CornellInterview

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Below are interview reports from those who have interviewed with Cornell.

More detailed information on the Johnson School's academic resources, student culture, and social and professional opportunities can be found in the Clear Admit School Guide.

Please add your interview report directly above all other reports. Please also include the date you are publishing your report; the type of interview (adcom / alumni / student) and the admissions round for which you interviewed (R1 / R2 / R3).

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19. Round 2 / Alum / Telephonic (Published February 1st, 2010 as shared by MY MBA journey)

  • Brief me about your work post graduation
  • More follow up about the actual work
  • Tell me about a significant leadership experience
  • Tell me about a teamwork related conflict you faced
  • Why MBA
  • How did you make the choice about this career path
  • Have you done more research about this path?
  • Where else have you applied? Why?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision
  • Any questions?

18. Round 2 / Second Year Student with Adcom present / On-campus (Published January 7th, 2010)

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, not gloom of night shall keep me from my appointed interviews! Borrowing that from the USPS, I figured that was a pretty good recap of my weekend. Friday night, Danielle and I had dinner with friends and we didn’t get back until pretty late. We slept in until about 9ish on Saturday, which was a welcome relief from the stresses of the past week. The original plan was to drive up to Ithaca on Sunday and stay at the Statler hotel, which is a hotel on Cornell’s campus that is student run. The only problem was the huge freaking blizzard that was scheduled to hit the northeast on Saturday. I didn’t think much of it at first until I spoke with my mother (who lives near Philly) who informed me that 8 inches of snow had just fallen in the first hour of the storm. It was right about that time that I panicked…

My fiancée and I started running around the apartment packing everything for the weekend. It was about 11:30 and the storm was supposed to hit NYC around 1, so there wasn’t much time to waste. I quickly called and booked a room at the Courtyard Marriott Ithaca, for the night (because I didn’t really want to pay another $250 to stay at the Statler for an additional night). We made great time up to Ithaca and didn’t see a drop of snow. The trip had started very well…

We found a local bar to eat at called “The Rose” and had a pretty good meal, with the locals seeming very friendly. It was pretty cold at night, so we didn’t hang around for very long. We made our way back to hotel and went to bed.

Sunday brought another day. We wanted to explore a little, so we went to an early movie to see Avatar (in 3D). I highly, highly recommend this to anyone who might want to see it. The theater in Ithaca was pretty spectacular. We only paid $11/person for a 3D movie. I am used to paying that for a normal Saturday movie in NYC…pretty good snack choices as well.

We then went to check into the Statler hotel. It is a beautiful hotel and they gave us a room with a view of the valley that is below Cornell. The campus is very much an IVY league campus, with brick and old stone throughout the buildings. We settled in and watched some football. After watching the Jets choke their game away, we went to the hotel restaurant. It was a very nice Italian place with a nice view of campus. After dinner we settled back into our hotel room and I tried to get some sleep before the big day…

It was no use, 10 o’clock turned into 11, into 12…I finally fell asleep around 12:30, only to wake up at 2:30! After some restlessness, I went back to bed around 3:30 and woke up at 7, so not terrible, but not a great night’s sleep either. I got up, ordered some breakfast and got dressed for my interview.

I arrived at around 8:50 for my 9:15 interview and waited in the admissions office until my interviewer arrived. I was supposed to be interviewing with an adcom, but was told that she would be joined by a 2nd year student. I didn’t know if this was good or bad, but I had to just roll with the punches. The 2nd year student arrived (along with the adcom) around 9:20 and after introductions, we made our way to a conference room.

The 2nd year told that this was going to be very conversational and that he would be conducting the interview under the supervision of the adcom. He started by telling me about himself and about his time at Johnson. Then we started the interview. Here are the questions that he asked, I don’t think you are going to find them as helpful because he tailored the interview to my work experience and the flow of our discussion.

