Kellogg (Northwestern) 2013 - Calling All Applicants

Hi,

Had my interview a few days ago, with an alumnus, in my town. We met at a coffee shop. He had my resume and went on it briefly prior to the meeting, from what I can say. He said it will be about 45 minutes, we ended in 1:15 hour.
The questions were as follows:
1) Walk me through your resume + short questions along my answer (why this undergradute degree? what did you do here\there...)
2) Tell me about a time you worked in a team, and your team was encountering difficulties.
3) Why do you want an MBA (which led to more questions - which students did I talk to, what were your impressions...)
4) TMAAT you thought that you see the solution to a problem, but your teamembers\manager didn't see it as you?
5) How will you contribute to the school?
6) What qualities define a great leader in your view? Tell me about a great leader that impressed you.
7) few questions regarding my engineering background
8) What do you define as a difficult task? which tasks you do like to do?
9) my questions to him.

Overall, the conversation was smooth and nice and very friendly. I got the impression that I am tested more for a "fit" than for anything else.

Goodluck to all of us!

My status still hasn't changed. Did you hear anything informative back from admissions?

My status hasn't changed either, but I did get this response from admissions:

We had an influx of interview requests for this round of admissions, so it is taking a bit longer that we expected to update the application status check. Please be patient with us during this busy season as we will get that information to you as soon as we can.

Are there people in India still waiting for an invite or waiver ?
I called Admissions office today. Unfortunately, my call was forwarded to someone who wasn't there to pick the phone.

Edit : Got the interview invite few hours from this post.

Got my interview assignment on Jan 30, and had the interview today. Indian reapplicant, interviewed in Bangalore. Interview went quite well, will update details in a bit.

Cheers,
MBAWanderlust

Is there anyone who got a waiver and was accepted later? This would help clear some myths about initial interview waivers.

I wanted to confirm the time slot for my interview. Now I can find any written mail after the request for interview registration stating that. Any idea where I can find it?

You should get an info email from admissions ..I got one..

This is a very usual phenomenon at Kellogg. You apply, get waiver, get invite, and get accepted.

Thanks. I hope my journey follows the exact same path

Just had an interview with an alumni in Mumbai, the interview was very straightforward.
Here is the sequence of events:
1. Formal introduction
2. Asked to talk about myself (went over resume)
3. Why MBA, Why Kellogg?
4. Any questions for the interviewer?
5. We had a chat about his experience, his background and about Evanston.

For the 11am slot, we started before time at about 10:40am and completed by 11:10am.

Interviewed with an alum but it was more like a relaxed interaction. Really hard to tell as most interviews these days are quite relaxed and feel good. I was asked the typical questions on resume, why mba, why kellogg, vision after 4-5 years, instance of convincing a team, interests outside work, etc. but it was good to answer them as the interviewer showed genuine interest in knowing you.

I was quite happy overall however there are always a few things that I feel I could have added in the hindsight.

Interviewed on-campus today with a first-year student. Just to echo what everyone else has said, it felt like more of a casual conversation than an interview. My interviewer was very down to earth and self-deprecating and easy to talk to, which obviously made it more relaxed. The general structure of the interview followed the same pattern as everyone else's, but there were a few questions he gave that I haven't read in these reports (or other reports I've read online) so I thought I'd add them.

What's people's biggest misconception about you?
Tell me about a time you had to deal with an ambiguous situation.
He asked the usual 'What will you bring to the school?' question but then followed it up with 'Any concerns about about attending Kellogg?'

Hope that helps!

I got my interview assignment on 1st Feb. Just finished my off-campus interview few hours ago with an alum based in my city. Total 50 mins interview. Last 20 min was about his experience at Kellogg and few discussions on our industry (indian-automotive). Interview was quite conversational with no curve balls at all. Pretty straight forward questions.
1) walk me through ur resume?
2) why mba? why kellogg?
3) how will u contribute to kellogg?
4) what are ur strengths/weakness?
5) experience on a team based work?
6) Short tem/Long term goals?
7) Why u took marketing after ur under-graduation in mechanical engg ?
Finally i asked few questions about kellogg's and his experience with kellogg.

Two questions:

1) Just wanted to know that does Kellogg reject students without updating the interview status ? i-e without waiving or scheduling interviews, reject candidates outright ?

2) Has anyone got the rejection from round 2 with or without interviews ? As they didnt give any particular decision date and said that candidates will mostly hear towards the round 2 end dates..

Had my interview with an alumni a couple of days ago.

Kind of mixed feelings, I have to admit. This is the first time the interviewer didn't look particularly passionate about the school. The whole interview sometimes looked like an exam. Several general common questions, but with frequent follow ups to get deeper into details. Seemed like a check of my preparation and knowledge gathering about what Kellogg actually is.

And it's rather difficult to communicate when you are somewhat enthusiastic (well, i didn't apply there just because of brand, right? There is something I REALLY do like about the school, and I am pretty much excited about these features), but the person on the other side looks a bit cold and answers your questions, let's say, without excessive details and just as you would answer some question you're not particularly keen on answering.

Just thought I'd let you know that my status changed to inform me that my application was complete and to wait for a decision now. Hope you hear back soon too!