Calling all Kellogg Fall'08 applicants

Thanks everybody! It finally feels good to get onto the interview bandwagon! I was starting to feel a little left out
@nc, irony man, pure irony. The suit gods don't like me.

Impressions from my visit this past weekend.

Pros:
- The students were SO friendly and welcoming there. A group of students I contacted separately online over the summer got some of their friends and met up with me for a late lunch (30 minutes before classes started) instead of the official "lunch with students" thing. They introduced me to tons of other random friends of theirs, showed me around the building, and took me to a good class to attend.

- The school culture of teamwork and super-collaborative culture fits what I'm looking for. Similar to Stanford, Haas, and UCLA.

- Their entrepreneurship program is pretty strong too, with connections and VC/Entrepreneurship treks to the Silicon Valley, each once a year over 3-4 days.

- Evanston is a nice, quaint town, similar to Palo Alto but less "snobby" wink

Cons:
- The building definitely needs a makeover, especially after my morning in Harper. smile

- Evanston takes FOREVER to get to on the Red El line. with the Purple express, it was a bit better, but getting there and back to downtown Chicago is a pain.


Overall:
I'm definitely going to apply to Kellogg, especially since I already paid my $225 deposit. The cold/windy Monday was a deterrent, but let's see if I get in first before I make a decision!

Had my interview today, people!

I was pretty nervous after reading about the horrible experiences with alumni interviewers on clearadmit wiki. But... thankfully, my interviewer was normal and I *think* we clicked

We met in Starbucks after work but there was no table available. She suggested to go to another Starbucks just 2 blocks down the road (surprise-surprise) but there were no tables available there either
We ended up grabbing two chairs and sitting in the corner

I was relieved that my interviewer did not go for the oh-so-boring behavioral type questions and instead asked me questions about my goals, experiences, and the reasons for getting the MBA.

Questions asked:

Can you walk me through your resume?
Why MBA? (There was no "why Kellogg" question which caught me by surprise).
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
What personal characteristics or professional qualities are you looking to develop while in b-schools?
How do you think you will contribute to the Kellogg community/learning environment?
Can you tell me about your most meaningful professional experience?
Can you give me an example of your leadership experience in a team and what have you learned from it?
What organizations/activities at Kellogg do you know about? Which ones interest you the most?

I am probably missing some of the questions but that's all I can remember for now...

Then she asked if I had any questions for her and I asked a couple about the 360 evaluation experience, why she chose Kellogg over other schools, and recruitment at Kellogg.

I hope this helps. Good luck to all of you waiting to be interviewed!

Congrats nervous, thanks for a great post!

Kellogg R1:
RiverRipper: Pt II down; interviewed.
KingKreep: Pt II submitted; phone interview coming up!
nervousgmat: Part II submitted; interviewed
faceman: Part II submitted; interviewed
shmegs: Part II submitted; phone interview coming up!
forcefeed: Part II submitted, last reco came in at 10:30PM!!!
R.E.D.: Part II submitted; interviewed
mba2010: Submitted but can't follow the directions for our list
tsaditya: Submitted; interviewed
grad_mba: submitted; interviewed
tauslu: Submitted. For poor River who has a boo-boo on his hand - "Directions people!"

Kellogg R2:
kryzak: Pt I submitted

Congrats nervous for the successful interview! your debrief reminds me that I need to learn more about Kellogg. Compared to my R1 schools, I know relatively little about the programs, clubs, and academics of Kellogg.

The good news is that all of that info can be learned about in 2 hours or so through Kellogg's website. I never officially visited Kellogg (I lived in Chicago for 6 years, and know Evanston area very well) so I learned everything I know about it by visiting two info sessions in NYC and doing some browsing

kryzak, you will be just fine!

thanks nervous for the tip! Yeah, I'll sit down and study Kellogg more when I start my R2 applications (which I really don't want to start right now.)

Great debrief nervous! I just received a phone interview request *phew*!

Congratulations man!

Shmegs, that's awesome! Congrats!

OK ladies and gentlemen, I had my Kellogg telephonic interview today. For those of you who really love the numbers, it lasted for exactly 27 minutes and 11 seconds. It was not as conversational as I hoped it would be. But I guess I'm not too good at connecting with someone over a microphone, speaker and a wire I was interviewed by a second year student who was nice, friendly and down to earth - just what I was expecting from a Kellogg student. The interview is blind. She made it very clear that she had not read my essays and that she only had my resume with her. We covered the 'usual suspects' - Career progress, Why MBA, Why Kellogg, Why now, Why short term goal, team conflict experience, What clubs and Uniqueness?

The one thing that I really couldn't highlight as much as I wanted to - my community service experience. I touched upon it, but couldn't really elaborate. I then asked her the two questions that I had prepared and that was it! She told me she would give her comments to the committee and that I will hear from them. I thanked her and than we said our goodbyes.

Pros:
1. Got to highlight quite a few accomplishments
2. Why MBA, why Kellogg went well (I hope!)

Cons:
1. Couldn't highlight an important accomplishment/activity
2. Couldn't really 'bond' with the interviewer

My advice:
Prepare. The phone interview, at least for me, was much harder than any in-person interview that I have been in. So, prepare thoroughly. To the others who still have their interview to go: All the best!

Cool KK........one step closer to the decision.

Guys and girls,

Anyone knows when we will start hearing back about decisions?

Acceptances started rolling out during the first week of December last year and went all the way through the deadline. So I would say first decisions will be coming out during the first full week of Dec.

Yup. My interviewer said sometime mid-December.

Thanks nervous, time to data mine Kellogg's website. I've somehow scheduled two interviews for the same day (Monday 19 November) lol.