Kellogg 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Hi fella-gmatclubers,

I just have received an e-mail with information for my interviewer. I'm planning to call him tomorrow to set up an interview. This is the first one for me.

Will any current students, alumni or candidates who already went through the interview share their wisdom or helpful tips on specifics of interview with Admission alumni? Any helpful advice/comment/suggestion will be appreciated.

As an alumni interviewer, my advice is know yourself and read up on your own essays. Kellogg essays give you lots of material that would be helpful in the interview process. Be professional, but personable. A lot of alums will look at you and will ask themselves , would I want to be classmates with this guy/gal and do I want him/her representing my school.

Make a good impression by dressing appropriately and show up early, nothing pisses me off more when interviewing for Kellogg or work than having someone not have the courtesy to show up on time. I am taking out my personal time to help them, I give them the respect to be on time. If someone is late they damn well better have a good reason or I that is some serious points against them.

My interview was scheduled in two weeks. Hope this won't be too late. How about yours?

River, thanks for your reply and advises. I was just in the process of reading you posts in 2011 thread:)

I have not scheduled it yet-will do it in the next few days. I don't think that having an interview 2 weeks from now is late. I would think that some people will be interviewing in November as well.

I would also caution to look at the total length of all your essays combined. While going over on an essay by 10% is probably going to be ok, if all of your essays are 10% over the limit, it's going to be much more obvious that you haven't paid attention to the word limits. It's always possible to write a compelling essay within the word limits allowed.

I just got an interview from Kellogg and was wondering when the interviews normally occur? I realize that it probably depends on the interviewer but is it strange to try and meet up with them on the weekend? I recently have been working in a different city Monday-Friday and return home on the weekends. Is it rude to impose on their weekends or is it more of the norm?

Weekends are fine. I think it really depends on your interviewer. Since it is an alumni who works full time themselves, weekends may be best for them to begin with.

My interviewer offered a weekend option as one of the 4-5 times we could meet. Having said that, I don't think I'd lead by asking for a weekend interview. Maybe you should just ask your interviewer what days/times works best for him/her and then see if they propose a weekend option.

I would actually prefer to interview a candidate on the weekend. Work schedules can be a little unpredictable so by scheduling on the weekend I'd be sure to have time before the interview to prepare and gather my thoughts. That's my preference though and others may be different. Bottom line is it's up to you and your interviewer to find a time that's mutually convenient, but don't assume off the bat that weekends are off limits.

Thanks for the replies. I guess the general conclusion is to stick to the word limit as much as possible and overdoing it by 5-10 % on a question is permissible. Going to give my essays a breather for a while and return to it after a day or two. Let's see how that works!

After giving it a thought, I've decided to post this and get some feedback from you guys at the cost of canvassing my stupidity!

I have made a blooper in the chronological order on my resume during Part I of the application of the resume viz. I have put in the period of my current job as Present- Jan 2010 instead of Jan 2011 and the tenure for my previous job as 03/2008-10/2011 instead of 03/2008-10/2010. So I guess the obvious question is:

a) I am assuming the team at Kellogg looks at Part I and Part II in totality. Under this assumption, I hope to correct this error in the additional information section of my essays. Is my assumption correct?

b) Can such a schoolboy error in the resume be an outright grounds for rejection?

It's possible that the extreme speculation in b) is just a natural outcome of my current state of mind

Help much appreciated!

Hey, don't worry, there's only so much you can do now. I'd suggest mailing the Adcom an updated CV and request them to update your file accordingly.

Do first year students at Kellogg get separated into clusters or cohorts during the core curriculum?

I thought I remembered hearing this, but I can't find anything that confirms it on the website...

And if so, are these groups formally called 'clusters,' or 'cohorts', or what?

I'll give you an anecdote that might make you feel better. When I was applying to PhD programs in psychology I accidentally referred to the female professor I wanted to work with at Yale as "he" multiple times because I had cut and paste part of my statement of purpose from a different school's essay and edited it. She had an obviously female name, by the way. When I realized my mistake I figured I would get rejected outright but I was accepted to work with this prof and it was never mentioned (and these programs have even slimmer acceptance rates than most top MBA programs).

Does anyone know how long an interview on campus with an adcom is scheduled to last?

30mins, 1hr?

In for R1!!