  • Tell me why you chose your college.
  • Tell me about your internship at Bear Stearns.
  • Anything you saw that made you not surprised that it went out of business?
  • Tell me what ICAP (current company) is and what you do.
  • What 3 changes need to be made to fix the financial system?
  • Do you like the VaR model?
  • What is its main drawback?
  • What other schools are you applying to and why?
  • What is the main difference between Tuck and Johnson in your eyes?
  • Tell me how your teammates would describe you as a team member? (work and ex. curricular)
  • Asked me a long hypothetical question about morals and wanted me to detail my thought process for him.
  • Any questions for me?

The interview lasted for almost an hour and after that time I was escorted back to the admissions office. After that I met with Randall Sawyer, the assistant dean of admissions. We chatted about life in Ithaca and what having a partner there would mean. It was a really nice talk and it really helped with some of my concerns.The only bad part about the conversation was Randall telling me that I would still have to wait until Feb 15th to hear anything back. I had hoped that it would be rolling instead of a deadline…

With the interview and my interaction with some of the students, Johnson has zoomed past Stern to #1 on my list (of 2). I really loved the scenery of Ithaca and the small town feel. I think it would be the perfect place to spend 2 years and I am really hoping that I get some good news in February!

17. Round 2 / Telephone / Adcom (Originally shared by Choc Heaven. Published March 16th, 2009)

I had my Johnson (Cornell) interview last night, which lasted for 40 minutes. It was on the phone with an ad-com representative, and was a blind interview. The questions were pretty routine:

  • Why MBA, why now, what are your post-MBA plans?
  • Discussion on your career to date, what roles you have had, skills learned etc.
  • Example of a time when you had a conflict in team and how you reacted to it.
  • Example of a leadership situation - where you had to convince a colleague or team about something they disagreed with.
  • Why Cornell? This I feel is the most important aspect for Johnson. They really want to see how motivated you are to attend Johnson, whether you'll be a good fit, and whether you actually have an idea of what they prize themselves on
  • What 3 adjectives would I use to describe you to the Admissions committee?
  • What student clubs are you interested in?
  • What Immersion Program will you join?
  • Any questions for me?

To read more of Choc-Heaven's interview account click here.

16. Round 2 / On-campus / Adcom / Accepted! (Published February 9th, 2009)

I interviewed on campus in January. School was not fully in session when I visited, but all the first year students were around for their Immersions. As such, walking around at Sage Hall, I was able to converse with multiple current students regarding their experience.

I would highly recommend doing the info session BEFORE the interview. I found it very helpful, and was able to relate what I saw during the information session to answer questions of why I was a good fit at Cornell during the interview.

My interview was with an adcom member in the late afternoon. She was very cordial, and being my first MBA interview experience, it was very simple. Having read all the previous Clear Admit interview experiences, and having practiced my answers out loud extensively (probably 3 or 4 run throughs with another person) I was prepared for all of her questions.

They included:

  • Walk me through your resume/life story.
  • Why MBA?
  • Why now?
  • Why Cornell?
  • What immersion would you be interested in and why?
  • What 3 qualities do you believe a leader must have? Which of these is your weakest?
  • Tell me about the most difficult professional experience you've had.
  • What other schools are you applying to and why?
  • What questions do you have for me?

She also went over a couple of the activities that I had listed on my resume. If there is something regarding your extracirriculars you would like to talk about, I advise putting it on your resume. Also, a couple of these questions were in response to something that I said, so it is possible to lead the conversation in the direction that you desire.

I was accepted in R2 with a partial scholarship. Good luck to everyone!

15. Round 2 / Alumni (Published February 6th, 2009)

I had applied to R2 and I had the alumni interview. He had not seen my application. The alumni was very friendly and the interview was mostly in the form of conversation.

