Fuqua (Duke) Class of 2016: Calling all applicants!

Think I should post my Fuqua interview experience for my fellow GCers...I interviewed on campus with a second year who happened to have a pretty similar background as me. I was asked the following questions.

1) Why MBA
2) Short Term/ Long term goals
3) leadership experience where you failed? What did you learn?
4) There are 4000 applying...why should we admit you?
5) What will you bring to Fuqua?
6) One min. pitch in front of the adcom

Overall, my interview went very well. The interviewer was extremely nice. One thing I would advice: Talk to as many students as possible. They all are very helpful and everyone has a unique story to share.

Btw, guests can get into the cameron stadium and walk on the court...pretty awesome stuff.



I had my class visit and interview this week.

Admitted! On East coast. I was told that I am the first person being called and many more will be called. Good luck to all.

Just got admitted!!! I get to go back home for two years now!!! omg... all the hard work paid off, on cloud 9 right now

Congrats buddy. Glad to see some re applicants getting in....

I'll give a debrief when I have some time but there is one thing I did notice. If you can, make SURE to attend Duke information sessions in nearby cities and TALK with the admissions representative. The representative for the Chicago region was also my admissions director who essentially has the power to say "yay or nay" on me.

The interesting thing she implied is that IF the admissions committee did NOT think I was Fuqua material, she would have argued on my behalf which really made me extremely grateful for all her help.

Remember, the whole MBA approval process is done by people at the end of the day. I was very honest about my passion for Fuqua and my admissions director sensed that and she became my advocate which I think speaks volumes about the program. There is no secret formula or hidden key code to get into Duke. If you research Duke enough, you will see what they are looking for and at that point, it's about execution.

FuzzyBuzzard and kple12 have done an awesome job of describing how to approach Duke’s application and essays and I have had several individuals contact me regarding the waitlist process so in this post I will try to focus more on the waitlist niche.

I understand the waitlist process can be frustrating as some of us here can attest to it but the good thing is that there is something the adcom DID like in your application and that you are Duke material but maybe there was a glaring gap which the applicant failed to address, some common examples: Low GPA, LOW GMAT, not enough leadership experience, did not show enough passion for Duke, interview went badly etc.

I will be happy to lay out a general outline of how I approached the waitlist process. You will not be able to get specific feedback on your application from the adcom so you need to figure out yourself on what went wrong. The process I followed was:

STEP 1 - I would sum up, in my mind, how I would describe myself i.e. my strengths, weaknesses and personality.
STEP 2 - I would re-read my entire application and see if it truly reflects the summed up image I had of myself.
STEP 3 - Concentrate on strengths - After the re-read I found that I had missed some areas of my community service, leadership and mentoring abilities and accidentally left them completely out of the application. For you this might be different - it could be that you forgot to show them all the in-depth research you did on Duke etc.
STEP 4 - Concentrate on weaknesses - re-read the application again but this time concentrate on what potential gaps you might have that you failed to address.
STEP 5 - Pick 1 biggest/most impactful strength you missed and 1 biggest/most impactful weakness you missed and write up a 1 page waitlist update incorporating those two things in it.
STEP 6 - have someone read you application and then read the waitlist update to make sure it’s not redundant and is presenting new information
STEP 7 - send to Duke’s adcom

The other major impact you can have it to start building on a relationship you have with a alumni or a current student. After you have reached a certain level of camaraderie and if you have managed to convince them that you are a good fit for Duke, if all has gone well, they might offer to submit a recommendation on your behalf, which is the best case scenario. This recommendation letter from an alumni or student is a big deal as Duke is HUGE on fit. This helped make my application that much stronger.

Another reason for you to be waitlisted could be not that you have a major weakness but that you belong to a highly prescribed group like consulting, finance, indian IT male in tech etc. and there are just better options for the adcom to pick from. You could follow the above startegy for this as well but at the same time you need to try very hard to separate yourself from the herd and stand out. There are several ways to do this and I can write up a strategy for this if anyone needs it.

The most important thing at this stage is to not lose hope, you are still in the game. Feel free to PM me with specific questions.

Just got the e-mail and my application page shows the same, "Interview Decision - Invited". So excited!!! I was totally expecting an out right ding so my jaw is still on the ground. Congrats to everyone else and to those who have yet to receive a decision, stay positive!!!

Fuqua typically have stronger placement in the Southern offices (Atlanta and Dallas, for example). I think that’s due to the fact that Fuqua alums have a strong presence in those offices, so the students are able to build a stronger relationship with the alumni/recruiters there. In the application/interview process, you get to choose which office you are applying for. There are definitely many Fuquans joining the NY area offices, especially those who want to focus on healthcare and financial service consulting.

Admitted!!

In! Living in Central Asia and received the call two hours ago.

I'm in - with $$!! Low GPA and all! East Coast - Got the call at 8 am! So excited!

Innnnnnnnnn with $$$!!!!!!!!!!! Just got the call. Super HAPPY!!!! Based in Middle East. Rcvd at 9:15 EST

In with some scholarship $$. Based in NYC.

Got the call! In with a little bit of $.

So happy to hear!

In - good luck everyone, and congrats to those that have been accepted

Just got the call from Jake! East Coast applicant based in NJ.

Admitted!!!

Indian applicant.. Got the call from Jake at 11:29 AM ET on my India mobile number, even though I had mailed them a couple of weeks back and shared my US contact details (I've moved to NY temporarily). Answering the call on ISD turned out to be expensive, but then such calls don't come often

Looking forward to connect with other Fuqua admits in NY.. Anyone up for it?