Calling all Duke-Fuqua Applicants(2015 Intake) Class of 2017

Thanks guys! I will try to keep my jargon to a minimum.

anyone interview lately? anything that we should be aware of or def take advantage of while there?

R1 applicants, how are the interviews going on. I had my interview today and it did not go well at all. I was quite unusual too. The interview reports by EA applicants tell that the interviewer tried to make them feel comfortable. Mine was not at all like that. May be it was a stress interview, but I am not sure. Anyone who had a similar experience? And does Fuqua take stress interviews?

I believe that my interview did not go well. How much does interview matter? Anyone?

What is the acceptance rate after Interview?

I had my interview this morning and the questions were all expected. He only asked me 5 questions! Don't know what to make of that..

He started off by sharing his background and career progress pre-MBA.

1. Take me through your career journey so far and why MBA?
2. Why Fuqua?
3. Tell me how did you handle a difficult team member.
4. You have 1 minute to make a pitch to admissions committee. Go.
5. Did you receive any critical feedback and what did you do about it?

In total we spent about 30 minutes on the questions and then he opened the floor for me to ask questions. I asked a few questions and tried to sprinkle some of the points i wanted to make during the interview in the conversation. But he didn't take any notes when i was asking the questions.

Overall it was a stress free interview. He was smiling all the time and gave me a sense that he definitely agrees with what I was talking about. So I don't know what to make of it because they must have been trained not to give out any insight through behaviors.

one more piece of information i did not cover in the earlier post - there were 8 people interviewing today. I am guessing the number/day will go up closer to the final days of interviewing. There were two teachers, one IB, one accounting, one army. It is interesting that 3 out of 8 did their bachelors from Duke.

I attended 'foundations of strategy' class for FYs. The class is based on a case study that Bain worked on and three Duke Fuqua alumni (2 recent, 1 graduated 12 years ago) from Bain were there to listen to the students presentations.

For me, nothing really out of the ordinary. In addition to what Kaptint mentioned, I had basic WHYs in the beginning and then the interview drove to specific questions on my resume and my goals.

This may be a bit silly, but I just want to remind you about coming in at least business casual attire. I was planning to wear polo for the interview (First, because I am stupid. Second, because I knew nearly all students wear that in school) and a friend suggested I wear something a bit more formal. Thanks god he did! My interviewer came in a pretty formal look (She came in a suit). It would have looked really awkward if I didn't change my outfit. Also, it would be good if you bring a notepad with your questions written on it. It gives a good impression that you are serious about the visit.

Hi suhasdev,

Sorry to hear about your interview experience. The level or intensity of the interview will somehow depend on the questions/answers discussed during the interview and also the background of each applicant. So, you cannot basically generalize the experience on all interviewees. But if you still think it is quite unusual for an interview to go the way yours did, then you should drop an admission officer an email. I was told by one admission officer at Fuqua that they need to know if an applicant has received a bad interview experience/feedback from the interviewer. If I were you, I would only email them if it's noticeably unusual and it's seriously hurting my chances. Otherwise, it may be better for you to let it slide

I'm a re-applicant this year, which I attribute to a bad interview experience during last year's R2. I did not connect with my interviewer and it seemed like they were reading from a script and were unwilling to deviate from the script. It was very formal and the complete opposite to the experience I had during the open interview period this year. The questions were similar, but the interview was much more relaxed and dynamic this year.

As for attire, I wore a suit w/o a tie last year and was the only applicant out of roughly 20 who was dressed business casual. This year, I wore a tie and half the folks interviewing were dressed business casual. As long as you're at least business casual, I suggest wearing whatever puts you in the best mindset for the occasion. The interview is relaxed, but the anticipation leading up to it was certainly stressful! No need to increase the stress by worrying about your attire.

I wore suit w/o tie but there were two guys in business casual (shirt + khakis) and rest of the guys were all business formal. I don't know how to classify women's formal dresses

Has anyone received final decisions (post interview) for round 1 yet? I thought they will do a mass roll out of desions on 18th Dec?

I see a few have as per the stats at the start of this topic but don't know how valid is tht number given as per those stats some hv also received final desions for round 2 as well (which hasnt even begun yet )

FROM Fuqua Current Student Blogs: Experiential Learning Starts Immediately

In developing ‘leaders of consequence,’ Fuqua not only relies on its world class curriculum, but also depends on extensive experiential learning. As part of our C-LEAD (Consequential Leadership) course in our first term, we were all taken to Triangle Training Center to overcome various challenges with the help of other team members. Part of the program was to climb a 60-foot wall. During my turn, I had climbed less than three feet, when I looked up the wall and realized the long way to go. I was so discouraged by the high goal that I decided to surrender without finishing the task. But before doing so, I closed my eyes and thought for a few seconds. A recent lesson from our leadership class came across my mind. The lesson was about how setting high goals in business settings might make the very first steps towards achieving the goal look overly difficult. As a solution, the course suggested that high goals be divided into small sub-goals in order to make them look achievable and less aversive. Snapshot of our leadership course reading When I opened my eyes, I was determined to continue the challenge, but started thinking about the next three steps only, and not the ultimate goal. I was not frightened by the high goal anymore. I continued my climb the same way by focusing on sub-goals and eventually found myself at the top of the wall. I am confident that the leadership lesson would not have stuck in my mind as well if it were not for such a great experiential challenge. Fuqua offers a great combination of extracurricular activities that complement in-class learning. This hybrid gives students hands-on experience in applying classroom lessons to real-life applications. According to Dean Russ Morgan, “a large part of the transformational experience at Fuqua relates to students enhancing their abilities to act as Leaders of Consequence,” and in order to act as such, students should be able to apply principles and frameworks taught in class. Fuqua has put together the opportunities required for students to do this, thereby instilling these skills and enhancing their personal growth.

