NUS (National University of Singapore)

"It is an evening interview session with two interviewers: the head of marketing & admission & alumni of NUS MBA class of 21. The interview lasted for 30 mins and started the following questions: 1) Tell me about yourself and your career background, and why MBA? 2) Why consulting? 3) Elaborate more on positive impacts of integrating technology into conventional businesses that you have experienced. 4) How do you see Elon Musk as a leader? Describe both his strength and his weakness. 5) How do you describe yourself as a leader and what is your weakness? 6) Explain why are you showing interest about joining the Sandbox Club of NUS MBA? 7) If you were to given a chance to speak at the Sandbox Club, what topic would you speak and can you please give me an example? 8) Since you are working in Singapore, why don't you consider a Part-Time programme?"

"My interview took place via Teams with the executive director and an alum of class 2021. The interview lasted for approximately 40 mins. Some of the questions asked were: 1) Why MBA and why NUS? 2) Tell me about your background and how will an MBA help you with your ST goals? 3) Tell me about your role model who is not from your country and your domain. Why do you consider him/ her to be your role model? 4) As I am from the automotive industry, the interviewers wanted to know about different auto industries in Asia and their economies. 5) How would you describe the impact of Russia-Ukraine war on the auto industry (especially India)? 6) What cultural difference and similarities you felt working in a multi cultural work environment? Was there any particular cultural shock for you? 7) Tell me one particular reason why we should not admit you? At the end, the interviewers asked me if I had any questions for them. I asked them more about NUS and how NUS MBA helped the alum in his career. Overall I had a pleasant interaction with both of the interviewers. As for now, I am keeping my fingers crossed. To the rest of you, all the very best for your interviews!"

"1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Why MBA? Why now? Why NUS? 3. Explain Green Financing with pros and cons. 4. Strengths & Weakness. 5. Leader / business person you would take out for coffee and what will you talk? Shouldn't be an Indian or Singaporean person. 6. Company you admire and why? (Again Non-Indian, Non Singaporean and Non-American company)"

"The interview was with an alum and a lady from the adcom. Questions 1. The 60-second elevator pitch 2. Why NUS? 3. One weakness? 4. Why did I do social work? 5. If you had one superpower, what would it be? 6. One Asian company that you admire? (not of Indian origin) 7. If you had a Zoom call line for an hour with any leader (not of Indian origin), who would you choose and what would you discuss with them? 8. Follow up to Q7 - mention the first company that the above person founded? and other follow-up questions on his recent activities) 9. How will you contribute to NUS? 10. One reason why we should not take you? This lasted for approximately 20 minutes, followed by 7-8 minutes of questions and normal conversation. Overall, they were very conversational and friendly."

"Interviewed by an alum and AdCom member. 1. Let's start with a 60-second elevator pitch. 2. Why MBA? 3. Why NUS? 4. Name top 3 companies you want to work for and 3 cities in Asia you want to work in. 5. Why not double-degree program specifically NUS-Peking one (since I mentioned Beijing in previous answer, this was a follow-up) 6. Talk about 2 recent news updates - one from Asia and one global (since I'm a journalist, this was relevant to my profile) 7. What is your weakness? 8. One leader you would like to invite to NUS to speak. 9. How would you handle a situation where a team member is not pulling his weight? 10. One reason we should reject you. 11. Anything you would do differently (professionally) if you could go back in time 12. One Asian company you admire which is not from your industry These may seem like a lot of questions but the interview lasted about 25 mins only. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and the interviewers were friendly and conversational."

"I was interviewed via Zoom by 2 interviewers, one from the marketing team & one from the admissions team. 1) Introduction & background, how will i be a good fit? 2) Why NUS MBA? 3) What is my role in my current job? 4) Tell me more about your interests/hobbies listed in CV? 5) Talk about one trend in the world that is changing The interview ended before time so when they asked if i have any further questions, i told them that it ended quickly and had anticipated more. They went further to give me time to talk about Q4 & 5. Overall it was more of a casual chat and it got me really worried if they are disinterested in my profile."