  • Walk through your resume
  • Why MBA and why Now
  • Short term/Long term goals
  • Why Johnson School of business
  • Most difficult decision in my professional life
  • Most innovative solution
  • Example of motivation in professional life
  • Style of leadership
  • challenging thing in the job
  • Any questions for me

14. On-campus / 2 yr student / Round 2/admitted with scholarship (Published on February 4, 2009)

I had a interview on-campus at the Cornell Johnson School yesterday for the November application round. To my surprise, the admission staff didn't even mention other options, just let me choose which time is OK for me to have the interview on campus. I drove up the morning before from New York City (4 hour drive), toured around the campus, talked to some students I contacted before and stayed at the super8 motel downtown(cheap but great). On campus parking is free for admission visitors, so don't worry about parking. Just drive to one of the four info booth and identify yourself as admission visitor they'll give a parking permit, a map and a clear direction about where to park, how to get there. (the staff in the info booth was a pretty blonde student worked as a part-time!)

My interview was with a 2nd year student who had already signed his offer, so he really spent some time reading my resume and made marks and prepared specific questions. We talked in one of the breakout room (no. 121). Although it's a blind interview, I found the interview a little bit challenging than other reported interviews but the interviewer was nice and I believe I've also prepared well. It lasted about 50 minutes.

Questions Asked:

  • I've read through your resume and let's start with your most recent one, ok?
  • The employment gap? what did you do?
  • Why MBA?
  • why now?
  • which specific area and location are you interested in? (related to my goal)
  • what's your 3 strongest strengths and weakness?
  • How will you work in a difficult team situation, when someone don't even care to contribute?
  • What other schools are you applying to?
  • what activities will you join if admitted? anything specifically interested in Johnson?
  • What questions do you have for me?
  • In addition to these questions he asked many follow-up questions that were specific to my responses.

I also scheduled a class visit / information session / lunch (only 7 dollar coupon for 1 person, other schools I visited even provided for my girl friend) / tour with current students, which I found not so helpful.

When I drove back to NY in the afternoon, the snow came. The Pocono Mt was all in snow and very difficult to even see the road. The location of Ithaca really is a problem for some others, but I'm OK.

13. Adcom / On-campus / Round 2 (Published February 3rd, 2009)

I interviewed on-campus at the Cornell Johnson School last week for the November application round. I drove up the night before from New York City (4 hour drive) and stayed at the Holiday Inn hotel downtown. The morning of my interview I found easy parking at a municipal parking garage in Collegetown and walked up to campus (5 minute walk) instead of trying to find on-campus parking. My interview was with a member of the Admissions Committee in their office. He had a copy of my resume and a report from the application reader. I found the interview to be very conversational and a great experience. It lasted about 45 minutes.

Questions Asked:

  • Walk me through your background
  • How did you end up at your current job?
  • What do you do for fun outside of work?
  • Why Cornell?
  • Why do you want an MBA?
  • What do you plan to use your MBA for?
  • How would your friends describe you?
  • What other schools are you applying to?
  • What are you reading right now?
  • What do your parents do?
  • What questions do you have for me?
  • In addition to these questions he asked many follow-up questions that were specific to my responses. I paired my interview with the information session / lunch / tour with current students, which I found extremely helpful. However, I could not attend a class given my timing constraints. I came away in love with Cornell's campus. Ithaca seemed like a great place to spend 2 years if you're looking for somewhere a little more rural, like I am after spending 4+ years in NYC.

12. Round 2 / Adcom / On-campus (Published January 28th, 2009)

I found the Johnson School very helpful during the application process. When I was asked to interview, they assigned me a contact in the admissions office and also provided a login to a portal to search for students using various criteria (clubs/ undergrad institution / nationality / similar post-MBA interests) etc. - you can reach out these students who have volunteered to help prospective applicants.

My interview was on campus in Ithaca. I was interviewed by a student and adcom. Blind interview - they just had a copy of my resume. Standard questions, very conversational - most questions were based on my prior response. 1 hour.

List of interview questions (quite standard)

  • Resume walk through
  • Why MBA, why now?
  • Why Johnson School?
  • leadership examples?
  • teamwork examples?
  • Post-MBA plans - short and long term?
  • How will I contribute and be an active member of the Johnson community?
  • My strengths?
  • My weaknesses?
  • how will my friends describe me?
  • time for questions

Ithaca is an absolutely beautiful place! Very impressed with everything - smart and friendly students, the classes I sat in on were interesting with good class participation - and my interview was handled extremely well too.

