Calling all Wharton Fall 09 Applicants

I had my alumni interview today. It was generally a conversational one. Not many questions. Classic questions such as why mba, why wharton..

Alumn was very friendly and helpful.

thanx audio. will sleep slight better tonight

Thanks for the summary sset009! I wouldn't worry about the length of your interview. If you read through many interview summaries posted online, you'll see plenty of short interviews that resulted in an admit.

Hey Guys,

Just had my on campus interview today with a 2nd year and the questions were pretty standard:

1) Walk me through your resume
2) Why MBA
3) Why Wharton
4) 2 strenghts and 2 weakness
5) Most rewarding leadership experience
6) Challenging Team Situation
7) Ways I'd get involved at Wharton
8) Anything else i'd like to add

All in all, the interviewer was extremely responsive and very much engaged, and I left feeling confident that, if nothing else, the interview would at least not be a negative spot on my file.

Good Luck to the other interviewees!

Thank you so much Audio

I had my Hub interview today as well. Associate Director of Admissions took it.

Here is a run down of it. I reached 45 mins early and she was free so decided to take it then only. We sat in her room where she told me that she is running short of time so would keep it to 30 mins or so.

The interview started:
1) What is your story ? Walk me through your resume.

(In between came her lunch, I realized i had spoiled her lunch break ...But she told me to continue)
2) Next came, Career goals ---> Short and Long term
3) Why MBA now ? ( I am a early career Applicant so she was interested in this one)
4) Why Wharton ?
5) Any Questions for me ?

In between she looked at her watch a couple of times. I think my thoughts were coherent but somehow i had a feeling that i did not connect with her too well, probably it was a short interview unlike the ones i have given before. But she definitely smiled a couple of times during my answers (like "oh yeah ! This is certainly what wharton is all about and stuff")

Over all a satisfactory experience but as i said it was a short interview.

Now the wait begins ! 26 March is the decision date. Good luck to rest of the people.

wow, quite a number of you have finished the interview. Congrat for finishing the long path , all the best for the D-day Mar 26 [feel so long]
I 've just got the reply from an alumni (Snr Consultant in a big 3 MC). Most probably will finish the interview by mid of next week. Start feeling a bit worry while waiting for my turn...Anyway I hope it will be a good talk 'coz I target MC after grad also.

Had my R2 interview this afternoon and left with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I felt somewhat defeated because of a few slight stumbles in my responses. As I looked back on the discussion that took place, I felt better because:

a) I built strong rapport with the interviewer (legnthy chit chat both before and after the interview) as we had several common interests
b) I was able to touch on things that I hadn't mentioned in my application
c) I showed that I'm a good communicator, active listener, and felt I did a good job of letting my personality come through

My interview had a few questions I had prepared for, but hadn't anticipated...here's what I remember:

- Walk me through your resume
- How did you become interested in your job?
- Why wouldn't you continue to learn at your job? Why do you need to come here?
- Tell me about a leadership experience you've had.
- Tell me about a good group experience you've had and a bad group experience you've had.
Follow up: Looking back, how would you have fixed the bad experience?
- How would you become involved in the Wharton community?
- How would your peers describe what it's like to work with you?
- How would you like to be remembered by your learning team after 2 years at Wharton?
- Is there anything else you would like to tell that hasn't been addressed either here or in your application?
- Do you have any questions for me?

I was a little bummed in that I couldn't work all of my "why Wharton" answers in, though I suppose my application more than answers that, especially if Wharton truly views the interview as another data point (any insights here?). I was able to mention a few really good things during my interview that I didn't touch upon in my essays, but I would rate my effectiveness at reinforcing what was in my essays around 60-70% (then again, the interviewer really sets the tone for the interview, so it's tough to direct the interview in some cases). I stumbled a little bit with the good group experience question, but feel that I answered all of the others well and showed poise and composure. I would echo the sentiments that I've read elsewhere that the Wharton on-campus interview feels more like a job interview, though a bit more conversational.

Anyways, for better or worse, this was my Wednesday. We'll find out in a few weeks

Finished mine.

