Calling all Wharton Fall 2010 Candidates

I wonder how many people currently accepted at Wharton conducted their interview on-campus vs off-campus. I just have this feeling that going on-campus gives the interview a heavier weighting in the admissions process than a alumni interview.

that's what I hear from a LOT of people..!
but then again.. no point speculating over things that are not in one's control..!

yeah, by the time I got a invite all on-campus slots were full. I found one on Friday (the last day for a interview) but was worried inclement weather might cause cancellations or flight delays. Oh well!

I had my interview today morning with alumni. He was part of admissions in his 2nd year. He said that for wharton interview is just another data point and that on/off campus does not make any difference at all.

nath99

Just had my interview with a recently graduated alumnus (3 yrs ago). It was more stressful than I would have liked; she had another interviewer after me so had to put a wrist-watch on the table before the interview began. A 30 minute interview on the dot. Some of the questions, in the sequence they were asked:

- tell me about your current job and why did you choose it.
- what sort of team experiences have you had, with an example as needed.
- what are the short-term post-mba goals (did not ask long-term) (I named one company I was aiming for and focused my answer around that.)
- what if s-t goals don't work out/that company goes bust (talked about backup plan)
- I am a published author with a book coming out, so there was a question about that.
- one significant leadership experience relevant to my post-mba goals
- why do you want Wharton (I told her I don't want to give her a list of courses/profs and she was happy about that. focused my answer on my personal inferences drawn from school-visit and conversations with current students. gave detailed examples and anecdotes)

That's about it. Overall I felt I could've done better but I was able to bring out some good personal stories that are at the core of my personality. She was mostly impassive, so hard to draw any inferences, but I felt I did "strictly OK".

Good luck to others.

I like the bold part.

I kind hate it when you cannot read other person's body language, and can;t gauge how the hell the meeting is going..

For any interviewers reading this, please feel free to express yourself. If you do not like something, but do not want to say something negative, let your body language do the talking...we will take the hint.

I had been formally trained as an interviewer for my Alma Mater (not Wharton) in the past and I can tell you that they do explicitly train people to use poker face in front of the candidates (not even a smile). It is seen as a fairness thing (to prevent bias caused by the interviewer's reactions and to prevent interviewees from focusing on what they perceive makes the interviewer happy). If you ask me, younger interviewers (including 2yr on campus interviewers) are more likely to comply with that training, than older alumnae interviewers who might be more unpredictable. I am going into my interview expecting a strict poker face style interviewer, and if I get something different - that's just luck.

Hi MBAgirl2010/All,

I might give a shot to W R3 and need your help...

Regarding the 1st question:

As a leader in global business, Wharton is committed to sustaining “a truly global presence through its engagement in the world.” What goals are you committed to and why? How do you envision the Wharton MBA contributing to the attainment of those goals?


How did you guys deal with the WHY. For example in my case.. Short term is MC and long term is enterpreneurship perhaps in RE. Any suggestion?

Take a rather extreme, hypothetical example, just to get the point across:

Person X lost his leg/kids/family to an earthquake and then founded a company for better earthquake detection technology. S/He wants to do an MBA to turn this company into a global enterprise. The reason is personal, which is often more important than the WHAT.

It's a lame example, I know. You don't even have to be "global" in your vision. Just that it has to involve an element of "engagement" -- people other than yourself.

Think of the big picture, what's your vision, what do you wanna be when you grow up? (Scale is not that important, IMHO. It can be for yourself, your family, your community, your country, or the world.)

Think in terms of legacy: when you die, how do you want to be remembered by?

A bit late to actually post on these boards (although I have been lurking for some time reading everyone's helpful commentary), but I have a question for anyone dealing with the Wharton alumni interview process - I've been individually emailing people (waiting for responses before emailing the next alumnus) that came up in my alumni search, but each of them has informed me that they can't interview me. Should I just be emailing the rest of my interviewer options simultaneously instead of trying them one by one? Obviously I wouldn't do this in the same email, I just want to make sure I can schedule an interview as the deadline approaches.

Thanks!

Since the deadline for interview completion is next Friday, I would send it out to everyone right now. And if more than one is available, just politely decline it.

I thought the deadline for on-campus interviews is March 5, but for general interviews its March 11. Please, confirm independently, but that was my impression.

IIRC, it's March 5 for everything. I cannot confirm this as my interview date is set, and the system won't let me search for any other options.

When admissions sent out the directions after application submission, they mentioned March 11th. However, in the on campus/off campus interview directions, they said March 5th.

Hey guys,

I had my interview at Wharton yesterday, and I have been obsessing over it for the past few hours. I actually was hoping to get some people's thoughts on something that has been bugging me about the interview. Basically, my interview was rather odd. Rather than asking me stuff like Why MBA?, Why Now?, Why Wharton?, etc. he spent 20 minutes going through my resume and asking me about my deals and my responsibilities at each of my jobs. The only bschool type questions he asked me were "how would your colleagues describe you", "what types of activities would you like to do", and "what are your short term and long term goals". Do you think this will hurt my chances of getting in? I know that the interviewer evaluation form requires him to say whether my reasons for getting an MBA and going to Wharton make sense, so how can he possibly offer his opinions on this if he didn't ask me? Anyways, no big deal, i'm just kind of irked that I had a such a weird interview. Anyways, would appreciate some feedback or thoughts on this. Thanks!

I do not think you need to concern about what kind of questions the interviewer asked you. As many others mentioned, the interview is just another point of data collection. Adcom has known you enough from the paper - your application forms- and through interview, Adcom would like to know you in person. People could put anything on paper during the application, but they could not do that during an interview. An experienced interviewer could easily tell how the person will turn to be through 30 min conversation, not 100% accurate, but surely far above 50%.

All in all, the questions in the interview are not that important in my view, but what and how you respond to the questions are critical.