"The interview was with an AdCom member and a Careers Centre staff. The AdCom member asked mostly about myself and my plans during the programme. The questions were more or less these: - Tell us about yourself and why you are a good fit for the programme. - How are you going to take part in various clubs and activities? - What drives you in life? - What is your greatest achievement to date? - How have you used technology to your benefit in your current or previous job roles? - What are the skills you are most hoping to get from the programme? - What do you think could be your greatest challenge during the programme? (answer: some heavily quantitative modules) - follow-up question: Are you willing to brush up on your quantitative skills before the programme? How? The Careers Centre member asked for my career plans and pushed me to be as specific as possible: - Can you tell me 3 important current trends in education technology? (as that's my target sector) - What is going to be your route to get your desired position post-MBA? - If you want to do business development at a Company X, what exactly does that mean to you? What do you think you will be doing in that role? - Which technologies do you think will impact education in the near future, and how? - You started your own company in the past. Why did you leave it eventually? In general, be ready for the interviewers knowing your application in-and-out, and to be asked for specific details."

"Questions: 1. Quick introduction & why NUS MBA, why now 2. Interests outside of work (this scared me as I don't have much social work exp to talk about, but I turned it into a question about my hobby :D) 3. What is 'leadership' to you? 4. What kind of leader are you/do you want to become? 5. Who is a business leader you look up to, and why? (I took an example at my company - as they said it's not necessarily a 'famous' leader) 6. What was the last book that I read, and why does it resonate to me (I chose 'The art of happiness' - I don't think they will judge me if I don't choose a 'business' book). 7. Any questions for them (I just asked about why my list of uploaded documents still had some crosses, but the lady from Adcom said doc status was updated manually, and it didn't affect my application) Finally, they said they would get back to me in 1-2 weeks (which they did exactly 2 weeks after my interview). Interviewers: 1 from AdCom and 1 from Career Sevs. Overall, I found this a good experience."

"Hello Everyone, I really appreciate others putting their interview experiences together. I had my interview with an admission committee member and one from career service. They asked me the following questions: 1. Walk me through your resume 2. ST Goals 3. Why NUS? 4. How you plan to network (I am making a career transition from consulting to sustainability) 5. What if your plan fails? 6. How will NUS provide the support? They asked me questions for 20 minutes. Then, I asked them the following questions: 1. Can I take courses from other schools? 2. I also asked a question about Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) Good luck to everyone!"

"Interview was with 1 Adcom member and 1 Campus faculty. 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Why MBA? 3. Why MBA now? 4. How will you achieve the Product Manager role? (Since I had said that's my short term goal) 5. If you're asked to give a Ted talk in Sandbox, what will be your chosen topic (Spoke on this for 3-4 mins, mine was Competing in the Age of AI) Interview was super chill, and went like a casual conversation. They just need to know if you're confident on your choices and the decision for doing MBA."

"It was with an Adcom member and someone from career services. Duration ~ 30 minutes. 1. What are your unique strengths (this was asked 3/4 times in different ways - If I were to ask your boss, what unique he will say about you?, how do you standout? and bit of cross questioning around these things to get sharp examples) 2. If at the end of your MBA, I ask your classmates how did she make an impact, what will they say? 3. How will you plan your MBA financially? 4. Why MBA 5. I name dropped couple of students and alumni so they asked me about it what did you research about us, what they tell you etc. Hope this helps"

"I had an interview with a member of NUS's external communications team and an alumnus (former Student Council president). It was a 30-minute interview, packed with many questions. These are the ones I remember: 1. Give us a 60-second elevator pitch. 2. Tell us three organizations you want to work for after your MBA and why. 3. If you had a Zoom call line for an hour with any leader, who would you choose and what would you discuss with them? 4. Tell us the names of a couple of leaders you look up to who are not from your country. 5. I had provided the reference of one of their current students in my application. So, they asked the following questions on that - 5.1. How did you approach the student and what networking strategy did you use? 5.2. If there was only one seat available for the FT MBA program and we had to choose between the current student and you, who would you choose and why? 5.3. What will the current student say about you if I were to call them right now? 6. What are your two weaknesses and one strength? 7. How did you spend your time during the lockdown? 8. I have a master's degree from another country, so they asked me why I chose that particular college? 9. I also spent three years working in the other country. On that they asked me one contribution I made to the country and one challenge I faced there. 9. They saw I had some experience with Cloud on my CV, so they asked me a bit about that. 10. What is the most important leadership skill in your opinion and why? 11. In your essays and CV, what's the weakest line/section and why? 12. Give us one reason why we should NOT take you into the program."

