Interview Reports
Every interview report is filed in our archive, which includes over 1,000 submissions from MBA applicants. Visit the All Schools page or use the navigation tool found in the sidebar to view reports by school.
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London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumni / Off Campus
My interview was in the alumini´s house. (Because of a personal compliciation, she re-scheduled once and only could interview me at her home). It lasted about 1 hour.
The questions were the following:
-Why an MBA? Why LBS?
-Tell me about a time you lead a team
-Tell me about a time you work with a complicated person
-What is your type of leadership?
-3 strenghts
-2 weaknesses
-Tell me about an experience under a diverse environment
-Also, she asked some questions about my essays (as to double check the credibility of the stories).
The business case was about Future Digital Trends in retail.
The interview was really quickly, aprox. 30 minutes.
We spent the other 20 minutes with the alumna sharing her experience at the school. (This part was in Spanish)
Good luck!
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Group Interview with Second Year Student / On Campus
The first part of the interview was a group discussion in which candidates shared an investment idea for innovation, one of Wharton’s “pillars.” The interview was completely unstructured – the two second year students who act as moderators sit in the corners of the room and take notes. For approximately 40 minutes, we all discussed our ideas and molded/sculpted one of them into a presentable and workable investment opportunity. Everyone was cordial, respectful and open. Some of the candidates were less succinct but all in all, I felt that everyone was able to get their points across. Certainly not a format that lends itself well to candidates who are extremely shy but for those who aren’t afraid to speak up, it isn’t as frightening as other interview formats.
Once the group interview had concluded, each candidate was brought back in for a one on one in which one of the moderators, who had not reviewed my application in advance, asked me a few behavioral type questions.
1) Tell me about yourself / Walk me through your resume
2) What do you see yourself doing at Wharton
3) What do you want to do after achieving your MBA
4) Do you have any questions for me
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: EA Round / AdCom / New Delhi
As a reapplicant, I was absolutely thrilled to receive my interview assignment during the visit of a member of the Adcom who would also be hosting a reception for interested students the night before.
Interview Questions:
- Walk me through your resume (you should know this one really well. ,make sure you cover the entire resume and not just the job part of it)
- Tell me more about your work and your company (niche industry)
- Tell me about a challenge at work and ow you navigated it
- What are your three biggest strengths that you’ll bring to Tuck
- What is one weakness that you feel hampers success at work the most
- What are your career goals and how will Tuck help you? (Answered it) follow up question: ok, whats the alternate plan? (Answered that) ok, whats the second alternative (she really drilled me on this question overall)
- Why Tuck? (This was my strongest answer)
- Any questions for me (asked her about the centers at Tuck)
Thats it. Thirty nerve wracking minutes and finally an admit
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Video interview
Last week, I did the video interview. Here are the questions as I remember them:
- What would your colleagues and friends say are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Please describe a creative solution that you have come up with for a problem.
- With businesses becoming more global, does the importance of local culture decrease or increase?
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Video interview
Hi, I took the Round 3 video interview.
1. What contribution did you provide for your company?
2. If you have a struggle with classmates, how will you solve it?
3. What is your biggest concern of the Admissions Committee in evaluating your application?
Good luck!
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Second year student / On campus
I had an great experience. Students were every open about their Booth experience. Walking into the Harper Center, you immediately go to the Admissions office and are welcomed by several 1st yrs who are there solely to calm you down and have a conversation with about their time at Chicago.
Before arriving, I contacted several students from clubs I was interested in and was able to have lunch with them to understand their experience. This also acted as a informal interview so I could beter hone in on what questions I would be asked. Be prepared to answer the “Why Booth” question and have several reasons why because fit is VERY important at Chicago. Since I’m from NYC, they want to know why I was interested in coming to the mid-west. If you are a R3 candidate (which I am), they will want to know what schools you have applied and been accepted to. I have already been accepted at several top schools and decided to apply to Booth R3 so I was able to speak intelligently about this. Be prepared. Furthermore, students will challenge you on your choices/ideas, which makes sense because students do the same in class. Its a very engaging environment but not for the faint of heart.
My actual interview was very conversational and friendly. The 2nd yr started with asking me to walk through my resume. Then he asked me about my leadership experience and how I deal with conflict, disappointment, failure, convincing others of my ideas and motivational tactics. Make sure you can tell a story about each experience and have concrete points to make. In this case I utilized the Clear Admit interview packet and it was a HUGE asset. I didn’t purchase the packet for a a different school and I was WL’ed and I definitely think it was because of my interview.
The only thing that surprised was how easy the conversation went. Overall I loved my Booth interview experience and hopefully I will attend Chicago in the fall.
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Alumnus / Off-campus
1. Walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself
2. Why an MBA?
3. Why LBS?
4. Tell me about a time when you had to work with someone really challenging and had conflict. How did you manage that situation?
5. How do you deal with stress?
6. Tell me about a time when you failed and what you learned from it.
7. What is a serious business challenge that businesses today should be working on?
8. How has business management changed over time?
Presentation Topic:
Companies like Amazon and Starbucks are paying little to no corporate tax yet are making hundreds of millions of dollars and pounds in revenue.
