Calling all Wharton 2011 Applicants

yea i definitely think that Yeltsina is a little off...i know how annoying / frustrating this process is

i am a current active duty mil applicant - from a direct combat type role - i am nowhere near as smart as many applicants but my leadership stories come from carrying injured soldiers out of hell holes after having my vehicles smashed by massive roadside bombs..oh yea then the shooting starts and you have to filter a million points of data and get people home alive then you go back out the next day and do it again

by the way we also do lots of political engagements / project / microgrants / developing - leading people - a motive for many of us to transfer our skills to the civilian world - many times we earn an MBA to gain context and get the credibility we need to get leadership roles in the private sector

the military applicants are just as diverse as private sector, yet we usually get lumped together whether we saw any actual combat or not, it is not like we get a golden ticket

it is frustrating for everyone, we all have to take our hits and move on and get through it and in the end we will all make it

only about 29% of Americans even finish college, we are here to be the leaders and try to improve things. people from the army like me have seen all the high school kids from rough inner cities, trailer parks, and middle of nowhere small towns, i have been humbled by how much they sacrifice to make a better life for their families and take the first step, especially in war time

we are all alot luckier than we think, lets focus on getting it done and not looking at excuses, if we do not make the cut there is a reason

i did not make it at mit - i was bitter and felt sorry for myself for a few days, then i looked and said - you know what you could have performed better on the interview and maybe showed a different side on an essay - i took a hard look at myself and used the lessons to improve my wharton, darden, and yale apps

nobody on here should feel sorry for themselves, lets just make it happen, i have buddies today getting blown up in the middle of nowhere, sorry you did not get your first pick of school but get over it and get over yourself, we all have to

Wharton hopefuls,

I had my interview today and felt like sharing my experience:

I had my interview today at 11:15 with a second year student. She was very nice and was actually from Ghana then worked in New Jersey at Merril Lynch before Wharton.

We spent about 5 minutes we the warm-up type questions, I am from NJ (but now have lived away from home for 5+ years due to the military). She just asked me to briefly tell her about myself in a few sentences.

Then I had my first behavioral question:

How did you resolve a conflict between two members of a team when working towards a goal (not sure if i got the exact wording)
--> I talked about working out a security arrangement in a town that was on a Sunni-Shia faultline in South Baghdad. But for any example I think it is a good practice to keep a narrow scope. I basically approached it by saying:
1) The issue ->Security contract
2) Why did this matter? Potential for sectarian violence, source of employment in depressed urban environment
3) Point of view of Sunni leader
4) Point of view of Shia leader
5) My approach / POV/ how to resolve
6) Outcome

I think if you look at all the questions and bullet them out it can really help when you interview (but of course go with what works for you just liek the dredded GMAT)

My second question was about leading with a organization that had no clear leader (might be slightly off on the wording)
-->I talked about ranger school and how on any particular day a different person is randomly chosen to be a leader. Then I focused on a specific instance where i helped a Sergeant on his planning process which was one of my strengths and how Ranger School requires teamwork etc.

I think here again it is important to pick a single important task or example, at MIT I was off because I would say at Ranger School, I led in rough situations but would not nail down a tactical example of the exchange or provide a specific instance

Finally, my third question was describe a time you convinced someone of your idea when you faced resistance (again my wording here is likely off - its from the list though)

-> I talked about another issue I had on a deployment.

I think you guys got the idea of my approach. I have done 5 interviews and finally got the hang out it (I think).

I would say to provide 1 min of context then spend 3 minutes of your tactical engagement - what you specificially did / said / how the other actors reacted / your solution or compromise then the final minute on the outcome/result and how that result tied into the bigger picture.

I hope this debrief is helpful, once again, I am no expert but I think if you take the questions apart and engage each one with a structure i mind , you will meet all their specific requirements.

Good luck everyone! Now the waiting begins ( as well as my drinking tonight - I am officially done with interviews haha)

Take care

I've added a form to add your stats to the spreadsheet. You can find it on the homepage. Please fill it out and if you have any issues, PM me.

making "decisions on which people to interview" does not imply SENDING out interview invites.

They will make the decision, and will then batch the invites all at once at the designated date(s).

I have no idea, and invite dates do not matter. Getting an interview invite at any date is a wonderful sign though. Keep in mind that no single component of the application is decisive, but all of them together are.

Similarly, the price/style/color/fit of suit you wear to interview does not matter; neither do things like weather, brand of your time piece, or your grandmother's name--on a second thought, having a famous granny like Mrs. Margaret Thatcher might actually help one stand out a bit .