11. Round 3 / Adcom / On-campus (Published April 7th, 2008)

  • Tell me about your class visit and experience on-campus so far
  • Link together the different parts of your resume for me (including goals)
  • Why MBA?
  • What other schools are you applying to?
  • What makes you nervous about business school?
  • How do you deal with failure? Give an example.
  • Describe a difficult team-based situation
  • What is your greatest achievement?
  • How will you contribute to Cornell?
  • Where would you like to work after MBA?
  • What do you do in your free time?

10. Round 3 / Second Year Student (Published March 14th, 2008)

I interviewed with a 2nd year student.

  1. Resume walk-through
  2. Leadership example
  3. "Bad team" example
  4. How would your coworkers describe you?
  5. Why aren't you applying to X double-degree program if you are interested in X field?
  6. What are the similarities/differences of the schools to which you applied?

I integrated a lot of "Why Johnson" and named some of the courses, opportunities, and activities that attract me to the school.

9. On campus interview with Admissions Officer R1, Nov 12 2007 (Published Dec 11, 2007 by MBAyatra)

This post describes my Cornell interview experience.

I received the Cornell interview invite email on October 31, 2007. The email mentioned the name of the contact person and asked me to schedule an interview by calling her up. Also if I was in the US, the email mentioned a preference for on-campus interview. So Ithaca it was!

This being my first interview invite of the year, I was very excited and called up the admissions contact person, the first thing next morning. I was able to schedule an interview over the phone after discussing about 2/3 alternative dates and finally interviewed about 10 days after the invite.

On the day on the interview…..

My interviewer was a person from the admissions office. There was also a second year student who sat through the interview for training purposes. It was the student's first day at the interviewing practice and hence he did not participate in asking questions. But after interactions with fellow interviewers, I learnt that from the second interview, second year students start taking active roles and adcoms starts being more passive observers.

The interview was very conversational and there were no odd ball questions.

Questions I was asked for my Cornell interview:

  1. Resume Walk-through
  2. Why MBA
  3. If you have been so successful in your earlier jobs, why do you want to pursue an MBA
  4. Why Cornell
  5. Leadership example
  6. Long term short term goals
  7. I see that you are passionate about XXX, how would you incorporate that in your future work?
  8. How would your subordinates describe you?
  9. Team/work situation someone was difficult to deal with
  10. Other schools applied to.
  11. Any questions you have for the interviewer.

I had prepared for the interview, by reading my resume, reading all my application essays for Cornell and by reading various interview experiences online at clearadmit and accepted interview feedback

Good luck to all of you for any upcoming interviews!

8. On Campus Interview with Admissions Officer R2, Jan 07. (Published June 9, 2007)

My initial campus visit and meetings with admissions staff and students were excellent. Very cordial and collegial environment.

Interview Day: 1:00 PM Interview. Arrived at Sage Hall at 12:30, reported to Admissions Staff and let them know that I will be relaxing in the Atrium. Checked back in at 1:00 PM was told that interviewer was at lunch and I would be picked up from the Atrium. 1:15 PM saw interviewer and several other admissions staff stroll into the Atrium with brown bags. 1:45 PM they are still having lunch. 2:15 PM Everyone finishes lunch and walks away, I am still waiting to be interviewed. 2:30 PM Admissions Staff escorts me to interviewer's office. I was kind of ticked off with this tardiness/lack of professionalism. I expected to be informed if the interview was delayed. I had to refocus and compose myself real fast.

