I am sure you have read all over this thread about how comfortable, informative, and amazing the on-campus interviews have been, and I want to offer you my off-campus experience to help you decided to make the sacrifice to fly out to Duke. I had to interview off campus because of a 3-month military training during the fall that did not allow me to leave. I wish I would have been able to make the open interviews because I had an absolutely horrible experience with my alumnus interviewer.
For all who may be on the fence about interviewing at Duke or waiting for an invite, go to the campus. If nothing else, just go to visit the school. I visited before the open-interview dates, and I loved it so much that I decided to drop the other places to which I had planned to apply.
First off, my interview was 100% atypical of all of my previous experiences with Fuqua alumni/current students and should not reflect poorly upon the school. It wasn't all terrible, but there were a few times that I could not believe that this was actually my MBA interview for which I had worked so diligently to prepare. I will highlight a few things I felt were abnormal in hopes to encourage you all to GO TO THE CAMPUS. He was five minutes late. We talked about how his work was a little frustrating because he had been laid off from his firm and was not enjoying the independent contracts (again, not a proper representation of the Duke alumni I talked to while doing research for my application). He picked up my resume and said, "Hm. I was in the military 16 years ago," and then looked up and smiled. I was excited to see we had some common ground! He then said something to this effect, "It was so mind-numbing...I had to get out of there ASAP because I was afraid of how quickly my mind would atrophy." Awesome. I am sure he wanted to hear all about how my military background in interrogation and Chinese was both extremely challenging and rewarding. He said, "Let's move on...I can ask anyone about 'leadership'," and then provoked a pretty awkward conversation about the business background that I lack. After he answered my questions for 15 minutes or so, the very last thing he told me was this: "If you don't get in to Duke, don't just settle for any other school that will accept you. If you really want Fuqua, then take a year to think about it and re-apply." Then we got up, shook hands, I thanked him for his advice.
This very well could have been his way to determine how I handled myself as an underdog under pressure, and I feel that I did respond well to the awkwardness. But, as I contrast my experience with what most have shared about their comfortable and relaxed interviews on campus with second-year students I do begin to fear for the decision on December fifth. How much weight does the admissions committee give these types of interviews? Is it more of an honesty-check about one and his application, or is this still part of the weeding process after making the essay cut? Any thoughts?
Anyway, I do know that we are all well-qualified and I encourage you to go to campus to interview so that you can best represent your application face-to-face with no regrets! Good luck!
08 Nov 2011, 16:59
