of the Bologna accord. Here’s an excerpt:
While US schools have large endowments and also a history of philanthropy from generous alumni, this is not the case in the UK. They do not have a similar pool of resources upon which to draw, he says. One of the real issues of Bologna, he points out, is the cost of the reforms. While some governments are providing funding, others are not and for business schools there will be significant costs.
However, at Iese Business School in Barcelona, dean Jordi Canals is optimistic, both about the future of the MBA in Europe and the impact of the Bologna accord on it.
He says the European MBA market is more stable than its US counterpart and once Bologna is fully implemented it will establish a stronger sense of mobility for European students.
He says: “I think Bologna will make things more transparent and the MBA degree will be strengthened and protected in brand awareness.” Currently, he says, some schools call their pre-experience general management masters programmes an MBA. After Bologna, programmes will be far more transparent and well- defined.
The full text of the article is available here.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 3, 2005, at 6:17 pm
Posted in: General This Sunday at 1 PM (EST), Manhattan GMAT’s Kelly Bellini and Zeke Vanderhoek will be leading a live online workshop to explain the basics of the GMAT exam and offer several key strategies for success. In addition, Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond will be joining the session to address questions about how the GMAT is used in MBA admissions.
Join us to find out the answers to these kinds of questions:
-Why do business schools give so much weight to the GMAT?
-What do they think the GMAT tests?
-Do schools have “internal” GMAT cutoffs?
-How much does a very high GPA compensate for a relatively weak GMAT score?
-How do schools evaluate verbal vs. quant?
-How do schools view multiple scores?
-If an applicant presents a weak AWA but beautifully written application essays, do schools immediately become wary?
-Could an applicant who scored poorly on the GMAT submit a high score from another exam (e.g., GRE, LSAT) to bolster an application?
You can register in advance at the following address, or simply click here to log in and enter the live, online GMAT workshop.
[The event is scheduled for Sunday, December 4th at 1 PM EST]
Posted by Clear Admit on December 2, 2005, at 3:01 pm
Posted in: Fridays from the Frontline This week’s installment of FFF opens with a look at our applicant bloggers, who it seems have either been racing to meet yesterday’s deadlines for Tuck and Stern or carefully pacing their work with an eye to January due dates. In spite of the frustration of slight dissatisfaction with an essay or shelling out for expensive express fees after overlooking the financial aid deadline, both Laserlikefocus and Sghama took a moment to revel in the submission of their materials to Tuck (as did Vatsa, whose sentiments were a bit less mixed) before turning their attention to other programs and getting right back to the essay-writing grind. Speaking of which, brownoski chronicles his struggle with Stanford’s open-ended topics (and the parallel struggle between the MS Word cursor and the AIM chat window), while Pupstar78 describes the potentially painful but ultimately productive process of extensive rewriting and seeking feedback on his Haas application. The rationale behind his choice of reviewer is particularly sound – recommended reading for those of you deciding with whom to share your rough drafts. Finally, it sounds as though Mave is making good progress on his Chicago essays after learning that inspiration can strike at even the most unlikely of times and places.
There’s also been a fair amount of activity among student bloggers over the past week. While Ben Dehghan has some time to enjoy the weather and welcomes winter to Ann Arbor, Mandar braces himself for crunch time at Chicago. Things are no easier internationally, as ISB Student Bharani experiences academic overload and Le MBA attests that there’s no rest for the weary at HEC, while at LBS KV crams for a finance exam and the Divine Miss N juggles life and work.
On a (thankfully) more relaxed note, INSEAD 06 shares some photos from the program’s Winter Ball in Singapore and George explains how IESE’s diversity has broadened his perspective, while Fuqua student Simba ponders the pros and cons of grade nondisclosure and CC celebrates next semester’s class schedule. On the recruiting side of the b-school experience, Mark updates readers on his well-documented interview process, BYU MBA passes his school’s career office’s resume advice along to his readership, and GSB Mennonite settles on his next step. Finally, it’s wonderful to see FutureMBA Girl look back on her experience at Wharton and realize that she’s ended up exactly where she wants to be.