I had an interview with an alumnus. He started by introducing himself and said that we would have around 30 min to follow the standard set by school. He straight away asked me about my jobs and started writing on the resume

- what are you doing in the current job? then sidetrack discussed a bit about the industry and the job
- Why did you decide to quit the previous job?
- As I am a career switcher with technology background he asked why I decided to change. So I linked to the why MBA
- What are the reasons that you choose the potential industry after MBA? Then discuss about my plan and understandings of the choice as he worked in the industry before
- What did you try to switch to more business-related career/relation to long-term goal? What would you do if the MBA doesn't work out?
- Why Wharton? Why not those schools with strong technology focus?
- What were my activities in undergraduate school? Current activities?
- What can I contribute to Wharton?

Then he reserved some time so that I could ask him questions.

Overall, the interview was ok. The interviewer was open and the whole thing at the end was quite conversational. I had a little problem with the contribution questions, forgot mentioning a few points that I thought off. Anyway it's a symptom of "I could have done better"

Good luck for the rest who haven't finished the interview. Guess I should focus doing other things when waiting for the result.

Finished my interview about a week ago as well. I have to admit it was the most unpleasant interview that I've had so far. The interviewer was rather unfriendly and I could tell the interviewer was trying to come up with ways to trap me. Also, I was interrupted seconds after trying to respond to just about every question. I had to go back and explain stuff that I didn't get a chance to finish explaining constantly. The interviewer also got visibly mad at me when I confirmed that I applied to other schools besides Wharton.

A lot of the questions that were asked were specific to my profile and experiences. I could tell that the interviewer didn't really prepare and think about what to ask me beforehand. I got the impression that the interviewer was fishing for random questions... and many of them made no sense whatsoever. The interviewer would take a random line off my resume and ask a question. I know my resume very well and could talk about every experience, but the questions themselves weren't well thought out. About 90% of them were criticisms of my accomplishments and my experiences. Overall, I am pretty disappointed. I was expecting a difficult interview but a professional interview that helped gauge my candidacy... this was totally different. My interviewer certainly didn't give me a good impression of Wharton.

It is possible that the interviewer was having a bad day. It is also possible that my answers to the first few questions were complete crap and the interviewer knew off the bat that I wasn't a good fit for Wharton. Maybe I am suffering from the classic case of "blame the interviewer because I didn't do that well." Honestly, I don't really think so. After a full week I still feel the same way about the interview, so I figured I'd share my frustration.

Good luck to everyone! I am glad that many other GMATCLUBers are having much more pleasant interviews.

That sucks, dude. Wharton interviews are supposed to be more laid back. Where are you located?

stamp-

I find it hard to believe that it was just you, there's a big difference between trying to know someone better and trying to knock them down a few pegs or two. I'm sure your interviewer was one of those over-competitive jerks as a student that people dreaded having to be placed on a team with. Such people are one of the few drawbacks of Wharton(as opposed to the many benefits). But perhaps its a case where he/she is a tough customer to everyone in the interview, and the school knows this and takes the interview feedback with a grain of salt.

All I can think of is the Andy Bernard character from the office - overrates his school just because its pretty much the only real accomplishment he's done, and as a result overrates himself and thinks he's much higher and mightier than he actually is. But this isn't Cornell so he couldn't have been your interviewer

I had my interview last week on campus. There was 6 of us and we were all from NY, DC or Boston so I assumed they invited people based on region. My interview seemed to go as most others have posted:

1) Walk me through your resume
2) Why MBA, Why Now
3) ST and LT goals
4) Why Wharton
5) Leadership Experience

I was asked if I wanted to add anything at the end and I used that as an opportunity to talk about what clubs I wanted to be involved with and to reaffirm my interest in the Wharton community. Which brings me to a question. After reading these boards as well as BW and S2S, it's clear that everyone is going to know 90% of the questions asked as well as that the are looking to see how you would be a member of the Wharton community. Given that they say that all candidates are qualified for admission, what are they really looking for from these interviews?

I would have to expect even the most self centered jerk is going to walk in and talk about how much he's looking forward to working in the learning teams, etc. So outside of the few people who are just terrible at interviewing I don't see what additional information this is going to bring.

