Darden (Virginia) 2013 - Calling All Applicants!

Invited to interview (received email today, interviewing on the 19th via Skype). Interview is at 1am local time, but that was the best I could do with remaining slots. I consider myself very fortunate to get the interview, as my second reviewer was WAY late getting my rec in, and I was certain that I would be rolled into the third round.

Seems like the only invites going out in the past 2 weeks have been for international applicants. I wish they'd have "waves" like Ross or Fuqua. Much better systems.

I had the exact same issue as my second reviewer submitted the recommendation two weeks after the deadline. Glad to hear that they are inviting you for an interview.

Applicant from India. Still waiting for an invite

Same here

And same here
In fact I have almost lost the hope of getting the call as its almost Feb end..

The decision is over 4 weeks away. No need to lose hope yet.

International applicant here. Had an interview on Skype with a 2nd Year student recently. Like most people said, it was a blind interview (the interviewer hadn't looked at my resume nor my application) and very conversational.

Being an international applicant, and having not got a call as yet, do we assume a ding? Or there have been cases in the past that interview invites have gone out towards end of February? Just curious.

No idea mate..I am also in a similar situation..Though we have 4 more weeks to go before R2 admission decision date, but I no more feel confident about the outcome of my application (sadly, but true)

Well, I interviewed at 1am this morning over Skype. I had trouble understanding the interviewer on occasion, though she told me I was coming in loud and clear. As previous posters have indicated, the bulk of the interview was focused on 'tell me about yourself', followed by questions about my career choices. Finally, I got the opportunity to ask a few questions of the interviewer. I though that the interview went pretty well, so my fingers are crossed. I wish that I could have visited campus to interview, but that would have been difficult given the distance and late interview invite date.

To those of you still waiting, good luck on hearing about interviews in the next couple of days!

My interview was earlier this week. I met with a member of the admissions team. She spent about 5 minutes reviewing the evaluation process with me, then asked: "tell me your life story". I spent about 30 minutes going through my story, then we spent another 20-25 in conversation about Darden, my goals, and personal interests. So about 1 hour for the interview in total. There were about 25-30 other applicants visiting that day, and about 20 interviewing.

Some pointers I thought of after I finished, hopefully these can help those of you who are still preparing:

-Know your story well! My interviewer didn't ask many questions when I was delivering my story, but when she did I was able to alter my story around her question. She would ask something like: do you see yourself doing X at Darden? And I would answer with: let me tell you a story about this time in my life when I did something similar.
-Show, don't tell! The best stories allow the listener to vividly imagine. You can bullet point your life for your interviewer. Then later, she will go back and read exactly what you said on your resume. You can be interesting without having ever saved children from a fire or climbed the world's 5 tallest peaks, though if you have done those things, you might want to find a way to work them in
-You won't have time for everything. I thought I would have plenty of time, and I didn't. I had to catch myself from rambling a couple of times. Practice and time yourself out, then assume that you'll take 25% more time to go through the same story in your interview. Also, you will likely stumble if you focus on memorizing particular words. Memorize the concepts and the order in which you will present them.
-Have a theme! I know it sounds cheesy, but it will help them remember you more if "you're the guy who is really caring and runs marathons to raise money for cancer research" or if you're the "woman who consistently challenged herself and ended up discovering how much she loves the healthcare industry, despite having been an accounting major." Think of 3 or 4 good stories that relate to your theme across your adult life and use them to pull the whole story together.
-Have fun. You get to talk about yourself; you don't have to spend an hour doing a DCF or frantically jotting down notes for a case study. No 5 forces, no Strunk & White. It's just you, chatting with someone who is interested in you. Tell some jokes and smile: they're happy you're there, too!

I believe I was there in your group Monday

One additional pointer that I thought of afterwards. I didn't get to the "why Darden" in my initial monologue (it was addressed in a follow up question). It may be a good idea to see if you can weave that into your "story" to demonstrate how it naturally aligns. I am sure it is fine to address it afterward (well lets hope so ), but I wish I would have incorporated that into the part of my story when I was discussing why business school was the next step.

Good luck to all- and cheers to four more weeks of waiting and lurking around here.

When are more round 2 interview invitations going out!? It's killing meeeee.

I had my interview yesterday on Skype.
It was more about me telling my story, I started with more personal stuff like travel, upbringing, education and later elaborated about my work-ex.
the interviewer asked questions in case she required more details.
After about 30 minutes. she asked specifically about why MBa/ Why Darden etc.
It was fun and we talked about other activities at Darden and student life.
The interview was just a few minutes short of an hour.

Cheers

Dinged. Got a mail from Sara Neher saying that while I can interview for the Global EMBA, I won't be offered an MBA interview.

Indian male, 7+yr work-ex in R&D/Software programming, 750 GMAT

Sorry to here that. Hope you'll receive good news from other schools, if any.
Btw, has any other R2 applicant received the accepted/dingged result? I thought Darden will only release R2 result on the decision date (20 Mar) as said on Darden's website.
I did the off-campus inteview on 19 Feb. It was ok but it could have been better. The interviewer started like this: "I've read your resume so I know what you've done. Now can you tell me your story? I wanna know why you've made the decisions you've made." And from then on it's more like a conversation. The interviewer politely interrupted me several times to ask for more detailed answers.