Do you think that corporations have a moral obligation to pay tax? Should governments intervene? There has been a lot of public shaming of the companies, do consumers have a right to complain?
5 mins to prepare, 5 mins to present.
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Alumnus / Off-campus
First, some of my key takeaways:
1. Don’t stress out.
2. Turn it into a conversation by inviting them into your story. This takes vulnerability, but pays dividends. My interviewer, at the end, said that he’d like to stay in touch as a mentor.
3. You need to be able to communicate how what you accomplished is valuable to the London Business School, and be specific. Don’t just say what you did, relate it to how you will take that experience and use it to enrich LBS in these three ways.
Here are the questions I was asked:
1. Walk me through your résumé. (Thank God! Allowed me to set proper context for the rest of the interview, because essentially he was asking me to tell him my story.)
2. Specifics about roles in companies.
3. I work in business development/digital marketing, so he asked how I got some of the clients I did.
4. Why MBA? (Convince them that the MBA is mandatory for your next step in life. Make up your mind, be very concrete. I want to work in this type of consulting, here’s why, and LBS is the mandatory step.)
5. I run a start-up, so he asked: Why don’t you just continue what you’re doing?
6. Why LBS? What makes London Business School unique? (Know this! It needs to be differentiated, not generic. If you could give the same answer for INSEAD, or Harvard, then you’re not answering the question.)
7. What are you going to do if you don’t get in?
8. What are your objectives for the program? What do you want to get out of it?
9. What will you do over the summer quarter if you get in?
10. What role will you play in your small group?
11. How will you handle tough situations with people very different from you?
12. I’m married, so he asked me if my wife is prepared?
The presentation was at the end. He gave me 2 (yes, TWO) minutes to prepare, and 5 minutes to present.
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 3 / Second-year student / On-Campus
I interviewed with a second-year who works in admissions. It was very informal, and lasted about an hour. Below are the questions she asked me:
-Walk me through your résumé
-Tell me a time when you faced a conflict
-Tell me about your leadership style / how did you develop it?
-Why Kellogg? Why MBA?
-What do you plan to do after school?
-What will you contribute on campus?
-What questions do you have for me?
Then she asked me a few questions about two items on my resume.
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alumnus / Off-campus
The interview was at the alum’s place of employment. I was dressed formally and prepared fairly diligently by using personal resources as well as some of the posts found here. When I was given my choice of interviewers, I found that all of the alum offered were recent graduates. My alum was more or less of my age. We ran through some of the typical talking points:
- Walk me through your resume.
- Why B-school.
- Why Columbia.
- What I will add to Columbia.
- Backup plan if I don’t get in (I’m an entrepreneur and this question was stressed big time).
- Am I applying to other schools, and specifically, to what other schools am I applying?
I went through each of the questions and felt fairly prepared for each response. I felt comfortable, but tried to not let my guard down too much. I think that balance is key in these “casual” interview situations.
I would advise candidates to be on guard for alum interviews with a hyper-competitive tone. Although the interview was supposed to be “pretty casual” and indeed my interviewer seemed nice at the outset, the conversation quickly turned into a constant comparison of my profile with that of my interviewer and her friends. As an example, after asking which schools I had applied to, I was given a comparison of some higher-ranked schools that she considered and where her friends had attended. My interviewer proceeded to implicitly justify her decision to go to CBS by saying that since she was staying in NY, she just wanted to go to the “best school in New York”. (She seemed to imply that otherwise, she would have attended schools with her “friends in Massachusetts and California”). Kind of interesting to see an alum put their school below H/S but I played it cool thinking she was just trying to ruffle my feathers and/or gauge my response.
Professional goals were also on the table. As an entrepreneur, I was asked about back-up plans and “why an MBA”, especially given that my interviewer’s friends/contacts did not need an MBA to pursue their entrepreneurial goals. Again, I tried to calmly re-state my case for CBS by emphasizing courses, profs and resources that would accelerate goals. Also mentioned that CBS was a real dream school for me and I mentioned ways in which I was committed to contributing to the community.
One last thing: about 40 minutes into the interview, I felt my throat getting dry while speaking. Although I wasn’t offered water at the beginning of the interview, I felt it might be a little strange to ask my interviewer to get me some water. Eventually I did so (as politely as possible), but on a very basic level, I still find it pretty odd.
We closed by talking about how CBS helped her in her field and how it was necessary to achieve her goals. She seemed to think that although the skills gained didn’t apply directly to what she was doing, they did help to give her more insight into the managerial process. At this time, she had an upbeat tone when talking about the school.
Post-interview summary: I’m not really sure what to make of the interview/interviewer. I have friends currently in CBS and who’ve graduated and all of them are pretty cool and friendly. Maybe the school asked her to be tough? I think the interview went well in the sense that I smoothly handled perhaps one of the more awkward, if not competitive, interview experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
Tuck MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Off-campus / Alum
The interview went well and it seems very promising. Hope to hear back soon with good news. The interview had quite a few people and the atmosphere was very somber. She asked me question about was were my plans for the future and about my education. My experience was very enjoyable and very surprised about how calm I became as the interview went on. There was not really surprises but just a relief that things went so well.
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