"I was interviewed by the Ad-com member and a member from the careers team. It was a straight forward and a friendly interview and they were primarily trying to understand a bit more about how will I achieve my post MBA goal and what all have I researched about it. They had read my essays and my resume thoroughly before the interview. 1. Give a background of your profile. 2. Why MBA and why MBA now? 3. Why NUS and what are your post MBA goals? 4. What all do you plan to do at NUS to achieve your post MBA goals? 5. Where else have you applied and what was the rationale of applying to the other schools that I mentioned? 6. I had mentioned investment banking as my short term goal post MBA. The member from careers told me its very competitive to get a full-time offer in Singapore. So what will be my plan incase IB in Singapore doesn't work out. 7. I had explained in my optional essay about a break in my career 3 years ago. They asked the reason for the break and what did I do during that time. What did I learn from the things that I did during the break? 8. I had mentioned an instance of leadership in my resume. They asked me a bit more about the situation and how I handled it 9. They asked me if I was able to get all the information I needed from their website? (Probably they were just taking a feedback) 10. Lastly they asked if I had any questions for them. Overall it felt like a conversation. They told they me that will get back to me between mid-end of February."

"Straightforward interview Interviewers - Adcom member + Alum from corp strategy Professional work ex overview Why MBA? Why NUS? What do you hope to gain in leadership exp? What are your post-mba goals? Talk about where you wanna work after NUS? example of a company whose strategy you like (coz my goal was corp strategy) Overall a chill interview. Felt largely like a conversation between two people"

"I was interviewed by the NUS admissions director and an NUS Professor. Below were the questions I was asked. 1. Give a brief introduction about yourself and in the answer also continue to include why you want to do an MBA in NUS. 2. Can you explain to us what is your role in your organization. (I was a little technical in my explanation, so they asked me to explain it in simpler terms after that) 3. Why MBA? What are your post-MBA goals 4. Did you experience any kind of cultural shock when you started working in Japan(I worked for 2 years in Tokyo). What were some of the things you liked in the work culture?. (It turned out the professor who interviewed me lived in Tokyo for 20 years.) We went on to have a 2 min casual conversation on life in Tokyo. 5. Then they came back to my work asking how technical is my work. Do you code? Then they asked me post-MBA do you still wish to be involved in coding? 6. They asked me about some of my extracurricular I mentioned in the additional essay. 2-3 questions along that. 7. What would you be at say 45? 8. (I had mentioned in the goals essay I wish to work in FinTech). They asked me some current trends. The difference in the industry in Singapore vs India. Some of the companies I want to work in Singapore. 9. Why Singapore? 10. What are some of the clubs you want to take part in. 11. A lot of folks in NUS are quite talented. What would make you unique among them? 12. What other schools are you applying to? 13. Any questions for us? Overall the interview was a great 30 min conversation. They were really polite in their tone and did not try to put me under stress. There was some exchange of humour in between too."

"The interview was with 2 adcom members. It was a casual explanatory conversation where they introduced themselves. 1. Asked to share my professional journey and then why I want to do an MBA 2. Asked about my post-MBA goal. 3. Asked about why was I a good candidate for my post MBA goal 4. Was asked about other achievements during my Masters 5. Was asked why would I be a good fit for my class 6. Was asked how would my friends/peers describe me, and then how would I like to describe myself. 7. Was asked about my interests 8. Was asked what would I do if I am not selected 9. Was asked why did I choose NUS"

"1. Why MBA 2. Why now 3. Why NUS 4. Importance of Teamwork 5. How will my chosen Post MBA professional field be impacted by COVID 6. Questions related to current background 2 interviewers"

"Interview went on for close to 30 minutes. questions asked - 1. Highlights of the professional career 2. Why NUS? 3. Instances of contribution to a team 4. Which clubs would I like to join, if selected 5. You have only 2 years of work ex, how can you contribute to the class 6. If i have any questions for them"

