kingfalcon wrote:
Zynga wrote:
on-campus or off-campus interview??..I am torn
You're like my left-coast brother! I'm debating the exact same thing. I've never been to Chicago in my life, so I'm thinking about making a weekend out of it (assuming I can get the time off I would need).
This is a pretty common internal debate and I have seen two pretty consisent opinions on the matter.
1) It absolutely positively does not matter on-campus or off-campus. At the end of the day, you could end up with an interviewer you don't "click" with anywhere.
2) (This is from what I read on Poets & Quants a while ago about HBS interviews, but I considered this opinion when I was deciding about my Booth interview) Off-campus interviewers/alums, are less likely to interview a large number of candidates. Since they don't have much to compare you to, their perspective might be skewed a little bit. Keep in mind this could be in your favor, or perhaps it could be detrimental. On-campus interviewers, however, are more likely to interview a good number of candidates which would probably result in a "normalized" opinion of you.
EDIT: Source: https://poetsandquants.com/2012/10/17/how-not-to-blow-your-harvard-interview-2/4/
"Sandy, what’s the best kind of interviewer an applicant can have?
If you can help it, you’ll always be better off with an interviewer with a lot of experience because they are less likely to make oddball judgments. You want a normative interviewer, someone who knows the standards and who has been through it a million times. Alumni often have a chip on their shoulders. They may have issues with the school that can get projected in the interview. They may want to use you to deliver a message to the school, or they could have a prejudice against people who are in Teach For America or other non-profits. That happens a lot. And some alumni interviews can go on for more than an hour. They’re just so much more unpredictable."Ulitmately, I decided to do an on-campus interview because it worked for my schedule. I would not worry about whether you are doing an on or off campus, just choose whatever is best for you. If you have not visited campus, your interview would be a great time to visit.