Duke Fuqua 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Thanks. Yea I was struggling to find direct flights so I thought I would ask. But a 5 hour drive is a bit much.

It depends on the time you drive down. My sister is in UG at NC State (free place to stay for my Duke visit!) in Raleigh so I have made the drive from DC plenty of times. I've made it there in about 4 hours in the early AM, but it took me 6+ on a friday afternoon/evening.

You can try Charlotte, NC for a 2.5 hour drive.

Most people that I talk with that are coming from DC drive. I think that to Durham you would actually want Reagan instead because most of the regional flights go out of there. Is there some reason you were specifically looking at Dulles (coming from elsewhere perhaps)? From Dulles, I think you'll have a hard time making the trip in less than 5 hours - you'll undoubtedly run into traffic somewhere along the way.

I am actually on a project in VA for work and we stay in Dulles. I live in Cali, so I am unfamiliar with the location. I think I found flights out of DCA to RDU that is direct. Probably end up going that route and save the 5 hours in a car.

Hey Guys - I'm trying to decide between open interview vs. waiting for an invitation.

I feel like it would be really hard for me to take a week or so for interview preparation before the 14th of Oct since I'm also applying in R1 to Ross and Booth with deadlines on 10th and 12th Oct.

I understand that it is strongly encouraged to visit campus before applying and I fully endorse that idea. In fact I plan to visit campus before submitting my R1 app on Nov 1. Just that I don't feel so strongly about interviewing before Oct 14.

So basically my plan is to -
Visit Campus in Oct -> Submit Application in Nov -> Wait for Interview Invite.

Will it show lack of commitment to not do an open interview and in turn hurt my chances? Does anyone have any numbers on how many admits go through open vs. invitation interviews?

From my understanding, while they like candidates that participate in the open interview, they do not expect everyone to make it during that time. Especially since it is only about a month. I think if you go to an information session and plan a campus visit it shows the same commitment. You might want to get some other thoughts though in case anyone has special insight.

Thanks. I agree. Though I'm thinking of dropping an email to admissions office or I might ask them during an info session.

Definitely do the interview when you feel most comfortable, and do not rush it. By coming to campus, you've already showed the interest, plus it helps lower the application fee.

I think your proposed plan is definitely good. Also, try to reach out to professional clubs in the fields you are interested in to get an understanding of the recruiting and get a feel for the students. I would advise you to do it now verus in October. October is heavy interview season here for all the second years, and they probably won't have time to speak with you.

General advice, if you plan to reach out to students and are applying in later rounds, please be cognizant of student's time, and do it after mid-late November. Students are very welling to help provide insights, but they also have to juggle a lot of stuff during recruiting season.

Thanks 'Asimov' for the guidance. I wasn't aware that October would be a recruitment heavy month. In that case I'll plan my visit in September. One of the other reasons I wanted to come in a bit late was coz I wanted to let the First year's settle in and get a good feel for how things work at Duke. That way they might also be better able to provide insights to prospectives like me Hey do you know when classes started at Duke for the semester? Thanks.

You can check out the Duke academic schedule on the Fuqua website or search for it on Google. Class starts next Monday. If you want to get a sense of FY, you should come in Fall 2. Most of the FYs are still trying to figure things out in October. I don't think I got a good feel for my experience until post Spring 1, after all the recruiting craziness. Talking with a SY will be most valueable, since they've been through everything, therefore have a better perspective.

Great info. BTW, is there a link which lists the other core schools for MBB and what really does being a core school mean.

Great . Asimov, thanks a lot for updating us with this information.

I don't think MBB publicize these information, since it would alienate other schools. I belive BCG's core schools are Stanford, HBS, Wharton, Booth, and Fuqua.

MBB will recruit at all the top-tier schools, but the core schools gets a lot more resources. For example, some partners will only do their rounds within the core schools. For recruiting, you may get highly level exposure, having partners coming on campus instead of principals or consultants. For quite a few of my classes, we had partners from MBB come in to do a case study of real clients (with identifying information scrubbed).

There may be additional interview/hire slots, not sure. But I'm sure, if times get tough and they need to cut recruiting, they will cut from the non-core first.

Thanks Asimov. Your inputs are much appreciated and very helpful.

I believe that McKinsey's list is M7+ Fuqua, Ross, Dartmouth, Berkeley. I'm judging this by looking at the recruiting invites I received from them. They listed about 11-12 schools. I think Darden was also on the list, but not 100%.

hey guys.. does anyone know if there is a specific font style that AdCom prefer for the essays? Also I know that the essay guidelines mention that the font size should be no less than 10, but would this be recommended? Imo a font size of 10 is a bit of a strain on the eyes!