Calling all Johnson (Cornell) Applicants: (2017 Intake) Class of 2019!

I submitted my application for the November round on 14th Nov, and my application went under review on the 17th. Did anyone else's application go "under review", within a couple of days after the deadline?

Have any L.E.A.D candidates received an admission decision? I interviewed a few weeks ago but I'm attending L.E.A.D next week for the Park Scholarship. I'm wondering if anyone will receive decisions before the event or if we shouldn't expect anything until afterward. I'm starting to get nervous, seeing some acceptances roll out.

I applied for the two year program on 11/14. App went under review on 11/16, and received interview invite on 11/21. Since I am on an overseas assignment right now, I had to schedule a Skype interview.

Could someone share their Skype interview experience?

Thanks!

Sure I'll share mine. Right at the scheduled interview time I got a contact invite before I got the call. It was the typical questions you would expect, so just know your story and you'll be fine. Questions I was asked are listed below:

1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why Cornell? Why MBA?
3. ST/LT goals
4. Back-up Plan if your original goal doesn't pan out.
5. Time for questions to interviewer

Mine was with a second year student and I had a great experience with it and we spent a lot of time just talking about our interests and goals and other random stuff during the interview. They're supposed to be 45 mins long but mine went for easily over an hour.

Hope that helps and good luck to you.

Thank you for sharing the info buddy, and for the good wishes - I am looking forward to it Glad to know that your interview went well!

Have you heard back from the school with a final decision yet?

I applied for the two year program on 11/14. App went under review on 11/16, and received interview invite on 11/21. Since I am on an overseas assignment right now, I had to schedule a Skype interview.

Could someone share their Skype interview experience?

Thanks!

Everything was pretty straightforward. I interviewed with an adcom and it seems like half interviewed with adcoms and half with 2nd years. My interviewer was friendly and asked a bunch of softball questions. It only took 30 minutes and there was no idle chit-chat, he basically jumped straight into questions after I spent a second talking about how I got to Ithaca and when.

Stuff I remember:

Why MBA?
Why Johnson?
Backup Career Plans?
Examples of Leadership?
Anything Else You Want to Share?

I'd say it was one of the easier interviews I've done thus far.

Also, I logged into my application a few days after my interview and my status has changed to "Under Review." So in 2 weeks it looks like I'll start refreshing that page on a constant basis until I hear my final decision.

I just finished my interview for the 2-year MBA program at Cornell and had a great experience!! It was a 39-min conversational Skype interview with a member of the adcom. She started telling me about the admissions process at Cornell and then went straight to the questions:

Why MBA?
Why Johnson?
ST goals? Back up plan if I can't secure a work authorization visa in the US?
Tell me about your professional experience and how you got there.
Leadership experience
Teamwork experience
How would your teammates describe you
Summarize in 3 bullet points what I should tell the adcom after this interview (I wasn't expecting this but I think I was able to cope with it just fine)
Do you have any questions for me?

They'll be rolling out admissions during December and January. She confirmed the 3-4 week witing period until candidates are notified and thought that because of Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas, I could expect a decision towards the end of the year.

Overall, I'd say it's been one of the easiest conversations I've had during an interview. I felt very comfortable and relaxed at all times.

BTW, in case you are wondering, my interviewer was in Ithaca (they take turns to offer interviews to accomodate for international students based on different time zones).

Good luck to those of you who are still waiting for your interview!

kheown

My interview for the one year program (applied in R1) was a couple of nights back (via Skype). The representative from the AdCom was very friendly and she ensured that the interview was spread like an everyday conversation. I have detailed below a list of questions that I was asked (and that I remember being asked); if there are other entrepreneurs who have received interview calls then the following may help -

1. Run me through your academic and professional background
2. Questions on my start-up (this accounted for 12 to 14 minutes) how many employees, funding, global presence, why the brand name changed (I originally launched my venture under a different name), questions on who acquired my venture and how I went about the transition
3. Why MBA at this stage, Why Johnson, Short Term Goals and Backup Plans
4. Challenging situations faced as an entrepreneur and how I dealt with conflicts at the workplace
5. Which clubs (and how specifically will I contribute to EVCC Club)
6. What do I do in my free time
7. Any questions I had for the AdCom

Overall, I believe the interview went well. It lasted for about 35 to 40 minutes. I have been advised that I would receive a notification (hopefully a stress relieving one :p) in 3 to 4 weeks. Hope this helps and all the best to everyone.

I attended the last LEAD event (Feb 4-5, last weekend). It was pretty awesome. First off, if you are invited to the LEAD event, it means you were a top applicant and are very likely getting admitted. You'd probably have to really screw up to not get in at this point. The event itself is pretty fun. The purpose of it is to evaluate top candidates for the various merit awards that Johnson offers, most notably the Park Fellowship, but they will tell you all about the other lesser known funding opportunities that you are now a candidate for. You will have the chance to connect with about 25-30 other applicants, and 5-10 current Park Fellows. I was unable to make it for the first day of the event, so I can't tell you much about what went on then. I know candidates had the chance to attend classes and the weekly Sage Social. The second day was mainly group activities- a 2 page case study on managerial decision making and various team building exercises. You will interview on campus with an ADCOM as part of the event. Outside of that, there will be breakfast and lunch with current park fellows, giving you a good 2 hour window of Q&A. The event was an awesome opportunity for me to really get a feel for Johnson and what makes it special. It isn't anything overly challenging, and you aren't going to be expected to do anything that would have required preparation beforehand (other than the interview). Just remember that you are always being evaluated, from the moment you arrive, for the fellowships. I am absolutely positive that the event is required for you to be considered for the Park Fellowship, and I think (but am not sure) that it is required for any merit based reward at all. Once I RSVPed, I was assigned a Park Fellow as my POC for the event. I would assume this is standard. Once assigned, he or she will be more than happy to answer any specific questions you may have. Otherwise, feel free to PM me for more info.


And, you get a quick decision upon completing the event. I received my acceptance call/letter today! Received a merit scholarship covering ~half the tuition, and was waitlisted for the Park Fellowship.

Full profile-

Military WE, 690 GMAT (44/40), 3.64 GPA from WVU, history degree.
Consortium RD 2 Applicant, application submitted 5Jan, received by Johnson 8Jan, invited to LEAD event 20Jan, interviewed at LEAD event 5Feb, accepted 11Feb

Super Excited!

Niceee! Congratulations and Best of luck for the interview!

This is incredible - thank you for sharing

I have a strong feeling that next week is going to be the first major release week for final decisions.

A lot of people (including myself) seem to be going on a month or longer of waiting post-interview, and now that the holiday period is wrapped up it seems like they are going to be ready to crank out a bunch of decisions.

Let's hope for the best