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Smeal Penn State
Final Decision:
Admitted
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
9 years ago Apr 26, 2017
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
As stated before, very conversational interview. Here are some of the questions I was asked.
-Walk me through your resume
-What do you want to do post-MBA
-Why do you need an MBA
-Why Smeal
-What kind of leader are you
-Something you regret
-What do you like to do for fun
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Smeal Penn State
Final Decision:
Matriculating
Interviewed on:
9 years ago Apr 26, 2017
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I hope you are doing well. If you're getting ready for an interview with Smeal, I recommend that you be prepared with a ton of questions to ask. The interview I had was very conversational, and during the interview I had ample time to chime in and ask about questions I had, whatever they were.
When it comes to questions they ask, I wouldn't say they really pulled any surprises. I was caught off guard by the question "What do you like to do for fun?" in a prior interview, so I had already prepared something a little more thoughtful than "watch football and drink beer with my friends."
I would also recommend being able to speak to all aspects of the application, from work history to goals to other things that may make you a special candidate. Think about successes and failures that you have had in the past as well as difficult or trying situations (for whatever reason: ethics, environment, etc.).
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Smeal Penn State
Final Decision:
Admitted
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
10 years ago Apr 26, 2016
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Interviewed today with Stacey, and she was very nice!
It was a little hard to tell if the interview went well or not (so maybe that's a bad sign!), but we'll see soon enough.
It was a pretty conversational interview, but be prepared to go into the specific of your short term goals (e.g. what companies you're specifically interested in post-MBA). There were the basic MBA questions (why now? why Smeal? walk me through your resume) and a few less-common questions:
* Tell me about a team you were involved with where you failed, and what you learned
* What is a common misconception about you, and how do you overcome it
* What do you look for in building a team
* Tell me about your leadership style
My interview did actually last about 50 minutes, longer than any other MBA interview I've done.
She told me they will be rolling out decisions on or before April 1st, but I can contact them for an exception if I have other B-Schools that I need to give my decision to sooner.
Hope this helps anyone else interviewing with Smeal! :-D
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Smeal Penn State
Final Decision:
Admitted
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
10 years ago Apr 26, 2016
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Congratulations on getting an interview call. Some things that you can expect:
Standard questions:
1) Tell me about yourself - Don't read out your resume. Balance it with both professional experience and other interests (non-profit, sports, hobbies etc.)
2) Why MBA? Why Smeal? - Connect your pre-MBA work, your MBA and your post MBA goals. Why Smeal? - Talk about why you want to attend Smeal (again, make it personal, why YOU want)
3) Talk about your school identification research and how Smeal came up in that (part of Why Smeal)
4) Expect few additional questions if you are an international student - How about post MBA employment?
There could be few other topics based on your individual profiles.
Most important thing is be yourself. It will be a discussion and not an interview.
Good luck with the interview.
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1
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Smeal Penn State
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
11 years ago Apr 26, 2015
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I was interviewed on 18 Feb. The typical questions that I was asked were:
1- Walk me through your career progression till date. Why Smeal and not any other B School, why now, why you?
2- Give an example of team work where you made an impact? What are your core strengths.
3- What are the qualities that you look for in a team member? What would a team member say about you?
4- What makes you stand out in your group?
5- Explain your job role to me?
6- Give an example of ethical dilemma that you faced.
Then the interview became quite conversational and we went on to talk about a few alums and current students. Stacey was very friendly and even referred me to a current alum. That was nail in the coffin moment i guess.
Hope this helps. :)
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1
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ISB
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Location : Hyderabad Campus
I was interviewed by 2 male alums (both looked like they might be in their thirties). One was slightly warmer and more expressive and one was fairly straight faced.
Here are some of the questions they asked :
You've had recent role shift, tell us about your new role.
What skills from your previous role in XYZ company have helped you in your current role?
What will you learn at ISB that you can't learn from Coursera?
Why waste a year?
To be an entrepreneur you don't need an MBA. Explain what skills you lack that you are expecting to learn from here?
Name an entrepreneur that inspires you and why.
Explain what your company does the way you would to a child in 5th standard in 3 sentences.
Talk about a time when you lead a team at your previous workplace.
Talk about a challenge you've faced in the workplace.
What are your weaknesses as a professional?
We value diversity. How can you contribute to the diversity in the classroom?
What is a challenge you face in your current startup?
The interview went on for 45 minutes, and I tried to answer all questions with confidence and clarity. They cross questioned me a lot on the "Why MBA?" question. Apart from that they seemed okay with my answers. The tone was courteous but I wouldn't say friendly.
My advice would be to have extreme clarity about your current role, current industry and your reason to do an MBA and to be honest during the interview.
Good luck!