Keep those posts coming (a request that applies especially to a few old friends who reemerged over the past few days) and have a great weekend!
Posted by Clear Admit on December 1, 2005, at 8:29 pm
Posted in: General With all the recent talk of interviews, we wanted to call our readers’ attention to an interview with Gabriel Hawawini, the current dean of INSEAD, that recently appeared in the New York Times. The discussion centers on the importance of admitting ethical individuals (still a hot topic in this season’s admissions process) and touches upon the role of alumni interviews in the screening process. Here’s an excerpt:
Q. Have you actually rejected someone because you didn’t like their values?
A. We have turned down candidates who had exceptional results on the GMAT and great letters of recommendation and outstanding degrees simply because two of our alumni said, “This individual is not going to fit.” Or they may have said, “We’re not comfortable with that person.” Of course, we have to be careful. That’s why we have two interviews. When both alumni send the wrong signal, we are extremely cautious about the applicant.
Q. What kind of behaviors would you like to screen out?
A. We look for people who say: “There are certain things that we are not going to do. We are going to play hard but respect the law. We will not mislead. We will be transparent. When operating in an environment in which corruption prevails, we will be very firm about what we believe in. We will make sure we don’t fall into the trap of saying: ‘Everyone else is doing it. I have to do it, too.’ ”
These comments demonstrate the role that alumni can play in the adcom’s evaluation of an applicant’s file. While INSEAD is unusual in their involvement of two alums with each applicant’s case (a great way to control for variability among individuals), other MBA programs that involve former students in the admissions process do so in part because they value an alum’s perspective on a candidate’s character and fit with the community. In addition to shedding light on this element of the admissions process, the article also underscores the importance of taking stock of one’s priorities and values, and articulating them in one’s application materials and interactions with people associated with their target schools.
The full text of the article is available here.
Posted by Clear Admit on December 1, 2005, at 2:41 pm
Posted in: Admissions Tips , Interview Tips In response to a request we received on the Studylink discussion forum, we wanted to offer some information and sample questions to readers getting ready for interviews at the Chicago GSB. Chicago has a new interview process for 2005-2006: not a surprise, given the fact that Wharton’s Rose Martinelli has taken over as Director of Admissions. This is the first year that all interviews will be conducted by invitation only (in the past, applicants could sign up for interviews). Despite the fact that interviews will occur after an initial review of the candidate’s file, they are still following a blind interview strategy (like Wharton) as opposed to a non-blind approach (like HBS or MIT). Interviews are now required for admission.
Based on the comments on the Chicago website about their new interview process, we expect that the new system will closely resemble that of Wharton. It’s most likely that the interview will be just one more component of the admissions process, worth no more or less than your GMAT score, your work experience, the quality of your recommendations, etc. That said, it’s also true that because the interview comes after an initial evaluation of your file, it can serve as the swing vote in your application.
Chicago Interview Sample Questions
-Who was your favorite college professor and why?
-What is one thing you would change about how you’ve performed your job in the last few years?
-What other schools are you applying to? Why is the GSB a better fit for you than any of your other choices?
-Would you be able to work with other students who are slower learners than yourself?
-What will you do next year if not admitted to business school?
-Do you know the name of the dean of the business school?
-What defines a challenge for you?
-If you could title a book about you, what would the title be?
Other Chicago Interview Resources
GSB Interview Discussion Forum (hosted by Chicago’s adcom)
BW Discussion Forum on Chicago R1 (a thread to discuss interviews and other elements of the process)
Studylink Chicago Interview Discussion (moderated by Clear Admit)
Remember that preparation and practice are crucial to interview success; in addition to reviewing the materials you submitted, we recommend that you spend some time putting your answers to anticipated questions into conversational language, making sure that you cover the most important points. Best of luck to everyone getting ready for this step in the process!
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