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HKU Admission Facts (Stated by HKU's Admission Officers)

In last two years we conducted many live Q&A sessions on GMATClub with HKU's admission team member. I am posting here compilation of important comments of HKU adcoms. At the end I have also posted a few interview questions reported by previous applicants on forum. I think this information will provide useful insights into HKU's admission process and hope that applicants will find it useful.

Admissions

• We take holistic approach while evaluating applicants. We look at their academic qualification, work experience, GMAT, essay etc while making decisions.
  
• During the interview-selecting stage, we put more emphasis on your professional background/work experience, so, even for those candidates without the GMAT during the application period, we still welcome them to apply. In some cases, we will call them for the interview, if they could show good interview performance; we will issue the conditional offer subject to GMAT and for the final decision of admission offer, interview performance is the most important.
  
• Scholarships are 100% merit-based. Decision depends upon your interview performance (most importantly), high GMAT, professional background (2nd and 3rd), and academic qualification (minor). We do not restrict to any nationality. But for sure, there will NOT be a situation that all students are granted scholarships. In general, I will say around 15% of the students get scholarships. If you apply earlier, it will be better for you. The maximum scholarship money covers around 30% of the whole tuition fee.

Program

• Our full-time MBA is a 14-month programme, which starts at late June 2016, in partnership with London Business School, Columbia Business School, and Shanghai Fudan University. Students spend first month in Beijing for the China Immersion Programme, then 9 months in Hong Kong, followed by last term of 3-4 months in LBS, CBS or Shanghai, depending upon the track chosen. If a student wants to stay in Hong Kong for the whole 14-month study, she/he is welcome to do so.
  
• The biggest differentiating factor between us and other Bschools in HK is our unique curriculum structure which is 1 month in Beijing, 9 months in Hong Kong and 4 months in partnership programs. We strongly believe that this curriculum structure delivers great benefits to our students in terms of Exposure, Network and Knowledge.
  
• We review our MBA curriculum from time to time. There is a committee comprising industry gurus who share their thoughts. We keep modify the course in order to fit the job market. e.g. big data is our recent elective. Few years ago, we had business lab, to teach students about entrepreneurship.

GMAT, GPA, Work Experience, AGE, and Extracurriculars

• We admit 55-60 students each year.
  
• The minimum work experience is 2 years, after their 1st undergraduate degree.
  
• We accept the GMAT with minimum score of 600. We do not accept GRE.
  
• We will get the balance between GMAT score and work experience; e.g. if you have only 2-3 years of work experience, we might require a higher GMAT score to compensate. On the other hand, if you have 8-9 years of work experience, even 600-610 on the GMAT is fine for us.
  
• Regarding GMAT, only Quant and Verbal scores are taken for evaluation, though student are required to submit AWA and IR scores.
  
• Our average age of full-time MBA batch is around 28-29 years old, 5-6 years of work experience.
  
• Our average age of full-time MBA batch is around 28-29 years old, 5-6 years of work experience.
  
• In terms of class profile, our students come from different countries; Apart from Hong Kong and China, we have students from India, Korea, Japan, Singapore, USA, Canada, Argentina, Italy, Switzerland, UK, South Africa etc.
  
• In terms of professional background of our students, it is very diversified, from finance, consulting, I.T., engineering, NGO, government, logistic, automotive, aviation, family business etc. We welcome the applicants from different industries.
  
• If the language of instruction and examination during undergraduate studies was English, you do not need to take the TOEFL / IELTS for the admission at HKU.

Interview

• We will arrange video interviews for international applicants and face-to-face interviews for locals. Both interviews are treated equally. Face-to-face interviews are arranged for those international applicants who are willing to come to Hong Kong.
  
• Adcom members or MBA programme director will be the interviewers.
  
• During interview, greater emphasis will be on your professional background and work experience. Interviewers will look for how much you understand about your industry, your contribution of your job, your future career objectives etc.
  
• Those who want to make career switch should have knowledge about your target industry as interviewers will ask lots of questions regarding your target industry.

School Culture and Campus life

• Since last few years the proportion of international students is growing. Currently over 70% of our class is Non-Chinese.
  
• There are lots of opportunities for networking and career development. e.g. alumni sharing events, company visit, seminar talks etc from different industries. Also, the students can join the student club organized by the career office.
  
• We have finance, consulting, entrepreneur, luxury/industry, women in leadership clubs. You will get mentorship programs and live projects in student clubs.

Career Development

• Language is NOT a barrier in getting the job in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is an international city and as long as you could communicate in English, it is fine to work in Hong Kong without a problem, even if you do not know the Cantonese and Mandarin. There are so many non-local students - Indians, Americans, Canadians, Europeans - working in Hong Kong for so many years after MBA graduation, and almost none of them speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
  
• For the past 3 graduated batch, around 85% of our students got placements within 3 months of graduation and 80% of them work in Asia.
  
• Our career network is not just limited to Hong Kong. We also cover China, Singapore, Dubai, etc.
  
• You will get the career service training and support from the day 1 of your joining the programme. They will give a tailor-made career plan to each full-time MBA student, depends on what job function or industry she/he wants to enter after MBA. e.g. CV workshop, personal coaching, case cracking, mentorship programme, live project opportunities, etc. They help students polish their skill set and make connections, especially those who want to make a career change. e.g. We did find a senior person from Alibaba group as a mentor for a student who wants to know more about e-commence and a senior person from Financial Times as a mentor for a student wants to enter media industry.
  
• Our career office in association with many big companies from different industries, even Hong Kong government, assigns live projects to our students under different student clubs.

Interview Questions

• Introduce yourself
• Please describe you professional background
• Why MBA, why HKU. (Make sure you are in line with what you have written in your essays and be sure of your story)
• I see you already have a solid educational background why do you want to do an MBA?
• What is the current state of the Indian economy in your opinion? (I am from India with Economics background, so it was relevant but I think they do ask a couple of questions on current affairs)
• Discussion on my hobbies, extra curriculars, and social work. (They asked at least 3 questions related to these. I am passionate about my ECs and it was reflected in my CV. They are interested in knowing more about you and what excites you)
• What did you learn from your colleagues?
• If you could change one thing in your life right now, what would it be?
• What kind of leader are you?
• I see from your CV that you work with the COO of your client's company. What do you do with him?
• I see from your CV you have been involved in the hiring process of your company. What qualities are you looking for when hiring?
• Questions for us

Chat Transcripts






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Hey just received an interview invite, submitted my application on 5th November

Posted from my mobile device

Hi,

I just got an admission offer exactly 2 weeks after the interview.

Anyone got offer?

I was granted 150,000 HKD as a merit-based scholarship but my company will pay for all of the tuition fee so I don't know what to do with that scholarship.

Those admitted or previously gave interviews, please share your interview de-brief. I have an interview on 9th Feb.

It is a simple and straight forward interview. Prepare for all standard why questions, get an idea about your before & after industry and finally have idea abt economy and current affairs.
My interview lasted for 23mins on skype. My advice - use that 'any Q for us' very well.
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Was interviewed on Feb 9th and got an admit today. Very excited !! But no mention of scholarship. Can anyone who got a scholarship please shed some light ??

They have allocated me to LBS track and mentioned that i do not need to pay anything for that. That for me is a kind of scholarship. I am fine with it

Sent from my SM-T531 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app