Kellogg 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Yeah even I am doing the surprise essay. So a class full of surprises eh? I just hope the adcom doesnt send out emails titled 'You may be Surprised to know that ...' when they give decision, and play it back on us hehe. All the best guys!

The way I interpret it is -
a. if you are a first-time applicant, you have to answer one of the three essays
b. if you are a re-applicant, you can answer one of the three essays, but it is not mandatory.

I had my off-campus interview on Friday. I think I had a similar experience to most people. It was a very casual conversation. I wasn't too nervous but the alum I had made me feel comfortable right off the bat. He didn't actually ask too many questions. He told me about himself then asked me to walk him through my resume. I think in doing so, I was able to answer a lot of the basic questions about leadership, motivating a team, etc. He asked the why MBA now, why Kellogg, and what are your future career plans questions all at once. Having Essay 1 done certainly helped with that! He then took the time to give me some unsolicited, but thoughtful advice on my future plans.

At the end, I asked what the process was for him after the interview. He actually showed me (very quickly!) the form they have to fill out. To visualize, think of the form recommenders have to fill out. Starts with a grid to rank the applicant on leadership, communication, etc. Then there are open ended questions on similar traits. One asked about maturity and another asked if the applicant seemed to be listening. I also think there was a question about the applicant's future goals; are they clear, etc.

It lasted 50 mins. I feel like it went well, but wish I had more time to work in some other things I was hoping too.

They should have a buffer for a day or 2 even possibly end of week. I would call them tomorrow (today might be a little to proactive) and follow-up. Just be straight up saying your recommender had a issue with his computer he ended up having to get resolved yesterday and will be submitting today. Will that be an issue.

Unless someone here knows for sure you will still be in R1 if he submits tomorrow, then its a moot point

Hope this helps.

Don't panic but I had asked Kellogg about it a while back and they said that the reco has to be in by deadline. But maybe you can explain your situation to them. They may reconsider.

I just hit submit. I'm gonna hurl.

I had called up the Kellogg office about this today. They said that it is okay if the recommender submits within a day or so of the deadline. However, this might delay the decision date for the application, i.e. you may or may not hear before the Dec 19 date. I think that might mean that if the recommender doesn't submit before they start processing the applications, the review of your application will get delayed. But you are still considered as a Rd 1 applicant.

Don't know about the level of competitiveness but I attended a Kellogg admissions session in mumbai and some of the Alumns present were from the 1Y program. They said that you need to have a very strong profile & solid Biz background to be considered for the 1Y program because the school may feel you won't benefit enough from the program if you are not up to a certain level.

They said it is definitely not for Career changers more for career enhancers.

Hope this helps.

Yes, I believe you would qualify..Almost all the people I've come across who went to the 1Y program had a previous 2Y MBA from somewhere else.

I had researched a bit initially regarding this program but I found that I was not eligible since they require 6-7 courses taught in the core of the first year to have been already completed by the students either during undergrad or as standalone courses..

Considering the face that you are a qualified accountant, I believe this criteria should be easy for you to satisfy..Check out the Kellogg website, it lists the requirements pretty clearly..

I had my on campus interview earlier this week. I was very impressed by the follow-up questions the adcom member asked during my interview. Very focused on my leadership style, what I contributed to my team, and how I have grown as a leader. I read most of the message boards from previous years where people listed interview questions, and I definitely got a few curve balls, so be prepared. Overall, I like Kellogg even more now because my interviewer asked such great questions. For better or worse, I really felt like she understood who I was when I walked out of the room... I didn't feel that way with my Emory interview, or any other job interview for that matter. Good luck to everyone.

I have got an alumni interview invitation from the adcom. My interview is scheduled on Nov 12th. Any suggestion for preparation will be appreciated!

me too got an invite for 12th nov..!!

Hi guys, Got an interview invite for Kellogg - New Delhi - November 12.

To others who have got an invite on the same day -- all the best!

These are the questions I got (off-campus alum), however I think these questions were unique to my interviewer's interests, and not necessarily standard questions issued by Kellogg. Therefore, I wouldn't expect to get these questions exactly, but hopefully it helps you come up with more examples for your interview. I recommend having lots of stories without having any pre-rehearsed lines. Don't stress out if you can't think of an answer immediately. Take a moment to think about the question before answering, rather then just start talking to only realize a few words in you have no idea what you are talking about and can't go back (happened to me).