"Hi All, Just completed my interview. Wanted to post a debrief to give back to this awesome community. Interviewers - 2 (1 Professor and 1 Adcom) went on for about 30 mins. The Interview was fairly conversational and casual. I had actually prepped quite a lot but was fairly straight forward (Dont know what to make of it). Wasnt a blind interview and thy had gone through my resume and application before. Following were the questions: 1) Brief overview of profile 2) Why MBA now? 3) Why Singapore / NUS? 4) looking at your profile, what exactly do you feel an MBA will provide which you already dont have 5) In case after the MBA you are forced to go back to India, how successful would you view your experience to be 6) How have interacted with people of different nationalities at work and what difference did you observe? 7) Apart from work what all do you do? 8) Can you rank the following on what is most important MBA aspect to you - Soft skill training, network, academics? 9) Any questions for us Wishing all of you the best luck and hoping for a positive response! Fingers crossed"

"So I just went through my interview. I started 20min earlier as the person suppose to go before me didn't show up. My interview lasted 30 min. Very casual. With 2 people: Professor & Acting Vice dean of the program at NUS and 1 Admin. The questions/topics (not necessarily in this order) were: - How did I learn about the NUS/CEMS program? - Powerlifting questions (actually multiple questions because its one of my hobbies) - Talked about my exchange in Finland and my experience - They asked if I had any questions (right at the beginning) - Short term and Long term goals - What is it I believe the program look for in future student - What I know of the consulting industry (as I’m aiming for this industry) - Because I travelled a lot is there actually a place where I feel at home? - Talked about my learning of Mandarin - Importance of being able to adapt quick to new environments and share experience with people from around the world Good luck to everyone :-)"

"2 interviewers, both of them were very friendly and welcoming. One of them was Mr. Aaron Goh, director of the MSc Programmes Office at NUS, and another Caucasian lady, whose name I couldn't recall. Before that, I prepared myself for mostly generic and behavioural questions as that was what the previous debriefs mentioned would be most likely asked. However, as I am involved in the education family business, from start till the end questions were revolved mostly around the business. I took the opportunity to explain my background and also the tasks that I did during my employment. Other than that, they also asked me what is my outlook of Malaysia's future, what are the takeaways from this course if admitted, what is the difference between Malaysia and Singapore etc. Overall, I was kind of taken aback by the unorthodox questions as the questions that I have prepared was not asked at all. However, I must say it was relatively easy to keep the conversation going. My advice is to really know your background and work well, as they really went into the details of my CV. Also, do not freak out or panic, be really confident about yourself and just speak out. I think what they want to see is not whether your responses are correct, but rather your attitude and boldness."

"Had my prelim interview today, with Adcom Sheila. She was pretty conversational. The questions were: 1. Elevator Pitch 2. Post MBA goal 3. Why MBA now and why NUS 4. Plan B 5. What are your views about the job market in Singapore? 6. What do you know about the current legislation upon job option? < I didn't know> 7. Now that I have told you, do you have any different ideas about NUS or Singapore job? I did screw up considering companies which didn't recruit internationals.. :D I hope I satisfied them with answers! All the best to prospects!"

"My interview questions were quite different to those of others. Most of the questions were about technical things relevant to my working background. Some common questions were also asked like why MBA and NUS. Other than that were about my knowledge and experiences from work! Interviewers were friendly and answered every questions i asked. Good Luck everyone. Be yourself and do not be too stressed!"

"I had my preliminary interview today. It was taken by an Adcom member Sheila. She introduced herself first and then directly onto the interview with following questions: 1. 1 minute Elevator Pitch 2. Career Goals 3. Why MBA? Why NUS? 4. What are your views about whether Singapore can be a suitable hub for the sector you currently work for? 5. Any current issue that you have been following (political/social/economic), what is it about and what are your views about it? It was a 12 min call and with no slot for questions that can be asked from her. Let's see what happens next!"

"Had my primary interview today - here's a quick summary: Duration (10-12 Minutes) 1. Elevator Pitch 2. What are your goals after your MBA? 3. What do you want to gain from an MBA? 4. Any question for us? - Asked about Internships and Experiential Learning."