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.
Had an interview recently? Please submit your MBA admissions interview report!
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
Read more
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
Read more
Had an interview recently?
Want to share your interview experience with other applicants? Fill out this brief form and we’ll post your report to our Interview Archive.
Submit an Interview Report
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
Read more
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
Read more
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.
Read more
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
Read more
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.
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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.
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
Published: November 15, 2011
UVA / Darden MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year Student / On-Campus
Had on campus interview with second year student. As expected, interview was extremely conversational. Interviewer didn’t have a copy of my resume and simply wanted “learn more about” me. Interview progressed with walk through of my personal and professional history. We then transitioned to “Why an MBA?” and “Why now?”. This led to a brief conversation about my professional objectives and finally, we spent some time talking about why I was specifically interested in Darden. Interview ended with the interviewer giving me introduction into his experience / background and offering me opportunity to ask questions.
Read more
Published: November 15, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / On Campus
On campus interview, short and to the point. 4 behavioral questions. Alumni interview Discuss a time when you managed a cross-functional team A time when you had to persuade someone (can’t remember if it’s on your team or doesn’t matter) A time when you had to manage someone more experienced than you. A time when you managed/led a team and failed.
Read more
Published: November 15, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / Second-year Student / On Campus
2 Traditional Questions: What do you do in your current job / resume walkthrough Why now 4 Behavioral Questions (with a lot of follow on questions for each): Tell me about a time when you had to manage someone much more senior than you. Tell me about a time when someone convinced you to change your opinion. Tell me about a time when someone did not agree with you initially and you convinced them of your idea/opinion. Tell me about a time when you were unsuccessful at managing a team. What would you do differently now. At the end: Do
Read more
Published: November 15, 2011
Wharton MBA Admissions Interview Questions: Round 1 / AdCom / Off-Campus
My interview was at at a hub location with a member of the adcom. She was professional, but very nice. The interview took just over half an hour and seemed more like a discussion than anything else, as she would converse back and forth with me during the questions. Intro Questions: She asked about what I am doing right now, and we launched into a discussion about my job history. “Why do you want get an MBA? Why now?” Behavioral Questions: “Describe a time when you worked with someone more or less experienced with you, and they disagreed or had
Read more