1. Walk me through all your Community Leadership involvements.
2. If you could drop one of them, which would it be and why?
3. Why an MBA at this point in your career? (I answered goals and why kellogg within this question)
4. What are three things that interest you about Kellogg's Finance program (as im looking to go into finance)?
5. Compared to the other schools you are applying to, what are 2 criticisms you have about Kellogg's Finance program?
6. Compared to the other schools you are applying to, what are 2 criticisms you have about Kellogg's MBA program in general? (He seemed to be more interested in what I didn't like, then what I liked)
7. Tell me about a time when you started to work on a project without knowing what the final product would look like.
8. If you could do it again, what would you do differently?
9. Tell me about a time you took a risk.
10. What would you do differently? (I found these follow up questions to be difficult because I was highlighting successes throughout, so I didn't think to prepare to answer what I would do differently. So advice: in your preparation be prepared to reflect on anything you would do differently even if the outcome was great)
11. Tell me about a time you took a risk and it didn't pay off.
12. Talk about a time you were taken out of your comfort zone not in a work or community service setting. (I had previously used up 2 examples of this earlier, which is why he limited me here, so I would recommend coming up with more than one example for several questions)
13. Tell me about a time you worked in a team where you weren't the leader. What kind of role did you play?
14. Tell me about a time you worked in a team where you may have had a negative impact on the outcome. (This was tough!)
15. What are two things in your application that are particularly weak or you are worried about?
16. What other parts of your application do you think offsets those weaknesses?

Then it was Q/A session. My interview lasted about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I learned in the Q&A that his entire life was about taking risks, which I think explains a lot of his questions. My biggest regret was not having ENOUGH stories. I came in ready to tell 4 good stories, but ended up telling closer to 10. I got through it, but it would've been a lot better if I focused my preparation on the story telling.

I hope that helps, and good luck!

I'm in Evanston right now as I came to campus for Kellogg's Diversity Preview Weekend. I just completed my on-campus interview yesterday. It was with a 1st year student. Here are some of the questions that I was asked (a bit out of order):

1) Walk me through your resume
2) Describe a typical day at work
3) What is your experience working in teams
4) What would the people who work with you say is a strength of having you on the team and a disadvantage. (my answer to this question led into the next one)
5) How do you think this weakness affects your ability to lead
6) What is your leadership style?
7) Why Kellogg?
8) What are your goals?
9) How would you contribute to the Kellogg community?
10) Tell me about your ECs
11) Is there anything in your application you'd like to address during this interview?
12) Any questions for me?

The interview lasted about 35 minutes and was very conversational. I prepared for the interview by making notes for all of the typical interview questions (resume walk-through, why Kellogg, goals, why MBA, why now? etc.). I also prepared 4-5 stories that could fit for multiple types of questions. I tried rehearsing aloud by myself but that was a hot mess. For the Diversity Preview Weekend I roomed with another perspective student who had already done her interview so she ran me through the questions so I could have some practice speaking my answers. This helped SO much. I recommend rounding up interview questions from this forum and doing a mock interview with a friend. It really calmed my nerves and boosted my confidence for the interview.

Kellogg Diversity Preview Weekend was GREAT!! We had a ton of interaction with current Kellogg students, had 2 mock classes (would have preferred to sit in on one actual class though), got fed some really good food (the cafeteria in the Allen Center has a freakin' cheese bar!), went to TG, got insight into how applications are reviewed and more. The prospective students were very cool and we all had a blast hanging out together. Kellogg was the first school I visited where I looked around at all of the perspectives and thought to myself, "I'd love to go to school with these people." I also met some fellow gmatclubbers! Hi mbalady, kannyg, and DR2012! I tried to find Jacksparrow, but I couldn't figure out who he was.

I was a bit nervous about visiting this weekend. I submitted my app and hadn't yet visited so it would have really sucked if I wound up feeling like Kellogg wasn't the place for me. Thankfully, my worries were unfounded. Kellogg is a school I would love to attend. Just checked online and my application status is complete. All that's left to do is wait for a decision. Now I can spend the next 44 days obsessing about getting in. FUN!!!

I parsed through last years thread and noticed decisions being released about 2 weeks prior. If they stick with that I would expect first news of decisions coming out around 12/5.

I am interviewing myself on 12/2 so I probably won't hear until the deadline date

To answer the question about when admits will come out, Kellogg traditionally starts letting them trickle out about 2-2.5 weeks prior to the final date. For example, the R2 admit notice date was 29 March last year, and I found out on 14 March - the very first day.

Two points -
1. It will usually be a constant flow - a little everyday
2. There will be dings and admits in a constant proportion - you may get dinged or admitted on the first or last day - I personally know several classmates admitted on the very last day (fortunately, I avoided the nerve-wracking stress of that)

Caveat - we have a new head of adcom this year, so if things changed, this would probably be the year that it happened.

tA