Our archive of over 2,000 MBA admissions interview questions includes self-reported accounts from applicants. Please use the dropdown menu to view filter reports by school.
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Published: December 17, 2011
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-campus
I had my GSB interview on December 7. It lasted for one hour and a half. All the questions given to me were behavioral questions. I was frequently interrupted and challenged, and was encouraged to dig more and more into the underlying reasons for my actions. Due to this approach, I cannot remember the exact questions. It went like: I started with Question A; 30 seconds later, I was re-directed to Question B, because my interview made a query about the part I just stated. I do remember that no questions are atypical, and you can find them on this
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Published: December 13, 2011
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd year student / On-Campus
Hi all. Posting some time after my Round 1 on-campus interview, which really wasn’t so bad. The person who interviewed me was extremely friendly, and there were folks out in the admissions office waiting room who keep you calm by chatting with you. The questions (I might be forgetting a few, but these stand out): Walk me through your resume. Why do you want to go to business school?/What are your long-term goals? Why Booth? Talk about a time when you led a project that failed. How do you motivate people? How would you describe yourself in three words? What
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Published: December 4, 2011
UVA / Darden MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year Student / On Campus
I had a 1st round interview on campus with a second-year student. It was a very pleasant experience. The interviewer gave a quick introduction of the interview format, explaining that she had not seen my resume or the rest of my application. She set up the interview with a single, long request that basically went as follows: I am here for you to tell me your story. Just tell me about yourself. In the process you can cover, college, anything before college if relevant, your resume, why MBA and why Darden. It was effectively a monologue from there. I paused
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Published: December 4, 2011
UVA / Darden MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 – Consortium / Ad Com / On campus / Admitted!
I had an interview on campus with the assistant dean of admissions. She was incredibly friendly and made it a very relaxed conversation. She asked me to speak for the first 30 minutes about my story, staring with high school and taking her up to where I am now, why an MBA and why Darden specifically. The last 10-15 minutes were reserved for me to ask questions. I agree with the person below about preparing your entire story from start to finish. I practiced mine for a week and even recorded it in a webcam to get a sense of
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Published: December 4, 2011
Kellogg MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Ad Com / On Campus
When I showed up for my Kellogg interview (part time mba), I was asked to present my resume and fill out some paper work regarding my career goals, short and long, and my intended concentrations at Kellogg. Interviewer, though ad com, was very informal. Had a little chat about the lovely Chicago downtown, life in general! Then got down to brass tacks. The interview was pretty much spelling out the essays and ensuring I wasn’t making things up or got someone to write it for me! (B4 the interview, I did spend about an hour or so talking out loud
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Published: December 4, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
Interviewer jumped straight into behavioral questions without any background, resume or the three why questions. She used the remaining time for me to ask questions, which I used to piggy back on her responses to include my “whys.” Interview lasted about 35 minutes or so. The questions that I got were (paraphrasing): Tell me about a time you were managing a team and you perceived the outcome to be a failure. Tell me about a time you managed someone who was much more senior to you. (The answer I gave was an example that had gone smoothly, so she asked
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Published: December 4, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
The interviewer started by telling me a bit about himself and then asked about me. I was able to work in a little bit about “Why MBA” here, but the question was never explicitly asked. He then proceeded to ask me three questions out of a list of 5 (likely the same 5 that others posted below). He did ask a few follow-up questions during each question, but mainly just let me answer while he took notes. After the three questions, he stopped note taking and asked if I had any questions. This is where I included “Why Wharton” since
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Published: December 4, 2011
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Final year part time student / On-Campus
At Booth, it was a student in his final year of the part time program. This interview was more analytical in that each answer I gave seemed to lead into the next question. Walk me through the resume What is your leadership style? Anyone not performing to par in your team? How did you handle it – Had to go into detail here – since I was asked how I did some particular thing. Why MBA and why now – wanted to know more about my goals and how it was formed Why Booth and What will you contribute to
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Published: December 4, 2011
Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-Campus
I had my Stanford interview this morning. It was exactly on time (45 minutes) and I was given 4 behavioural questions. Overall, it felt neutral although the interviewer did comment that my skill set was well aligned with my target career. Saw an opportunity others didn’t Faced a roadblock in completing a project Why MBA/Why Stanford Pursued an initiative beyond my job authority Was effective on a team when I wasn’t in charge At this point I guess I just have to wait and see what responses December brings.