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12
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Simon
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
The interview lasted for 30 mins. My suggestion is that you should dress professionally, prepare well. The questions were nothing new. Why MBA, why Simon, your strength and what you want to know about Simon. Know your CV well since they will ask about your academic background and work experience.
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8
1
Katz
Final Decision:
Withdrawn Application
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Hello Everyone,
Had my interview on 24th with the AdComs. They had interviews lined back to back so took a short interview. The panel included 1 AdCom member and 1 from Career Management Services, both of them extremely humble and great in nature.
The questions asked were pretty behavioral such as walk me through your resume, strengths and weakness, a global leader you admire and why, why MBA, why Katz, how do you plan to add value to class, your skills, etc.
The interview went well. Hoping to receive a positive revert.
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4
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Kellogg
Final Decision:
Admitted from WL
Status:
Off Campus with Alumni
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
My alumni interview was very informal. I didn't have to do the "walk me through your resume" but instead my interviewer asked about points on my resume which he was interested in (undergrad majors, my first grad degree, my current company). The only "standard questions" I got were "Why an MBA" and "Why Kellogg." Beyond that, it really felt like a comfortable conversation.
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0
2
Tepper
Final Decision:
Interviewed
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I received an interview invite two weeks ago and had my interview the following week. Here are the questions paraphrased (might be missing one or two):
TMA = Tell me about
1. Why MBA?
2. Post-MBA plans/career goals.
3. Plan B if Post-MBA plans don’t work out.
4. Why Tepper?
5. TMA a time when you had to compromise for the team to succeed.
6. TMA a time when you did something that others in the team did not want to do.
7. TMA a time when you learned from people more senior than you?
8. TMA your experience working with a diverse team with different backgrounds from you.
It was a video chat interview. I could see her, but, unfortunately, my webcam didn't work with CMU's online software, despite it working on Facetime/Photo Booth. So basically, to my interviewer, I was a black talking screen. Interview seemed ok overall, but it's hard to gauge.
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3
1
Said Oxford
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Just interviewed via Skype with AdCom.
Questions were:
Introduce Yourself
Why MBA
Career Goals- I had two different companies listed so I had to explain how they were similar.
Why Oxford + Why one-year international vs a two-year US
Setbacks in career?
Failure?
What would you find challenging at Oxford?
How will you succeed in the quantitive curriculum?
What will you contribute to your classmates?
What other schools did you apply to and what was the result?
+ ALOT of questions about my essays and my motivations behind those so be sure to review those.
Overall, challenging. Yet, still a good conversation.
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7
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Said Oxford
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I just got done with my interview. Almost all the questions were similar to the ones asked in the application:
Why MBA
Why Oxford
Career progress so far
What motivated you to pursue your intended goal
Have you started preparing for your career transition
Behavioural questions - an example where you had to convince someone of an idea, a setback
Questions for me
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6
0
IESE
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
My interview was through Webex and it was mainly a conversation that lasted for about 1h20m. There were some of the usual questions, like:
-Tell me about yourself
-Why an MBA and why now
-Why IESE
-Which schools I applied and why
-Why the career change
-What's the rationale behind your choice
-Further detail about work experience
-Three important moments in your life
-Further information on hobbies
-How do you plan to finance the MBA
-What are the chances you go back to do what you are doing now after the MBA
but they weren't put with that text above, all of them filled the context during the conversation, it wasn't like the interviewer was reading the questions from a paper or form. That made the whole thing go very naturally!
This kind of interview has two sides for me, the good one is that you probably won't feel nervous as it's very natural and you can reach answers in a "non-robotic" way, the bad one is that you may think you forgot to tell something that may be important, as the questions are made during the conversation they all depend on were the conversation is going and sometimes you won't reach, or even remember, an answer that you feel is important in your application.
It will always depend on the path of the conversation, as most who have been interviewed will say, just be yourself as there aren't wrong answers.
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6
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Tepper
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Hi all, I had my interview yesterday and it was a blind interview (interviewer only saw my resume and not the rest of my apps). It had 2 parts: goals/why MBA and behavioral questions.
Part 1 -
1. Can you tell me more about your current role?
2. Why do you want an MBA now?
3. Post-MBA goal
4. Plan B if Plan A doesn't work out
Part 2 -
1. Talk about a time where you had to compromise for the team's success
2. Talk about a time where your team was utilized by another team (or another team asked for your help)
3. Was there a time where you had to use your non-work skills at work for a project to be successful?
4. Talk about a time where you had less success as a team leader
5. As Tepper is a diverse, tight-knit community, was there a time where you actively reached out to know more about other people's culture?