From all the research I've seen it shows that interviews are actually very unreliable for predicting job performance. So in this case the only new input they would be actually getting is if you are good or bad and interviewing. Which I guess helps considering you're going to have to interview for jobs but doesn't do much to say about what kind of student you'll be at Wharton or anywhere for that matter.

Based on people I've spoken to (alums and current students) as well all of the resources I've used (interviews with admissions directors past and present, admissions committee members, etc...), the interview REALLY is another data point. True, they expect you to be competent and able to answer their questions, but the fact that you can have a terrible interview and get in (or have a great interview and get denied) further supports the idea of it just being another point of reference.

The overwhelming majority of people I've spoken to have confirmed that the interview is more about fit, and thus it's important to showcase personality, ease of conversation, energy, and self awareness. Especially as it pertains to on-campus interviews, you want the interviewer to feel like you're someone who would be a contributing and energetic member of a learning team (and also the Wharton/Philly community). I guess I look at it this way. In a job interview, if you even get to the stage of an interview, they've probably determined you are capable of doing the job, but they want to meet you to see if you're someone they'd want to work with side by side on an ongoing basis. Similarly, your Wharton interviewer wants to see "is this someone with whom I can get along and work well." Anyone else with insights here?

I am sorry to hear about your experience. Did you interview with an alumn or at Wharton?

I had a similar experience with my Stanford interviewer. I also thought he did not represent Stanford very well. But, I think it's better not to let one person ruin your perception of an entire program. I know the students and faculty I spoke with at Wharton this week were great, and I genuinely think Wharton is an amazing program. There will always be a-holes. In fact, I know at least one at Wharton (freshman year roommate), but I know that most students there are nice people. Same thing applies to Stanford.

I think alumni are generally not trained to interview applicants - so it's more of a crapshoot. Still, I know that kind of experience is really frustrating. I wasn't happy about mine for a few days.

I guess what I was really getting at was that everyone knows that it's about fit. Being a contributing member of learning team and active in the Wharton/Philly community. I mean who is really going to walk in there and say "I'll pass on the clubs and sit back and let my learning team do all the work". So since everyone knows that this is what they are looking for even the people who don't fit are going to try and appears as they do. So what real value do they gain other than seeing who can connect with their interviewer.

I thought my interview went very well. So afterwards I felt great. Then I thought to myself there is no way I could have screwed this up. Then I read other peoples response and most got the same result. 99% of the people expected almost all the questions and felt it went great.

So since the process is blind they cant really dig deeper and answer any questions pertaining specifically to your application. So to me it seems the only two interview outcomes would be 1) you don't screw up and have a great interview like everyone else or 2) you show that you're a terrible interviewer.

I hear you. If you see my post above, I felt like I had a middle of the road interview (which seems rare). After I got out, I felt MISERABLE about my performance, but when I started to think about my responses, I felt much, much better about how it all went, what I said, and what I added. I didn't specifically receive the "Why Wharton" or "Why now" questions, so I was bummed about that, but then I realized that I likely didn't receive them because I covered all of that in answering my other questions...I was truthful in my post above, but don't underestimate the power of anonymity, which allows people to hide behind a veil of secrecy (and subsequently falsify how their experience REALLY went).

You claim that either a) everyone knows what to expect going in and acts appropriately; b) if not , they are just bad interviewers. I think you're giving way too much credit to people. In general, there are people who are just stiffs. Not everyone has passion, and not everyone can fake it. Some people are just terrible at dealing with other people and struggle with personal interactions.

So let's say you have 2 people:

A) An insanely smart person who is anti-social and a poor communicator
B) Someone with a less stellar (but still quite strong) resume/story who really can communicate well

If you're the interviewer you walk away from person A wondering "how could this person ever help out a group, he can't even communicate or build common bonds with me, a friendly interviewer." Whereas with person B, you walk away saying "OK, this applicant could articulate himself and would really be able to help my group." I guess my point is that even if person A wanted to show those qualities we mentioned, he/she may not be able to, thus negating your point that anyone can do it.

Most people (wrongly) believe they are great interviewers or had a good interview. Admissions committee members interview possibly hundreds of people and can spot scripted crap/false enthusiasm from a mile away.