First, please consider this quote from Dean Kerwin Charles, \u201cPreeminent universities disseminate and produce new knowledge, and some of the best ideas are ripe for revising. However, this demands different perspectives, genders, backgrounds, races, orientations, and points of view.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Second, we ask that you submit a quote that has special meaning or resonates with you. Please submit no later than 48 hours prior to your interview day (or as soon as possible if your interview is in less than two days).<\/em><\/p>\n As a Fortuna Admissions coach and former assistant director in the admissions office at Yale SOM, I\u2019m excited to see the school leaning into the overall trend of making the application process a bit more varied and conversational. I\u2019m also happy to see quotes at the center of this assignment. Quotes are powerful because they are tied to a specific person or source, and because they are efficient, eloquent expressions of important ideas and emotions. The best business school applications are similar \u2013 they feature a voice that can be attributed to a particular individual, and they have a way of distilling that person\u2019s story into a compact statement that is clear and memorable.<\/p>\n 1. The quote from Dean Charles allows Yale to highlight its ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion. Asking every interviewee to consider the role of diversity in an intellectual\/academic context means the idea will be foundational for the incoming class. (Note that this assignment also engages many second-years at SOM who will be interviewing prospective students.)<\/p>\n 2. More subtly, it also suggests Yale is embracing disruption, welcoming people who are open-minded and willing to challenge long-held ideas. This aligns nicely with Yale\u2019s tradition of thinking about leadership and management beyond the for-profit business world. The school invites students to explore new perspectives by enrolling in classes across the university.<\/p>\n 3. The assignment feels like an attempt by Yale to curb a common interview bias toward people who are quick on their feet. This is a special opportunity for all interviewees \u2013 but especially more deliberate thinkers and people who draw extra confidence from being prepared \u2013 to know what\u2019s coming and to reflect on a particular idea in depth before the interview.<\/p>\n 4. By asking candidates to contribute their own quote, Yale is framing the interview (in part) as an equal exchange of ideas. This reflects a core SOM belief that students have as much to learn from one another as they do from their professors.<\/p>\n So, what is Yale SOM looking for?<\/p>\n 1. Keep the assignment in perspective. An exchange about your quote or Dean Charles\u2019 ideas will be just one of several topics your interviewer will plan to cover. You want to be prepared to ace every moment of the conversation but keep in mind that you\u2019re unlikely to be talking about the quotes for more than a few minutes. Don\u2019t get so into the assignment that you forget to prepare for more important questions and topics (e.g., key professional achievements, important personal decisions, your possible futures, etc.).<\/p>\n 2. Be prepared to discuss Dean Charles\u2019 quote by considering where you stand with his claim and why. While his core observation is about diverse perspectives, he\u2019s also talking about the role of the university in creating knowledge, and how ideas are evaluated and revised.<\/p>\n 3. Search for and unpack moments when your thinking was challenged or changed by someone with a different perspective. Have you ever been the challenger, helping someone else improve their view of the world? In what ways, situations, or areas of life do you most often engage people with different attitudes, values, and experiences? If they ask how you would contribute to the diversity of thought at SOM, you\u2019ll be ready with some ideas.<\/p>\n 4. When selecting your quote to share with SOM, the most important thing is that you test its \u201cspecial meaning or resonance.\u201d My best advice here is to approach it like the SOM extended essay and focus on actions, not words. Yale is always on the lookout for behavioral patterns, so be ready to give specific examples of how the quote has affected your choices. Maybe it\u2019s a simple phrase that has nudged you through hundreds of little choices over the years, or perhaps it is a profound statement that guided you during a particular decision where the stakes were high. If the quote has real meaning for you, it should resonate with points you make in other parts of the interview about your work and your life.<\/p>\n 5. This assignment is an invitation for SOM to get a sense of how you reason, how you listen, and how you persuade. Remember that it\u2019s okay to disagree with your interviewer or express a strong opinion, as long as you\u2019re prepared to support your claims and you strike the right tone. Balancing likability and conviction can be tricky, but in an interview I always recommend that candidates err on the side of making a positive connection with their interlocutor.<\/p>\n For more advice on\u00a0how to prepare for your MBA interview<\/a>, including a look at the M7 interview landscape, view this definitive article by Fortuna\u2019s head of interview practice, Malvina Miller Complainville.<\/p>\n Zachary White<\/a>\u00a0is an Fortuna Admissions expert coach and former Yale SOM Assistant Director of Admissions. For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program, sign up for a\u00a0<\/i>free consultation<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The post Yale SOM Pre-Interview Questions & Quote: Insider Advice<\/a> first appeared on Fortuna<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a year distinguished by virtual MBA interviews, its interesting that pre-interview questions are trending among top schools. As my Fortuna Admissions colleagues advised on in related articles,\u00a0Chicago Booth debuted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1831,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-fortuna-admissions","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}There are several dynamics at play with Yale SOM\u2019s pre-interview assignment:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Here are 5 key tips to keep in mind as you prep for the MBA interview at Yale SOM:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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