Calling all Wharton 2011 Applicants

I should have chosen Alumni ... I'm by far better in long conversations showing who I really am, than being asked only 3 questions and sent home.

Anyway, tomorrow is my day (HUB interview with a "Consultant" in HK)

hard to say... the HK alum I emailed still hasn't gotten back to me! and I missed out on the HK hub while waiting for him, hence the trip to Shanghai... I've also hear others were having difficulty getting responses in Beijing.

Had my interview with an alum yesterday. 3 behavioral questions as well and lots of notes taking, but the experience was pleasant and lasted about 1.5 hours as the alum spent time addressing my questions and sharing experiences.

Hi ppop, best of luck!!

Can you share your profile summary with us?

The 3 questions I had are very similar to those posted before: teamwork towards a goal, free-rider issue, and convincing someone (Can't remember the exact wording).

Thanks, but I was asking for your profile summary i.e your age, gmat score, undergard majors & work experience, nationality etc.

I know it might be difficult for many of you guys to answer this, considering you are in the same boat as me, but the more experienced of you all, especially those who have worked directly with admissions committees may be able to shed some light.

How influential can an outside recommendation from an alumni actually be. I have a friend whose uncle was the former president of our university and whose last name is the name of the campus center (he is well informed about the favors process). He told me that the only time an alumni influence has any real effect is when the person who is talking on your behalf has a direct personal relationship with a member of the admissions committee. But what about a letter from a very well respected alumni who may not know a specific member of admissions committee directly, but can get there by way of just one highly placed individual at the university.

Any thoughts?

If your alumni has a building named after him, that helps. If your alumni knows the adcom personally, that helps. If it's a random alumni that doesn't donate much nor knows the adcom... probably won't help you much. If it's a well-respected alumni, well then it depends on why he's well-respected. Is it because of donations, or he's generally famous, or another reason? Even if he's famous, but he doesn't contribute to the school, I'm doubtful the additional recommendation would be as helpful as a recommendation from a less famous alumni with a building named after him/her.

Thanks Hussain, what are the specifics around the "teamwork" question? Is it about motivating others, assembling a team, resolving conflict, etc?

Wharton's admissions team has changed somewhat over the last few years. There is currently a strong emphasis on fairness and they request that applicants do not send, or have others send new materials on their behalf. In the past, I have heard submissions helped, but over the last couple of years things seem to have changed. An alumna and a student at Wharton submitted letters of support for me when I was waitlisted and I was still rejected.

Hi all,

I had my interview today at a hub. She only asked one follow-up question (probably because I did not explain it well at all). This section probably lasted 20 mins.

FYI, the "other questions you have for me" part does not matter at all. I actually think I connected with her, but as she mentioned, there is nowhere for her to comment on anything external to those questions.

Hey guys!

Had my hub interview today..i would say it was a very pleasant experience...was the same 3 question format (for sandy)..teamwork, conflict, leadership..mostly on lines with what other ppl hv posted here..it took me sometime taking off, essentially my 1st answer could have been better, in terms of timelines..because i felt they make it a point that each of those three get about 8-9 minutes of attention..so I perhaps finished it too quickly..therefore it got followed up by a couple of questions by the adcom member..bt the rest 2 were completely fine, except the fact that i asked for a moment to think on the 3rd question, as i could not immediately come up with a story , bt she seemed pretty ok with that.

The last part, when we got to other questions/information from my side, was interesting..i used that to elaborate a bit on my 'story' ..and she started writing some points from there as well , which is contrary to other ppl's views here that they don't write anything from there...all in all it was a good pleasant experience..the adcom member was very friendly..we had a nice conversation during that last part and at the time of leaving..she even gave me her email address so that i can write to her on a specific info I had asked her during my questions, or for any other info that i might require.

My overall suggestion is just focus on your key 4-5 stories that you would have written in your essays anyways..and try your presence of mind to link up to any question asked with 3 of them.

Now the wait begins

I just came home from my Wharton HUB interview. Here my debrief:

Of course there weren't any questions about why MBA, why now, career goals, or why Wharton.