FROM Fuqua Current Student Blogs: The Best of Both Worlds: Why I Chose Duke’s MPP/MBA Program

When I decided to go back to grad school, I wasn’t sure which program to enroll in. Coming from the nonprofit sector, I knew that I eventually wanted to manage a large nonprofit or maybe run for office, but I wasn’t sure whether to get a Master of Public Policy (MPP) or a Master in Business Administration (MBA). The best MPP programs offered classes in things I was really interested in like international development and nonprofit management but offered few classes in strategy, accounting or finance—all necessary to run an organization effectively. Similarly, the best MBA programs, including those with a social impact focus, offer lots of classes in these business areas, but don’t delve into policy topics as deeply as the MPP courses do nor provide the same level of analytical examination. And by that I mean that MBA courses typically approach issues through cases rather than examine the science behind why something works and other things do not. That’s when I learned about the MPP/MBA dual degree program. Top schools like Duke, Harvard and Chicago have long recognized the importance of training leaders in policy and management but could not train students effectively in both areas in two years without sacrificing quality. But, by streamlining core classes and reducing the required number of electives, they could effectively train students in three years. The MPP/MBA degree is now so popular that many top universities without policy schools like Stanford and MIT offer the degree in partnership with other universities. Presenting to a MPP client At Duke, I applied to both schools separately (the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Fuqua School of Business) and had to be admitted by both schools’ admissions committees. It’s a pretty daunting task since competition is fierce and the acceptance rates of both are roughly the same (about 20-25%). Once I was admitted into both programs, I could then declare myself a dual-degree MPP/MBA candidate. My first year at Duke, I matriculated into Sanford as a first-year MPP student and took the standard core courses. This included a quantitative boot camp of economics, statistics, economic policy, econometrics, and public policy analysis that completely changed the way I thought about the world. By the end of the year, I could not only read academic papers with ease but could also design statistical regression models and quantitatively measure the effectiveness of policy intervention—not bad for a guy who majored in political science and took the minimum number of math classes to graduate from undergrad. I also appreciated other aspects of Sanford. The program has around 65 students so everyone becomes very close. Over fall break, one of my classmates invited me and some others to stay at her boyfriend’s family’s cabin in Asheville, NC, and over spring break another had me over to her family’s vacation home in Palm Springs. Additionally, Sanford is on a semester system and like all policy schools, has a less structured recruiting calendar than most business schools making it easier to delve more deeply into course material. That gave me time to master concepts without having to balance the demands of interviewing, attending company events or going to club sponsored activities that many first-year MBA students have. Hiking the Inca Trail during my 3rd year in the MPP/MBA program My second year, I started at Fuqua with the incoming MBA class. Because I had already taken some of the quant courses, I was able to place out of some core requirements that most MBA students begin with and took more electives instead. Other than that, there was no difference from the usual Fuqua timeline—I recruited in the fall, did my business school internship in the summer and participated in club activities. The third year, I took classes both at Fuqua and at Sanford and worked on my capstone master’s policy project. This meant that my combined schedule was more demanding than my business school classmates but that didn’t stop me from doing anything I wanted to do—I even managed to study abroad in Chile and hiked the Inca Trail afterwards. Having completed the dual degree program, I can say it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Business school taught me how to analyze data and make decisions quickly and how to manage an organization. Policy school taught me how to analyze data and issues thoroughly and understand the reasoning and math behind the tools that are used in both policy and business. Because of the complementary nature of the programs, I am just as comfortable presenting in a company boardroom as I am conversing with PhD’s who are generating the data that make the world go round. Lastly, being in two graduate programs for three years enabled me to make great friends and build a network at two schools that will no doubt assist me as I move forward in my career. But more importantly, the dual-degree program enabled me to fully embrace my time at Duke and to take classes that fit a variety of my interests. I was able to stretch my limits, expand my knowledge base and take the additional time to listen, to talk, to think and to grow. And that is worth far more than any one program or school could ever provide.

R1 decisions are not out yet. R1 interviews are on-going right now (ends on 9-Dec). Decisions will be out on 19-Dec. Some might have inadvertently selected the wrong option in their profiles so thats what we see in the stats summary. Ignore that.

Just had my interview. It was an off-campus interview here in Madrid and it was very friendly and conversational. The questions were the usual ones: "tell me your motivations", "why Duke?"... Overall a very good experience.

Now time to wait until it´s decision time!

I sent a thank you note to the interviewer and I did not get any response from him. I am worried.

Don´t overthink this. Even if you had had the worst interview ever, you could expect the interviewer to answer you back. Therefore, it is most likely he/she has not seen it or just forgotten about it.