Calling all Kellogg Applicants (2016 Intake) Class of 2018!!

thanks for sharing the experience. after the interview did you guys receive any response from the interviewer to the thank-you note? i interviewed and sent a thank you note but did not hear anything.... is that a bad sign?

Do not read much into this. I did get a thank you note from my Kellogg interviewer but it might a case of your interviewer being extremely busy with work or other commitments. Also, you will not be notified as and when the interviewer submits the interview feedback. So now sit back and relax till the result day.

Good luck with the final decision.

Still haven't received an interview-invite. I'm based in New Delhi, India. Really tense!
Does anybody have an idea whether there is a typical time-frame/date by end of which Kellogg would complete sending-out all interview-invites for R2 for international applicants, especially Indians?

Hang in there! There is not deadline as such for "international invites" but all interviews must be completed by 27th Feb. So you still have 28 days to go. Quite a bit of time I would say.

So feel extra bad about myself if I don't even get an interview?

I'm based in Gurgaon and still haven't received an interview invite either!

So, hello everyone. I had my interview on Friday with an alum. I'm not going to lie, it was more grueling than I anticipated. The interview was VERY focused on my resume, so I would recommend knowing it in and out (as you probably already do). Anything on there is fair game. My interviewer already had notes scribbled all over his copy of my resume and asked about apparent gaps in employment, reconfirmation of timelines. It was intense.Fortunately, I was prepared.

The only dead-on "usual suspect" question was the first: Walk me through your resume. All subsequent questions were framed as follow-up questions or as inquiries into specific items on my resume.

I got grilled on the names of the alums I had met with, on why I was choosing Kellogg (which is traditionally a Marketing school) when my interests are in management and strategy. It's a good thing I had reviewed employment statistics before my interview. Despite all of that, I think it went well. Towards the end, we started to chat casually about life in Chicago (I lived there for seven years) and . . . chess.

All the best to everyone who is yet to interview.

FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Meet the professors behind Kellogg’s Super Bowl Ad Review

The 12th annual Kellogg Super Bowl Ad Review is quickly approaching, and with advertising spots selling at a reported $5 million, the stakes are higher than ever for marketers. On Sunday, Feb. 7, more than 50 Kellogg students will join Professors Tim Calkins and Derek Rucker as they try to separate the Super Bowl advertising winners from the losers. Read on to learn more about Calkins and Rucker — two of Kellogg’s most widely recognized marketing professors — including their past involvement with the Ad Review and what they’re most looking forward to about this year’s ads. Tim Calkins Clinical Professor of Marketing Professor Calkins compiled the first Super Bowl Advertising Review in 1999 and launched it in its current format in 2005. “The Super Bowl is a remarkable marketing event,” Calkins said. “I love seeing what brands come up with. The Kellogg review itself is fairly intense. The panel has to evaluate dozens of spots, and then we have to quickly turn around and release the official results. It is exciting working with students to make sense of all the ads.” Calkins said he is always interested in seeing which brands manage to stand out. The same is true for him this year. “There is so much going on during the Super Bowl, it is difficult to break-through the clutter, but every year a few brands pull it off,” Calkins said. “I’m also watching to see which brands struggle. The intense pressure to be creative means some will miss the mark.” He also noted that he is curious about the tonality of the 2016 Super Bowl ad spots “because Super Bowl advertising reflects the mood of the country. Most of these brands have done extensive market research, so the spots tell us something about how people are feeling and what is important.” As a longtime leader of the Kellogg Super Bowl Ad Review, Calkins has had the unique opportunity of seeing the full evolution of Ad Review participants: “Quite a few students who were on the panel in the early days are now working on the new Super Bowl spots,” he said. Derek Rucker Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies in Marketing Professor Rucker is the co-developer of the ADPLAN framework, a strategic and quantitative advertising assessment tool that is used during the Kellogg Super Bowl Ad Review. What does he enjoy most about leading the Ad Review? “For me, it’s the entire atmosphere and environment of the Kellogg SB Ad Review,” Rucker said. “The energy in the room is just amazing. It’s a great and unique venue for interacting with our students and for taking fundamental marketing skills learned in the classroom and putting them into action in advertising’s biggest stage. “I particularly enjoy it when I see the students identify and articulate why they viewed a particular spot as hitting or missing the mark. Seeing our students display their prowess in strategy is stimulating.” Every Super Bowl, Rucker looks forward to two things: Seeing brands figure out the perfect formula to balance strategy and creativity to make an impact Spending time unpacking the underlining strategy of the ad Learn more about Kellogg’s Super Bowl Ad Review. Join Kellogg’s 12th annual Super Bowl Ad Review virtually and follow the conversation on Twitter using #KelloggSB and @InsideKellogg. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: #KelloggSB, ADPLAN, faculty, marketing, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Ad Review

Is there a difference between alum and adcom interviews. I have a hunch adcom interviews would be more formal and testing?

