Kellogg (Northwestern) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Had my interview on Thursday, went business professional, which is what I tend to do for all interviews regardless of the setting. Goodluck to everyone, I'm in for round 1.

Does that mean that all questions should be answered within a single page, or that one word document containing all answers is fine?

Thanks!

a. Please comment on the candidate’s career performance and impact on the organization. Cite specific examples (e.g., ranking relative to others in the industry, progression within the organization, evidence of initiative and goal orientation).

b. Evaluate the candidate’s demonstrated leadership and potential (e.g., developing others, ability to influence others and advocate for his/her ideas, smart risks he/she has taken, ability to deal with ambiguity).

c. What are the three areas you perceive as the candidate’s weaknesses? Provide an example of how the candidate has dealt with constructive feedback and made efforts to address these weaknesses.

d. What observations do you have about the candidate’s interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with and support others (e.g., maturity, self-awareness, integrity, listening skills, sense of humor, respect for different viewpoints, resilience, sense of others)?

e. Please comment on the candidate’s intellectual and problem-solving abilities (e.g., analytical and quantitative skills, critical-thinking abilities, creativity, curiosity)

I wanted to check if a 380 word essay is okay for the 500 word limit essay...

While most posts I read on gmatclub have people exceeding the limits, I always have a hard time reaching close to the maximum limit.

I just got interviewed today (by an alumni, off-campus). The questions are pretty standard, nothing too surprising, and I think I did well. Only time will tell though. Good luck for you guys.

IMHO wasting real estate on an essay would just show that you do not have enough items to showcase when compared to the other applicants ... but then again if the 380 words are going to blow the adcom away then there is no problem at all ... its a judgement call ... but technically you will be ok.

lol..thanks...will attempt to get as close as possible to the limit

Has anyone from the SF Bay Area received an off-campus interview invite yet?

It's really hard to advise you without reading the essay, but if you feel you made your point and you've done the best you can to captivate the reader, then it's fine. But if you feel like more detail would help, you certainly have the room to add it and possibly illustrate your story better.

One thing you may want to consider is that the Admissions Officer will know that you are more than 100 words below the maximum because visually they know what 500 words looks like. If your essay is great, then this will probably work in your favor since the officer will be impressed that you told your story succinctly. If your essay is not that good, then the Admissions officer will wonder why you didn't use the extra space.

Thanks for the inputs. I have told all that I probably could. If I need to stretch it close to the 500 word limit, I will have to elaborate more on the content that is already covered.

I see - I requested one in SF haven't heard anything yet getting kind of worried.

Good luck with the interview let us know how it goes!

I submitted my app for an off-campurs interview on 9/18. I haven't heard anything so I'm worried since I've seen people get off campus interview invites already.

Anybody else submit around this time? Should I assume that they probably just haven't gotten to my app since it was close to the deadline?

They just haven't gotten to you yet. Sit tight. It could be an issue with finding an alum in your area who's trained to give interviews.

I submitted mine on the same date. Howver, I'm an international applicant and was advised that it may take up to 8 weeks before I hear anything about my interview.

SF here - submitted Part 1 on the deadline day and just recently received an interview request. I have a feeling there will be a good number of interviews sit out these next couple weeks. Cheetah is right - just sit tight guys.

Another Question:

On my extra curricular during college section I put the wrong dates for the activities I put down. I put 5/2xxx to 8/2xxx indicating i was involved from May of the year I began school to August of the year I graduated. These are pretty much backwards (as would make sense) since I didn't go to school until August and I graduated in May.

Is this an area of concern at all? Honestly the # of months I was involved would not change at all. Do I need to give them a call and have them add a note or change it? can they even do that? Also, is this app suicide? Kellogg is my top choice and I've been working on planning, apps, gmat, for 1 to 2 yrs now...can't help but think an adcom might judge considering how selective the process is but I don't know.

I am by no means the source of truth on this but I would just call or email them and explain the situation. They will not have even looked at your application yet anyway so I don't think it is a make or break situation, especially considering the error might appear pretty obvious.