i had my wharton interview this past saturday. my interview was at 8am. they told me that i would interview from 8-9, sit in a class from 9-12, have lunch with students from 12-1 and then i'm done.
i flew in on thursday night. i didn't want to be late so i left really early, didn't hit any traffic, and arrived at 7am. there's a starbucks next door so i sat in there and drank and orange juice for about 45 minutes and walked into the building at 7:50am. the security guard in the building and the floor was nice and recommended that i have a coffee and some food with the students.
i was a little nervous so i just grabbed an orange juice and sat down in the waiting area. another guy also came in for an interview so i talked to him for awhile. a few minutes later, my adcom person came in and we went upstairs to her office to interview.
we started by going through my resume. she had done some prep work and told me about a few things in my resume that she read about, etc. so we had some small talk at first.
her first question was "why mba"?
i used the opportunity to give her an overview of my resume and skills and logically connect why i need an mba and why i need it now.
we went over various aspects about my current job, etc.
she also asked:
1) hobbies and what i like to do in my spare time
2) what my future goals are. i answered this by telling her my short term and long term goals.
3) if i have any questions for her - i didn't really. i am the type of person who does a ton of research and reading so i knew a lot about the program. i had a few basic questions but overall, not much.
the interview ended at 8:45 and she recommended that i get breakfast and talk to some students. i grabbed another orange juice (3rd one now) and talked to some students. the students were nice and the conversation was good. they were having a midterm in one of the classes so some students were doing some last minute cramming, etc.
i sat in on the finance class taught by Professor John Percival. wow, this class was great. the material was very complex but he explained it so well that i (a guy who has never taken an economics or finance class in my life) was able to follow everything. he also challenged the students in various ways throughout the class. it was extremely engaging and very mind provoking. i actually had a lot of very intelligent questions on my mind and noted a few flaws in his logic but i am sure he was putting out those flaws on purpose to get students to talk and stimulate discussion. the students were very smart but most of them didn't pick up on this (there was only one student who actually was able to challenge some of the professor's flaws in logic). when i sat in on a class at ucla, i saw some similar behavior but the quality of students there was a bit lower (comments from students were pretty much really obvious, etc.).
adcom told us (prospective students) not to ask questions or participate in the class so i kept quiet.
after class, i had lunch with the students. they were basically saying that you need to decide for yourself what you want to get out of the program. if your goal is just to graduate, then they actually implied that you can get by as a slacker and not devote too much time into the program. i was a bit surprised to hear that. maybe it was the group i talked to but they all had the attitude of "putting in as much work as it takes to get a B"-type students as opposed to really trying to learn the material regardless (to some extent) of grade. i didn't want to say this but that's the type of student i plan to be...i'm there to learn material and really really learn the material. the degree, grades, etc. are all secondary for me. this is about a pursuit for knowledge for me.
there were about 10 people interviewing on saturday. it seems like the competition is going to be really tough this year. they admit around 92 students or so and they've been fully booked for interviews since january (going into late march). my guess is that the acceptance rate this year is going to be around 10% or less.
i think i'm a pretty strong candidate but at a place like wharton, i don't think anyone is a shoe-in. i give myself a 50/50 chance at best but i'll take it.
my biggest flaws:
1) really low undergrad gpa
2) somewhat typical demographic - asian, technology guy
my best assets:
1) real world experience actually starting a company, growing it to 50+ people, raising venture capital, etc.
2) good undergraduate university (but i'm guessing almost everyone went to a decent undergrad)
in terms of diversity and race, the class seems very heavy in asians and Indians. there were a few white Americans but they seemed more the "party" type (probably because i only saw 3 of them and they were all talking about how they are buzzed from drinking in the morning) than nerdy type). there were some women but i only saw 1 white American, a few chinese, and a few Indian.
anyway, we'll see how it goes. i'll let everyone know once i hear back. it's a bit of a longshot for me but since i'm already in at ucla anderson, i'm not stressed about it. but if i do get in, i'm paying the $150k and going...
RVD.
19 Sep 2007, 07:30
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