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Published: December 1, 2011
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Decision / Alum / Off-Campus
Interview was conducted at the end of October and I was admitted about 4 weeks later. I talked with the interviewer ahead of time and they told me that they would conduct the interview at their office and it would last about 1 hour and to be prepared to talk about the standard MBA questions. I was a bit nervous at first based on how high up this person was in their organization but it turned out it was very informal and basically a talk. The interviewer did not come into the room with a note pad which made me
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Published: December 1, 2011
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd year student / on campus
I was invited to interview 4 weeks ago and made the trip to New Haven. I was interviewed by a second year student and they were very nice, but i would say that the interview was very pointed and was not the most easy to answer. They clearly had questions to ask and the interviewer looked at his watch every 5 minutes. He told me it would be 25 minutes of questions followed by 5 minutes for my questions. I am surprised more people have not put their interview experience and that i am only the second from this year.
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Published: November 28, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
Interviewer was very friendly and started by sharing his background. Then asked about me, at which point I walked through my resume. I wasn’t asked to go over Why Wharton, or Why Now, and Why an MBA, but I tried to incorporate these in the conversation at the end of the interview. The interviewer then proceeded with the 3 questions below (very similar to the ones listed in previous posts below): Tell me about a time when you led a team and you failed Tell me about a time when you led a team and you experienced conflict between 2
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Published: November 27, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
As other candidates have mentioned before, the on-campus Wharton interview is a blind interview and very straightforward (no surprise questions). My interviewer was very complimentary and conversational. I started off describing my current job and walked the interviewer through my resume, and answered how Wharton fit into my goals and got into some good detail about my future goals. We had some back and forth dialog (the student described his background). He chose three of the five questions listed in the previous posts (see 141). Specifically: Tell me about a time when a project did not succeed. How did your
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Published: November 26, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / Off-campus
I had my interview at the HUB location with AD COM member. The interview was very straight forward. The questions asked were: Walk through your Resume. Why do you want an MBA. Tell me about your experience at an organization (Specific to my profile). How did you convince people to establish this organization (Again specific to my profile). Tell me about a time when you managed a cross functional team. Do you have any questions for me. Then the AD COM member asked a few questions about some of my extra curricular activities. The question why Wharton didn’t come up
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Published: November 25, 2011
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-campus
The LBS interview was on a weekend in the interviewer’s office. I wore a suit and tie, but the interviewer was dressed in regular street clothes. The interview was overall a high-pressure interview and I was challenged a lot throughout the two-hour period. The key for me was to remain calm and stay focused on why LBS, why an MBA, and why I chose the career I’m in. Questions: Tell me about your work and education background. Why do you want an MBA? Why do you want to go to LBS? Why did you choose the career you’re in? Do
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Published: November 25, 2011
Yale SOM MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alumni / Off-campus
I live outside the US so was fortunate that Yale found an alum that was relatively close to me. The adcom put me in contact and I set up an interview for an African capital city. I met her at her office and we completed the whole process in about 30 mins. She was very friendly and positive, it was a low-key interview and she explained that her job was just to make sure that my “story” was compelling and that I could communicate effectively in English. She gave a bit of her background, then asked me pretty much the
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Published: November 22, 2011
Columbia MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Early Decision / Alum / Off-Campus
Interviewed on November 1st, invited to interview 20 days after submitting application. Talked to my interviewer on the phone ahead of time, so I had a good sense of his attitude, personality etc. He gave the impression the interview would be casual (“look forward to getting to know you”), but that he would have to ask specific questions to fit the feedback form. Interview was at his office, we chatted for a while, about his experience at Columbia, current issues etc. Nothing was a test, I tried my hardest to relax and be myself, but be confident! He prodded me
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Published: November 21, 2011