6. Based on your research, why do you think Tepper is the school for you?
Then around 5 mins for Qs to the interviewer
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2
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Kellogg
Final Decision:
Denied with Interview
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I had my interview recently on campus. It was mostly focused on the following:
- Initial explanation of my positions. Since I am a nonstandard applicant they wanted details and explanation of selectivity for each position.
- Why an MBA
- Short and long term goals
- How co-workers describe you, good and bad
- Extra cirriculars
They then switched to ask more leadership questions
- How leadership style has changed throughout career
- Explain a time where you were resilent as a leader
- Anything else we should know.
Be prepared for questions on your leadership and have some solid examples of each. Should be easy since you have your whole application to pull from so reinforcing those examples probably would help as it strengthens them with a fresh perspective. The interviewer will not be reviewing your application before or after so keep that in mind as you prepare. Of course who is interviewing you matters too. As long as you practice the questions available from the debriefs from various sites and the ones above you should do great. Best of luck to everyone going for the interview!
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1
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ISB
Final Decision:
Interviewed
Status:
Off Campus with Adcom
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
My interview was pretty straight forward
1)Walk us through your cv
2)Why MBA, why now and why isb (10 mins )
3)How will you contribute
4)Asked me to elaborate on the initiative I led for an ngo
5) Ahobby
6)Any questions for us
My interview lasted for 40 mins, of which 10-12 mins them answering the question I asked them
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5
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ISB
Final Decision:
Interviewed
Status:
Off Campus with Alumni
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
I was interviewed in Hyatt Regency, New Delhi.
It was pretty much on time and only a delay of half an hour or so. The interview, contrary to what was being discussed outside, was more conversational than grilling.
Panel of two (not sure adcom or alumni, seemed young enough to be an alumni only).
Q: Introduce your career progression, a few queries relating to current role.
Q: What are three things you're looking forward to at ISB?
Q: Your job going quite well, why take a break?
I intend to develop a career in business consulting, so rest of it was on those lines
Q: What's your Plan B if consulting doesn't work out?
Q: Why consulting?
Q: What are those qualities in you that make you ideal for consulting?
Q: Okay you're good at problem solving, then let's do a problem: Estimate the number of commuters in Delhi Metro? Walk us through your approach.
Had a bit of discussion and exchange while problem solving. Seemed satisfied after a strategy was formulated.
Q: Okay tell us more about your family? General conversation.
Q: Okay anything else you wish to ask us or anything you wish to tell us about your profile?
Asked about Global Management and expected diversity. They explained in good detail.
Total Duration: About half hour.
1 month to go!
Key takeaway: Prepare well framed answers about:
Your career.
What are your looking for in ISB?
Why MBA? Why now?
Your future goals, your qualities that make you ideal for it.
and thats it!
Good Luck!
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11
1
Tepper
Final Decision:
Admitted
Interviewed on:
8 years ago Apr 26, 2018
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Hi all,
I did my interview yesterday with Emily.
Questions asked were:
1. Why MBA?
2. Long-term and short-term goal
3. Alternative plan
4. Why Tepper
5. A time when I worked on some projects and learnt something unexpected/ non-intended
6. How my Operations experiences help my goal
7. A time when I had a disagreement/conflict within team
8. A time when I didn't have the information I needed. What did I do.
9. Experiences working with people from different cultures
10. Since I mentioned that I live in Singapore, a culturally diverse country - what are the differences I notice. Elaborate on my bosses who are from different countries
11. Any achievement that I am proud of outside of work (I shared about my learning a third language recently)
12. Any question to her
I realized that I got asked an awful lot of questions in 35 min. Not sure whether it's because I talked too fast... Maybe next time I will talk real slow to eat away the time...
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3
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Darden
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Thing to note - The interviews for Early Applicants at Darden are blind, please check if it is the same for other rounds as well.
The interview was very straightforward. As it was a blind interview, the interviewer did not have idea or knowledge about my profile. He asked me to explain my story from the beginning.
After that, it was general questions about why I want to pursue an MBA, why Darden and what attracted me to Darden.
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3
1
ISB
Final Decision:
Admitted
Status:
On Campus
Interviewed on:
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019
7 years ago Apr 26, 2019 08:04
Started off with my current work. Spent around 15 mins on this. They asked my core responsibilities and came up with counter-questions to check whether I really accomplished the achievements.
The next 45 mins were spent on my start-up. Everything from how I came up with the idea, funding, feasibility, competitors, research undertaken in the field, marketing strategies used etc. They asked a few application questions as well.
Spent 5 to 10 mins on Why MBA, Why ISB, Is MBA necessary, Any other college, post-MBA goals, and their sync and feasibility, how I wish to accomplish them.
Spent 2mins on one of my extra-curricular activities.
Advise: Try to bring in your extra-curricular activities yourself by mentioning them somewhere.
Reach out to me for any further queries.
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