As to the one-week gap between the dates, my guess is that from a purely operational point of view, the Adcom is capacity constrained, and the volume of applications is always high. It may be just easier for them to go through the decisions in two parts, but again - this is just my guess.

In order to keep the discussions relevant for b-school application, all the haiku and grammar discussion have been moved to "Off Topic". You may continue the debate at: wharton-applicant-grammar-discussion-103848.html.

I agree with adalfu. In this case, the grammar MATTERS.

I thought Booth's invitation system was nice. But now I think about it, a bulk invitation release of Wharton seems better.

Guys, try to calm down and focus on other things today. Last year, invites and outcomes from Wharton came in at random times, but almost all arrived after noon - 1:20pm, 5pm, at one point even later. No need to refresh, and please, try to keep comments relevant and useful. I am anxious too, but reading about anxiousness when you are anxious doesn't help.

In fact, I propose for everyone who wants to chat about Wharton and the interviews today, go to the GMATClub chat and join everyone else who is anxious: https://gmatclub.com/chat/

Last year, they cut down on the number of invites. An estimated 30% or so were interviewed, and about 40% of those interviewed were admitted. The chat is getting filled quickly today - 16 people so far.

but if no one from GC has got an invite then its too much of a coincidence, looks like wharton adcom is enjoying the sadistic pleasure, they might be looking at our posts here on GC and laughing

*RING RING RING* we have a winner.

*EDITED: for karma*

Last year an interview invite e-mail had the subject line "Wharton Invitation to Interview", the waitlist / ding started with "Application Status Update". Now you know what to look for.

I really don't understand why you think it's a fiasco?

1. Behavioral interview is a popular method to interview and is used by top companies as well as schools (MIT). So what's wrong with Wharton using it?

2. I respect Sandy's opinion but please don't blindly go by what he thinks. If you look back at some of his posts about Wharton, it's pretty clear he doesn't like their adcom/admission process/ interview/ campus/.... He even thought that their essays for this year and last year (and maybe earlier too) were useless and boring. While he is entitled to his opinion, I certainly didn't think there was anything wrong with Wharton essays at all! Between Sandy and Wharton adcom, I would certainly have greater faith in Wharton adcom's ability to figure out what essays are appropriate for WHARTON. Anybody can write a page about how boring essays for school [X] are.

3. There's too much noise about the secret list of questions Wharton is asking which truly is hilarious. Wharton adcom is more than aware of how students collaborate on forums and elsewhere. Let's give them some credit! They are intelligent enough to figure out that asking the same questions to ~1000 students over a 1 month period wouldn't be fair. I am sure they have a database of behavioral based questions to ask from and "the 8 secret questions" are just a sample from that database. Not everyone around the world will get asked the same question.

OK.....after all this rant...what I would say is that we should all prepare the best we can since that is in our control. Interview questions/adcom mood/ alumni biases/ weather conditions cannot be controlled by us so it would help to clear our mind of those thoughts!

Wharton has been a top school for decades.They KNOW what they are doing. Sandy is an amazing resource and has a wealth of knowledge but as applicant we should take his opinion with a grain of salt and make our own judgments.

I believe all other threads have members giving details on what questions they were asked.. take a look at recent posts in HBS and Booth threads for example.. not sure why people on this forum seem to suggest they dont want to know or reveal that information or that it is unethical? NYU ad com actually makes it a point to note that students share questions during job interviews as an example of their collaborative community.

My questions were exactly the same, in the same order

I had my off campus interview today on the west coast with an alum and thought it went fairly well. It was very different actually from the image I had of it from all the discussions here. It was not behavioral and it was very conversational about career, future plans, current experience etc. For a much larger part of the interview, he let me ask questions and was very enthusiastic about answering them. Lasted a little over an hour but it did not feel like an interview! He was definitely taking notes, but only here n there, nothing too much (good memory).

I wasnt able to make a judgment on it and I guess it could swing either way! The waiting game begins.

Had my interview yesterday on campus and matched what others have said. A few notes outside of the interview that might be of interest (since people have clearly covered what questions were asked):

First, everyone who I talked to who was there and was also interviewing (on the tour, at lunch, etc.) had no idea that the interview format had changed and were only ready for "Why Wharton" etc.

Second, if you go to visit, definitely sit in on a class or two (better if you do it before your interview). Really energized me and I think it helped with the discussion I had with my interviewer outside of "The 3 Questions."

Last, go to the building 10-15 mins beforehand cause it's a little difficult to find the room....