The interview questions were pretty straightforward. It almost looked like the interviewer had a standard list of questions - posted on this site by previous interviewers. Here are the questions I was asked:

  1. Why do you want an MBA? Why not Law or MPP/MPA ?
  2. Why Cornell?
  3. What are your long-term and short-term goals?
  4. What other schools are you applying to? What are the similarities and differences of those schools compared to Cornell?
  5. Did you ever have a team situation where someone was hard to deal with?
  6. What will you add to Johnson?
  7. How do you see yourself fitting in at Johnson?
  8. How do you handle conflicts?
  9. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  10. How would your co-workers describe you?
  11. What are three characteristics that make a great leader? Give examples of your leadership experience.
  12. How do your plan to pursue your post-MBA job search? (based on my essay and resume)
  13. Questions about Johnson?

I asked a few questions about Ithaca, opportunities for partners to work/study at Cornell.

Thanks to previous posters I was able to handle all questions without much surprises. The second part of question 4 made me think a bit, but my response seem to have resonated well.

Except for the delay on interview day I was very happy with the Johnson environment.

7. Telephonic Interview with AdCom Round 1 (Admitted. Published February 2007)

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

Some of the questions were:-

1. Why MBA? Why now?

2. Career goals and how would Johnson help?

3. Tell me about your leadership experience. There were some follow up questions on this.

4. Tell me about your team-experience. What do you don't like about working in teams?

5. What other activities are you interested in?

6. What other programs are you applying to? what is common between these programs and what are the distinguishing points of Cornell.

7. What are your strengths? Which three of your qualities would you like me to tell the AdCom?

8. Then he passed the ball to me and said i can ask some questions to him. I asked a few questions.

So, all in all it was a good interview. It was very interactive and interesting.

6. On Campus Interview (Published 2006)

My Cornell interview was pretty straight forward. It lasted about 45 minutes with a woman from admissions. It was a blind interview, so she did not see my application, just my resume. It was mostly conversational, although she did have a list of questions and took many notes. The interview started with me going through my background and resume. Some of the questions she asked:

  1. Why MBA? Why Cornell?
  2. Specific leadership examples
  3. Working with teams, any conflicts encountered, how did I resolved them.
  4. Types of companies I am interested in working for after getting MBA

Overall, the interview was pretty standard. No tricky questions. One important note about my experience visiting Cornell - I interviewed right after the New Year when no students were around. I didn't get a true feeling of the campus or students.

5. Interview w/ Alum in Bay Area; Round 2 - Interviewed: February 28, 2006 (Published Mar. 4 2006)

Met with the alum in a coffee shop. We conversed for about 1 hour. She spoke extremely fast and practically read the entire list of questions sent to her by Johnson.

  1. How did you select your current/previous job(s)?
  2. Why do you want an MBA?
  3. Why Cornell?
  4. What are your long-term and short-term goals?
  5. What other schools are you applying to?
  6. How would your co-workers describe you?
  7. What are three characteristics that make a great leader?
  8. What drives you? What makes you get up in the morning each day?
  9. Tell me a team situation where someone was hard to deal with.
  10. Tell me a team situation where you faced an obstacle.
  11. Tell me a time when you directly had a conflict with another team member.
  12. What will you add to Johnson?
  13. Name three characteristics that you will bring to your Cornell classmates.
  14. Tell me about a significant accomplishment and what impact you created.
  15. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your Johnson application?
  16. How do you approach a problem?
  17. What is an innovative solution you came up with for a problem you dealt with?
  18. Anything more about you that you want Johnson to know?

She challenged several of my answers and made me think harder for the less-than-obvious. Her blunt personality and straight-forward approach demonstrated her academic-driven nature. She was very supportive, however, offering me feedback, suggesting that I ask about scholarship opportunities, and replying to my 'thank you' e-mail with more course recommendations as a follow-up to our conversation

4. Round 3, On Campus Interview, Early February (Published February 2006)

A very pleasant interview. The admissions rep I interviewed with was experienced and professional. The interview was very much like a conversation in that she let one answer lead to another question. She was directing the flow of the conversation so that she got the information she needed, but without peppering me with questions. She also talked with me about a few of my answers. In other words, she wasn't just there asking questions. I felt very comfortable, and more importantly, I felt that I was taken seriously. The usual questions were in there (Why an MBA? Why now? Why here? Where else are you applying and why?), but the rest of the questions were just further queries about my responses and questions about my resume. There were no oddball questions, or cheesy attempts to throw me off guard, just a serious consideration of my work experience. The interview went considerably longer than scheduled.

