Calling All Duke (Fuqua) 2011 Applicants

If you check out last year's thread, I know I posted my experience, there are at least a few others. Duke was actually not my favorite, that guy bounced around all over the place. Make sure you have an answer prepared for Leaders of Consequence, they will no doubt ask you what that means. One tricky one I remember was, if you had to create a team of four people (some people were asked six), who would they be and why.

I'm using the business week mba forum.

so you applying to duke this year?

Hi all, so I went to the Fuqua info session in DC yesterday. There were 5 alums (4 who just graduated this year) 1 current student and the head adcom Great stuff, here some thoughts:

I was surprised by the amount of bad questions coming from people, its as if people refuse to look at the website!
Liz Riley Hargrove, head of admissions, was there. She is awesome! really nice and insightful. Kinda looks like Halle Berry!
She touched on some themes that are important. Leaders of Consequence was big deal, many alums addressed it subtly but making a difference was a common with their MBA goals.
The alums were taking about their previous work history and what they do now, all were very impressive.
She spoke of the open interview as a another way the admissions committee can view your candidacy. It can help you get in if you're iffy in there eyes. They only send out interview to people they like so its a good sign but if you weren't going to get one an open interview is way for you to have that in your file as well. It doesn't help your chances purely by making the trek down there, but they have more to go in in accessing your app.

If you guys have any questions feel free to ask me.

has anyone done the open interview yet? any tips?

So the date of my interview is approaching and there is one thing I am wondering about: Will we be informed at some point who our interviewer is such that we may try to find some info on him/her before the interview or is that information not disclosed in advance?

Hi guys,

Can anyone share any insight about the MMS program? (IB/MC placement, etc)
Thanks in advance.


Regards,
MYCambridge

2 page essay limit seems like a lot. What is the average number of words that you guys use your essays for Duke? Thanks

No, you will not know who your interviewer is until just s/he come and get you for the interview. On campus interviews are all conducted by 2nd years, so have some questions that's appropriate for current students.

This thread has some good discussion on the MMS program: master-of-management-studies-duke-96691.html

Mine are all around 1000 words.

My Interview experience:

First of all I was crazy I got up at 3.30 in the morning to fly out to Duke and as one of my flights was delayed, my final schedule ended up looking like this:

Check in 1:30PM
Interview 2:00PM - 3:00 PM
Meet & Greet with Admissions Officer 3:00PM - 3:30 PM
Class visit 4:00PM - 5:15 AM

I missed the tour with lunch which was a big bummer, because Duke students are friendly and chatty. Everyone I met during the rest of my trip had at least on tip or trick to share, so the in-between time of my schedule was among the most valuable time!

The interview: 2nd year student, he spoke 4 languages fluent, including my native language, so we hit it off quite nicely. He had a form/questionnaire in front of him that he used for the interview and the main things covered were:

* Walk me through your resume
* Long Term/Short Term Goals
* Why MBA
* Why Now
* Why Duke
* Tell me about the type of leader you are
* What would you look for in a team (specifically learning team)?
* How do you deal with conflict?

The entire interview was in a very friendly atmosphere and it was more conversational than interview - at least that's how I perceived it. Lasted a solid 50minutes with the last 5 minutes devoted to me asking questions.

Impressions were that the interview went ok. I forgot to include one quality aspect about my application that I am not incorporating in my Duke essays, so when I realized that I was a little bummed, but the rest was fine. What cheered my up a bit, I saw my interviewer again in a hallway later during the day and he gave me the thumbs up from a distance.

Finally, I flew back out that same day, which boy was stressful. It was a 21h trip for me and this morning I am like wabbly toast. Again, while this is cheap and may seem efficient to visit a school, I highly recommend spending 2 days. A lot of fellow applicants I met, flew in one day, did the campus tour, met with students etc on day one and then had their interview day 2 - which is smart, it allows them to incorporate the things they just learned to possible demonstrate a better fit. Then again, there were those that were nervous about the interview and interviewed first and then did all the rest. I suppose either way works, but if I could do it over again, I would do 2 days: Day 1 explore Fuqua, Day 2 interview.

Edit: Attire was indeed business casual. During the 3.30pm meet and greet with the admissions representative there were about 25 applicants present. Roughly 70/30 split m/f. Out of the males, I noticed 2 in full suit/tie, all others were a combination of dress pants, dress shirt, tie no jacket, or full suit no tie. The Dukies themselves were mostly dressed business casual to casual. I don't think I saw anyone attending classes in business formal.

Thanks for sharing, I wish you the best in the process.

thanks for sharing! it seems he went through the generics first then went down to the more personal ques. anyone else went for interview and had same questions or it is diff?

I had mine on Monday as well. Very casual and conversational. Questions that I remember (interview lasted about 45 minutes)...

Walk me through your resume.
Why MBA & why now
Why Fuqua
Tell me about a team conflict
Question on leadership - forget the exact question...
3 qualities your friends would describe you
what's something you haven't shared on your application, but you want to share with me?
Then on to my questions for her.

Because the interviewer was very friendly, my interview went eventually moved into a more conversation like discussion. Left the interview feeling good but that could be due to the interviewer being very friendly. She also reasured that "team fuqua" is not just a marketing tool or on paper... it's an actual reflection of the collaborative nature of the fuqua community - nice to get that assurance

I had my interview in the morning, then tour and class in the afternoon. Flew in morning and out in the afternoon.

Hope this helps. Good luck everyone!

thanks! So the things in common seems to be why duke/mba, tell me about yourself, resume, and then leadership/team questions...

So I have started filling out the online application and I am wondering if anyone has carefully read through this yet:


So I am wondering about how to ensure that I meet the requirement under "IMPORTANT". So when I check the box for requesting the reduction and list the campus visit as a reason and then go save that information it triggers an email being sent to admission or something along those lines? That's how I understand it, but I am not sure. Anyone any input on this?