Kellogg (Northwestern) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Had my interview today with an alumni in Mumbai. Was very relaxed affair. The discussion was mostly led by my CV.

Some of the questions were:

5 strengths
5 weaknesses
What would your colleagues say about you?
Why MBA?
You seem to be doing so well in your company. What will you do if they dont let you go?
WHy Kellogg?
Why 1 year course?
Why not an MMA course or any other course?
Give an example of influencing people..

Then I asked her some 4-5 questions on life at Kellogg.

Now the wait begins

Interviewed last week with an alum off-campus. The interviewer told me that she would interview me for about 45 minutes, but she exhausted her questions in just 25 minutes. I used 10 minutes to ask her a few questions and another 10 minutes to tell her more about myself. Though the interviewer was very nice, I didn't feel a connect. I wasn't asked any behavioral questions for which I had prepared a few stories. In hindsight, I felt that the interviewer wasn't impressed by my non-bluechip work experience.

Now the wait for the result begins, though I am a bit disappointed with my interview experience

ridiculous... 5 weaknesses?? my pet peeve is the weakness questions cuz its total bs.
also company not let you go? does she think you are a working slave labor?

best of luck to you.

Just had my interview with an alum in Brazil! Very well structured and detailed questions. Entire interview in English, with pre and post-chat in Portuguese. Here they are below:

- Tell me about your life before your professional experience
- Walk me through your resume
- Why did you go from M&A to consulting?
- What projects have you worked on during your time in consulting?
- What was your biggest leadership challenge?
- Why do you want an MBA now and not later?
- What are your post MBA goals?
- Why Kellogg?
- What question didn`t I ask you that you would like to answer?
- How did you decide to get married this year? (I don`t think this question will be asked in the US or Europe...)

Hi oodle,

I am quite new here. Just happened to see your background consumer products and think I have similar bckground.

I am interested in applying Kellogg, but have no clue the real students life is.

Do you mind spending some time introducing your student life so far?

Hi All - I had my on-campus interview at Kellogg this past week. I loved the school and student engagement, but I realized that I've used other on-campus interviews to get a fell for what potential classmates would be like. Since Kellogg extends interview invites to everyone, it was very hard to get a good read on this. At other schools, since the interviews and invitation-only, it's easier to get an idea of the type of person that the school looks to attract.

Has anyone felt this way after a visit like this? What other ways have you used to get an idea of what the vibe of a school is like and what other classmates would be like during a visit?

Never really thought of this. I've only had two interviews, and both were applicant initiated. Basically, I try to get a feel for what the school is like by talking to current students whether it's the tour guide, students at lunch, or just chatting up some students before my class visit starts. I figure the culture doesn't change from year to year and they're probably looking to admit people similar to those who are currently enrolled.

Hi guys,

I applied to Kellogg in R1 this year (for the incoming class of 2013). I have some really great international work-ex spanning 21 countries in strategy and marketing, a GMAT score of 750. However, I bombed my undergrad in engineering from a top engineering school in Asia (Singapore). I have a GPA of only 2.1. I tried to make up for it with a good masters in economics from another good university in SG and have a GPA of 3.6 there. Also, I speak 5 languages.

I had my interview with a kellogg alum in Singapore and she told me that she was very impressed with me and would write good stuff about me in her feedback. She told me that she would even write an additional segment talking about how much I've grown and accomplished since my UG disaster.

I was pleased with all that and thought things would be good. However, when I was connecting with a cornell alum, he told me he had been dinged at Kellogg inspite of a brilliant interview with an alum in the Philippines.. I am very very nervous now..

Does anyone have the same experience? Great interview but ding specifically at Kellogg?

Thanks CobraKai. I guess I just took that "extra check" for granted at the other schools. I did like it though. It's kind of exciting literally meeting several people who could be your new best friends.

Hey Niksworth.. was this after a waiver? Anybody got an interview invite post a waiver yet?

Nope. Not yet.

Hey, does anyone know if the results are supposed to be out on Dec 17 or by Dec 17?

Last year the decisions started rolling out a week early via phone calls and people found out each day up until the final decision day.

I have heard this as well. And, to confirm - here is the direct language from the Kellogg website https://kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/FullTimeMBA/Applying/AdmissionsDecisions.aspx:

Admissions decisions may be released on or before the decision deadline for that particular application round. Application decisions are posted on the Check Application Status page on the Kellogg Full-Time website. Please note the status is not posted in the Apply Yourself system.

I'll be staying in Evanston next week so if anybody is traveling home to Chicago for the break and wants to visit the campus, PM me and we can try to schedule a time for a private tour. Kellogg will have official info sessions this Mon and Tues, but no class visits or building tours.

This happens with applicants at every school, and it's really out of your control and all subjective. The only thing you can really do is just wait till you hear the decision.

Something to consider - at Kellogg the interview is just another component of the application that gets evaluated with everything else. Having a great interview may not be enough o compensate for weaknesses elsewhere in the application. At schools where interviews are invite only, you can at least feel some confidence that you made it through the first cut of applicants. When interviewing with Kellogg, there's just no way of knowing how you stack up with the rest of the applicant pool or what the adcom thinks of your application.