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Home » Interview Reports » Columbia Business School MBA Interview Questions & Report: J-Term / Alumnus / Off-campus

Columbia Business School MBA Interview Questions & Report: J-Term / Alumnus / Off-campus

Published: March 6, 2019
Image for Columbia Business School MBA Interview Questions & Report: J-Term / Alumnus / Off-campus

My Columbia Business School interview was in a coffee shop with an Alumnus that graduated MBA 2018. The atmosphere was relaxed but a bit noisy.

Questions

  1. Why MBA
  2. Why now
  3. What happens if you don’t get into Columbia
  4. Walk me through your resume.
  5. How will I engage with the Columbia community, what clubs I would join.
  6. Challenges I face during work.

Interviewer seemed disengaged and didn’t know much about Columbia’s “recruiting” events for prospective students. Also didn’t know much about the Healthcare program though she was a part of it.

Advice

Read cues and notice when you are oversharing / too enthusiastic and need to back off.

Schools: Columbia Business School

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The interview was warm and conversational. They started by sharing their own background, then asked me to walk through mine from scratch. Most of the questions were behavioral and not the standard list, so I had to think on my feet. There was plenty of time at the end for questions. Prepare a few flexible stories that you can adapt to unexpected behavioral questions – I hadn’t seen any of these questions in my prep so was a little frazzled. Be specific on “Why Ross” (MAP, REAL, specific companies). Questions asked: Walk me through your background and why you want Read more

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Interview was pretty straightforward. It was conversational and there were no curveballs or trick questions. They emphasized that they’re looking at culture fit, alignment with the core values, and whether you work well with others. Come in with a roadmap for your two years and a clear idea of what you want to do post-MBA. Talk to student ambassadors if you can prior to your interview to get an idea of what the program is like – they asked if I had done this. Questions asked: Why business school? What would an ideal post-MBA job look like? How will Kenan-Flagler Read more
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