Help Nervousgmat Decide

Question

I have been invited to interview for admission to the Ross MBA program.

I have a choice to:

1) have an over the phone interview with a member of the Ross Admissions staff
2) interview in person with an alumni in my area

Based on your opinion/experience or experiences of your friends, which one do you think I should pick?

dabots · Answer

you're an attractive lady. definitely use it to your advantage in person! 8-)

nervousgmat · Answer

LOL! What if my interviewer is a woman?

aaudetat · Answer

phone is hard. so much communication gets lost...

riverripper · Answer

I say the alumni. A phone interview is tough.

hbs.aspirant · Answer

In person communication is live communication. Any other form of communication is not. Expressions, body language, etiquette and aura (not everyone believes in that) are things that may be advantage or disdvantage in personal communication. 

For example, I have seen your messages. So the only communication we have had is a dead communication. Other members might second me in saying that some of us will be more interested in replying to your mails because your image in our minds is of an attractive lady. So even a virtual image is helpful. 

But it is because of that same dead communication that I cannot give a suggestion based on facts since I know of nothing other than messages.

I would suggest that if you are confident about your expressions, body language, etiquette then go for in person interview. I did not mention verbal communication here since that will be present in both in person as well as phone interview.

ncp · Answer

Go with the alum interview. Phone interviews have that uncertainty factor due to the face-less nature of the conversation.

nervousgmat · Answer

I agree with you about the advantages of the face-to-face interview. However, an interview with an alunmi also has its disadvantages. For example, if it's a "she", she might have something against attrative women

But seriously, an alum might not be as objective as an admissions memember will be. I read about jealous types, alums who have no idea about the industry you are in and why your acompishments in that industry are actually accomplishments. Then there is always a prejudice factor (an alum might have something against russians). These are the things I am worried about...

hbs.aspirant · Answer

I do ot have any first hand information but read in some other school forums that people get to pick alumni interviewer from a list. More info anyone?

kidderek · Answer

Happy Birthday nervous!

I voted for face to face. There's so much information that can be conveyed by facial expression that is lost on the phone.

riverripper · Answer

We all know only attractive women get MBAs. 

I doubt you with have someone who hates Russians unless its a Chechen or something like that. At least you aren't talking about how great nuclear power is...chances of someone disagree with that is a lot better than disliking Russians.

ncp · Answer

Nervous, is today your birthday? If yes, then Happy Birthday. 

Kidderek is right, you can bat your eyelashes if you are doing an in-person interview. You cant do that over the phone.

riverripper · Answer

Come on guys. Nervous is going to get in because of her qualifications not because some guy thinks she is cute.

aviroop · Answer

Its better to do a face interview....

The person will only have ur resume.. it will be good to connect the resume with the face..

my example..

in one recruiting event, I received a resume from some guy I dont even remember... the resume was ok.. not much in qualifications..(no technical faults, no grammar errors... just not much experience)

I thought of not calling him for an interview... but then I had time so I scheduled a meeting...

needless to say, he was the best candidate for the job....the guy was energetic, had very good ideas of what he wanted to do in life, why he wanted the job..his preparedness and his positive attitude made him a clear winner..

now if I only met the person via phone.. i would not even find out that this guy was soo goood...

for ethnic prejudice.. I dont think it is an issue...if it is. then that person should not be in b-school or qualified to be an alum interviewer...
but even if you factor ethnic issues..if its a guy..issues fly out of the roof.
if its a woman. .she will end up talking with you about how her boyfriend is keeping the toilet seat up (guys..keep the seat down...else learn about the battle of the Bulge..and how to retreat or fight back)

I think you have a much better chance interviewing face to face.

Good luck with the interview..
I just did a proxy interview with a b-school student.. it was a comedy riot..
my why MBA answer was soo poor.. :shock:

ncp · Answer

of course. But here we are talking about how best she can use her soft skills to even better her chances of admission. Rightly or wrongly, how you look significantly affects how people perceive you, atleast initially. Honestly speaking, phone interviews can sometimes put people off, people multi-task while they are doing the interview, you may even get distracted by something that happens around you. 

That said, phone vs person largely depends on what one is comfortable with. If nervous has never done a phone interview before, I wouls urge her to do the interview in person with an alum or even travel to ross to do the interview with the ad-com.

nervousgmat · Answer

Thanks for standing up for my brains, river!

I surely want to get in based on my professional qualifications and the uniqueness factor that I bring to the MBA communitiy. I mean, how many girls do you know who are into the UFC? :wink:

aviroop · Answer

UFC....not many...
make it
not any...

...would be fun if you talk about it to the interviewer....and watch his reaction..
(if its a guy)

mNeo · Answer

My vote is for "in-person" interview as well.

aurobindo · Answer

Wish you many happy returns of the day!

Vote for in-person

pelihu · Answer

I'm going to vote for the phone interview. Based on my experience from last year, I would much rather communicate with a decision maker. The problem with interviewing with an alum (or a student for that matter) is that they have no direct influence over the decision. Adcom's also know that there is a lot of variability between the judgment and standards of different alumni; most alumni conduct a couple of interviews per year, max. As a result, I always had the feeling that alumni and student interviews had little to no impact on the final decision. If you are a poor interviewer, this might be good. If you're hoping to use your interview to make an impact and help yourself, you've got to talk with the person making decisions. Applications are no different from any other sales job.

The best alternative would be to go to Ann Arbor and interview with an Adcom fact-to-face. I don't know if they gave you this option, and it would obviously cost more, but it's really the best chance to help yourself.

Help Nervousgmat Decide

Help me decide!

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards