Last year's interview debriefs:1) I finished my interview on 15th. The interview was more of a conversation type... just the normal questions- why mba? why carlson? tell me about yourself..
2) The questions were usual like Why MBA, Why now, challenges at work, how do you approach an obstacle, how do you present a complex topic to strangers. They have added a new section to the interview where you have to talk/present on any topic for 2-3 mins. You will be given 1 min to prepare.
3) The interview questions were the usual: why MBA, why now, why Carlson, What will you give the community, have you faced any ethical dilemma, where else are you going to apply etc. These are questions I remember off-hand.. Try to interact with a current student or faculty.. They really like that you have taken some extra efforts to understand the culture of the university.
4) My interview had no surprises, it had just all the standard questions - Why MBA, Why Carlson, Walk me through yoru CV, Any situation where you faced conflict of interest, career goals etc. It had lasted 30 minutes.
5) So I had my interview last night.
The interview was quite conversational - he (AdCom) took great effort to get to know my background, experiences and the whole story...
Questions were the usual ones: (maybe I am missing a few too..)
- why engineering as undergraduate?
- why MBA?
- why Carlson?
- short/long term goals?
- strength
- weakness
- teamwork experience
- ethical dilemma
- how would I teach a totally new concept to someone?
- 2-min extempore on a topic of my choice (he gave me 1-2 min to prepare)
- which other schools have I applied to, and why?
- questions for him
Overall, it lasted almost an hour - and my interviewer was VERY friendly. I was not fully fully prepared for the 2-min extempore and maybe I stumbled at 2-3 questions more... but all in all it was a very nice experience!
PS:
1. The first admissions decision was received on Dec 19th. But the rest of the candidates got results between the afternoon of Jan 15th till Jan 17th as the applicant count went up by 15 to 20% last year.
2. Some interviews went on for 55 minutes!
3. Scholarship details are only communicated in the admissions package which is shipped to your postal address. Yeah more waiting!
4. Apparently last year's scholarship recipients had a GMAT score average of over 710