Don't go in believing any such 'analysis'. You can have a strict interviewer on any given day be it an alumnus/na or an adcom member. You just need to make sure that you know what you have mentioned in your resume A to Z including follow up anecdotes or stories corroborating what you have written in your resume. Additionally, prepare well for why MBA, why Kellogg, why now, why xyz industry etc type of questions to wrap it up.

FYI, I had an alumnus interview in R1 which was very conversational and lasted 45 minutes. There wasnt a single question that caught me by surprise as I knew my 'MBA story' going in.

Good luck with your interview.

Received an invite yesterday for skype call with an adcom member. Scheduled it for Feb 9. looks like only Tuesdays are available. Best of luck to everyone!

Congrats hawksight!!

Is there any pattern for interview invite?

Have a theory. In the application, we submit our choice of interview locations. Specifically they want you to meet alumni. So my assumption is that they try to pair you preferably with an alum instead of an adcom member.

I think they first run through the list of alums at your location that match your profile/ goals and check with them about their availability. Since they are generally busy (alums+adcom) they take sometime to acknowledge and respond. Those who get early confirmations from alums receive interview invites sooner - depending on how soon alums respond and how soon adcom acknowledges their responses. Those candidates (like me) who can't be matched with any alum also get invites from adcom sooner.
Then there is the third group that have potential matches with alums but alums take their time to respond. Say you are from Chennai or calcutta. This process may be quicker to you because there aren't many alums living there to run you through. If an alum isn't available you get invite from adcom.
This is not the case for Bombay or Bangalore. If some alum doesn't respond then they can contact another one because I'm sure there will be more than just one match. Then may be they try again. If that doesn't work either then you will receive invite.

A lot of assumptions but convincing to me. What do you think?

PS: I believe I got it earlier -one because I work in Chennai that is my location preference - where many alums aren't there. Again an assumption as this is not Bombay.
Next even if some are there I'm fairly confident that since I work for a hedge fund not many alums that match my profile are around here. Again it is not Bombay.
Can you please run your profile thru these criteria and rethink?

Yeah. The set of assumptions sounds logical, except one unanswered question.
Why reject an Applicants, if none of this alum n adcom matching worked by the deadline. From operational point of view this is still ok, as adcom cant wait indefinitely for all candidates to get done with interviews. But from candidates perspective, it sounds like because of someone's unavailability one got rejected!!

Now I have to ask you to not over analyse it. During my one on one discussion with an adcom member she repeatedly told me that they want to interview each and every candidate. In fact she said that's one point that distinguishes Kellogg. Quite a good story to hear - how Kellogg came into the top schools league with this unique admission process. I am quite confident that you will receive an invite sooner than later. Moreover the deadline is still a month away. I'm sure they would have set deadlines for alum responses beyond which they wouldn't wait and just go ahead with adcom interviews. That said , in the mean time while they still wait for alums to respond and while trying to pair you up with someone, they want to effectively use that time to interview other applicants.

Another thing I observed is that Kellogg has the most extensive and insightful application process of all the schools that I've applied to. They will definitely take time to carefully read all the applications. May be they are still doing that. Deadlines are still away.

If you don't mind can I ask you where you are located and what field you are interested to pursue?

I think not making it to the interview won't be the sole basis of rejection. I believe it is stated in the web that a person may receive in interview waiver and still has a chance of being admitted. To my understanding, the face-to-face interview provides the adcom the evidence of the candidate's likability and ability to work in team - if you have already covered that in the application and did well in the video essay that shouldn't be a problem. What do you think?

Sounds technically correct but a bit too idealistic. I would definitely love to see an applicant that got admitted without an interview. In today's times when the consultants are on rampage, I don't think adcoms will be content with just essays and resume. They want to meet the applicant before offering admission. Coming to the video essays, as one of them was already known in advance, the actual time the candidate spent in thinking and responding is only 60 sec. That is too little to admit anyone. Do you know anyone who pulled the feat w/o interview.?