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-campus
My two INSEAD interviews were very different. The first one was with a younger alumnus who used to be an MD and worked in Pharma industry before joining McKinsey. The second one was a very senior alumnus who used to be the president of a huge international cosmetics company’s Taiwan Branch. The first one was very casual and because he knew that I will use English with the second one (the second one is not a Taiwanese), he used Chinese during the interview. He seemed pretty casual and did not ask many questions. In fact, I don’t feel that he
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Published: November 21, 2011
INSEAD MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 2 / Alum / Off-campus
My take from the interviews …member of the class of Dec 2012…submitted app in June 2012,got invite in july 2012 and was interviewed in august 2012 First interview Who: Upcoming India Tech company – head of sector of the company, based in the City of London very relaxed, but formal, told me he we were there for a converstaion, not interview, to find out more about me… almost no pressure, very patient, waited me to finish my answer…typical questions…and had a chat for his company…aside from typical questions, here is what took me by suprice what is rewarding about your
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Published: November 21, 2011
Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-Campus
Met a ’09 alumni in his city of work. After a very early morning long drive from home to the airport, a flight delayed by over 2 hours, my condition at time of meeting him was far from being presentable. But he seemed to understand that and didn’t mind my appearance. We met an hour in advance from what we had decided on. After a customary handshake and hi-how-are-you, we settled down on a public bench under the shade of a tree in a not so crowded market area. This wasn’t an interview. It was more of a 24-minute conversation.
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Published: November 20, 2011
Harvard MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Adcom / On-Campus
Interviewed on Nov 21, 2011. It was conversational in nature, my interviewer was extremely friendly but explained that she would cut me off sometimes and it should not be interpreted as being rude. Questions: Assume that I have not read your application. Tell me about yourself Why did you decide to work for Company ‘X’ after graduation? What is your current job like? Many follow up questions based upon what I had said. Have you had the experience to manage difficult personalities? How have you handled that? What makes for a good day for you? What makes for a bad
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Published: November 19, 2011
London Business School MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Alum / Off-campus
My LBS interview date was set one week after I received the interview invitation. I firstly wrote an email to the Alumnus who is also in Taipei and we quickly set our date. We met in an Café in a department store on Saturday morning. We firstly had chitchats using Chinese and then after ordering our drink, we switched to English mode and the interview started promptly. The questions were as follows: Tell me about yourself? Tell me about your travels (other than the one I wrote in my essays). What memorable things about them? What do you learned? (I
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Published: November 17, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
I had my Wharton and Lauder interviews this week, both on campus. Hopefully my experience is helpful to those of you who have yet to interview: Wharton- There was a waiting area with several small rooms surrounding the area. There were 5-6 candidates waiting to interview and we were all asked to provide our resumes. Right at the specified time my name was called and a second year student greeted me and invited me into an office. He jumped right in and asked me to talk about my background and experience. He didn’t ask a lot of questions and allowed
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Published: November 16, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / AdCom / Off-Campus
I had promised myself that I would come back after my interview and contribute to this community as this is perhaps the most concise source of information regarding Wharton. Hence this post. I would like to request others to also contribute to this forum. I had my interview yesterday. Very amiable with behavioral questions interlaced with questions from my resume. Against all the initial feedbacks that I had got from various sources, it wasn’t at all mechanical. Started out with a question about my work experience. Slowly she mixed it with behavioral questions like.. Tell me about a time when
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Published: November 16, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / 2nd Year Student / On-Campus
The Wharton interview was rather straightforward and exactly as expected. The student first introduced himself and asked me the standard why MBA and walk me through your resume just to warm up. He had a page with five questions out of which he choose three for the interview. I have attempted to compile these five questions from the earlier entries on this wiki – Tell me about a time when you led a team and it failed. How did your teammates initially react? What will you do differently now? Tell me about a time someone convinced you of an idea
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