The interviewer was a Consultant from Wharton (she wasn't a Wharton MBA graduate). She cordially explained that she would ask only three behavioral questions and that she would be taking a lot of notes. She also said that the interview would only last between 20 and 30 minutes.

And that's all, let's start. "Are you prepared?" one, two, three... go!
"Describe a time when you had to work with a team and had to accept the opinion of others"
I started explaining the context of my story, and a lot of things totally unrelated with the question. Suddenly, my brain went blind and I realized I had totally forgotten what she had exactly asked. I knew it was something about team work but with all my brain working on my story I forgot the question. I was just about to say "sorry, what was the question?" but well I decided to continue speaking (and probably avoided a 0 points in the question). Thankfully, after a few seconds (and a lot of concentration) I remembered the question and I could finish my story answering it....

No time for more. While I was drinking some water, she was already asking me the second question. Some thing like:
"Tell me a time when you had to work in a team without a leader"
Again, I also spoke about a strong story but a lot about other things not totally related to the question.... I hope the girl's report is not only strictly based on the answer to the question but also reports some other things.

Finally, last question, the end was near.
"Tell me a time when you had to listen others' views."
She also said.. "I think this can be also answered with your first response... but please try to find a different story if you can¨
Another story? what? Come one I don't have 100 stories to tell you.... I was totally off the guard. I had to think at least 10-15 seconds to choose one and I'm not sure I chose the correct story. And well, I did it extremely well or extremely bad. Why? because I had prepared this story in case of asking about a "failure" and I used it to answer this question. Anyway kind of weird to receive almost the same question in 1 and 3....

I don't know what the interviewer will think about this, maybe she was surprised that I was honest about speaking about a failure, or maybe she will think I don't pay attention to people in my team, that I'm a bad guy as I don't listen others or whatever.

The "exam" was finished and I asked some questions about Wharton. But she wasn't a Wharton graduate so I probably knew a lot more than her about the school.

I also asked her why only these three questions this year. She said that Wharton wanted to be fair with candidates, as they have realized that the luck factor plays a big factor when interviews are done with an Alumni. An Alumni may like you or not, may like your background or not, and may be biased. She said that asking the same type of questions to all candidates is more fair. I guess I may agree with this approach somehow, though I also consider that it is an important skill to know how to win a interviewer.

She wished me luck and the interview was finished.

Hope this helps.

Had my interview. It was as has been described here. Having been through it first hand, I think it's actually a pretty good system, but very poorly implemented. Think of it less like an interview, and more like an interactive essay that tests your oral presentation instead of written presentation and that allows adcom to probe deeper. They are looking for the same demonstrated leadership behavior as they are in the essays, this is just a different avenue to get at it. It did not feel robotic at all, but maybe that's just because my interviewer was a talented multitasker and juggled copious notes with good two way dialogue.

Hi all, I'm applying for Round 2 and want to introduce myself. Like many of you, I am interested in Finance, particularly S&T. I studied engineering in undergrad and now work as a bond research analyst.

I just finished reading through the whole thread. Seems like everybody from Round 1 is now having fun with interviews. Good luck!

I am visiting the campus on Monday 11/29. I'll be going to the class visit, lunch with students, campus tour, and adcom info session. If anybody else from gmatclub will be there, let's meet up.

-rouzbie

Had my interview yesterday on campus and matched what others have said. A few notes outside of the interview that might be of interest (since people have clearly covered what questions were asked):

First, everyone who I talked to who was there and was also interviewing (on the tour, at lunch, etc.) had no idea that the interview format had changed and were only ready for "Why Wharton" etc.

Second, if you go to visit, definitely sit in on a class or two (better if you do it before your interview). Really energized me and I think it helped with the discussion I had with my interviewer outside of "The 3 Questions."

Last, go to the building 10-15 mins beforehand cause it's a little difficult to find the room....

Wow, I guess that's the benefit of participating in this forum (and others as well).