If I were to advise people on how to prepare for the Johnson interview, I'd say that you should be able to make a story out of your resume, because the focus will likely be more on that than on behavioral questions. Cornell seems very focused on understanding your work experience and getting a sense of whether or not you'll fit in there.

3. Round 2 Admit, On Campus Interview (Published February 2006)

Interviewed on Campus. The woman I interviewed with was incredibly personable and friendly. She had my resume on the table when I came in and explained that the interview would be more like a conversation. I spent a lot of time taking her through my resume. While I was doing so, she guided me to tell her the following information:

  1. Why go to business school now?
  2. Why Cornell?
  3. How do you generally solve problems?
  4. How do you think you'll be able to handle leaving the hustle and bustle of NYC to come to small-town Ithaca?
  5. Seeing as though you have not worked in any quantitative background, why do you think that you'll be able to handle the quantitative aspect of the MBA?

No unexpected or difficult questions. I heard from another interviewee that he was asked to list his strengths and weaknesses.

2. On Campus Interview with Admissions Director. (Published Fall 2005)

The Cornell interview is done. It was with the director of admissions. I can't say how it went (poker-faced interviewers in the US!). It was certainly very conversational, very comfortable and went on for about an hour - even though it was supposed to be 30 minutes. I don't know if that reflects poorly on my time management or something - we digressed many times to talk about more non-professional things (long chats on travel and my community work). But I guess that's the way the interviewer took the discussion flow - so I'm not too bothered. It was a semi-blind interview in the sense that the interviewer hadn't read my application but had some questions from the person in the admissions office who had read it. although i could not make out which were the blind versus the non-blind questions. Unusual things about the interview: the first question was why mba (absolutely no buildup and that threw me off for a minute). Which other schools are you applying to (very very surprised to get this in a formal interview, so much so i ended up being honest about it). If there are 3 things I should write about you to the admissions committee in my interview report what should they be (this was the last question, and again found it difficult to pick up 3 things without ever thinking about this before). extensive notes taken throughout. The regular other questions: tell me about your work, how did you resolve conflict, how did you develop someone under you. I think i made a strong case for why cornell - especially the immersion program and the curriculum flexibility. i also think i showed that i liked my fit to the school and ithaca.

one of the things i felt at Cornell is that they seem really concerned about whether Cornell is really the top school for an applicant. i don't know if that's from a ranking perspective where they want their yields to go up or something. that's partly why i feel i got the which other schools question. but maybe I’m perceiving this incorrectly - perhaps they are just very very concerned about fit.

1. Round 4, Interview with 2nd Year student, On-campus (Published Fall 2005)

My experience at Cornell was extremely positive. The 2nd year student was very friendly and easy to talk to. The interview was very conversational. She introduced herself and gave me her educational and professional history first. The interview was blind and she had my resume printed out and ready. I felt that it was very easy to direct the conversation myself by bringing up certain experiences as well as telling her that I would like to back up and explain such and such before so that she could better understand my decisions. She wanted to get a good feel of what I currently did and why I made the choices that I did - in undergrad as well as during my job search.

She definitely wanted to know WHY CORNELL and asked me to elaborate after I gave her my answer. And she asked Why MBA and Why now. There were no unexpected questions and no difficult questions, although another prospective did tell me that he got the "How would your friends describe you" question, which I did not get. It was definitely conversational and she chimed in with things about Cornell that matched up with my interests and goals.

I would tell you to know why you want to go to Cornell and to be specific about it. Don't give the normal answers everyone else will give. Also, know what makes you unique and make sure to get that across to your interviewer.

After my visit, I have to say that Cornell is at the top of my list. The people were exceptional and the community truly is unique.

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