Booth 2012 - Calling All Applicants

I agree. I know of companies that have a policy of not responding to thank you notes, so the person may be used to that practice.

Done my part. Off-campus interview with alum.

Fairly standard questions:
1. Walk through resume
2. Why MBA? Why Booth?
3. Short terms/long terms goals. Then he probed more on the feasibility of those goals such as what qualities that could help in my transition (career switcher)/ about the sector that I want to pursue in long-term etc
4. What other schools did I apply? A bit more why Booth again. Hope I make the strong case here
5. Tell about one extracurricular activity that I feel the most important. Follow up question on that.
6. Q&A

It is conversational and easy going. I guess it is more the style of Booth and the focus is more on why Booth.

I was interviewed by an alumnus on the campus. I haven't received any response either to my thank you note. If he hasn't seen it or doesn't want to respond to it, so be it. Why bother myself thinking about it or bother him with another email unnecessarily?

Just thought I'd chime in. My application went under review rather late but I got the invite quite early. I interviewed with an alumnus off-campus about 10 days after I contacted him. Coffee shop at a major landmark. He had tea, I had nothing.

He asked the baseline questions - walk me through your resume, why an MBA, what are your goals, why Chicago, and then a few behavioral q's.

I've been through a lot of interviews by now, and Chicago Booth is the single school I've researched/visited/engaged with the most, so the interview went very smoothly. He would occasionally interject that he could relate to my responses.

He made up his mind about me pretty quickly (like 30 mins or less) and when he opened it up for questions, we ended up chatting for over an hour about all sorts of stuff.

Based on other young Booth alumni I've met and the students I met while there, I can safely say that I'm very impressed. These folks are highly competent, thoughtful and yet capable of action - but without the arrogance or neurosis you often find elsewhere.

I had my interview last friday. My status hasn't changed in the application system. Did anyone noticed any change after completing the interview?

Mine has not changed, but I believe that's the norm. I think the next change will be the "admit, deny, waitlist" update.

I interviewed today with a 2nd year student. It lasted 40 minutes.

Questions included:
- Walk me thru your resume
- What are your goals?
- Why am I interested in consulting?
- Why Booth?
- What is your leadership style?
- How would your friends describe you?
- Extracurriculars
- Hobbies
- Any questions for her

All in all it was very conversational. We went off on several tangents regarding some shared interests. I didn't receive a single behavioral question...but I did use a question about my leadership style to infuse an anecdote of my own.

I had my interview off campus this week. It lasted for approximately 45 minutes and it was pretty conversational.

I was asked the following questions:
1) Why an MBA and why now?
2) Why Booth? (and several following up questions on my reasons for choosing Booth)
3) Tell me about a time that you failed
4) How would your colleagues describe you? (I took advantage of this chance and told him about one of my leadership experiences)
5) How would your friends describe you?

Then I asked some questions and we talked a lot about Chicago and about Booth. I believe I did good, but no one can know for sure... Also I sent him a thank you note, but he has not responded me yet...

Best luck for all of you guys! I hope we all get great news on December 13.

Alright, so I had my off campus interview with an alum today and we spoke for 2 hours

He didn't have my resume. I offered him a copy but he said that he had read it prior to coming and he remembered everything on it..
He started off by giving his introduction. This took about 20-25 minutes. The he asked me to tell me everything I wished to. So I basically did a cradle-to-chair in about 30 minutes. Then he asked me to elaborate on Why MBA and Why Booth. Spoke about it for about 15 minutes or so. He then asked what other schools I was applying to. I told him and he in turn told me that three of them were good choices and two of them were crap..
He then said that we had about 10 minutes left for any questions I had. So I asked him a couple of questions and he responded with a 20 minute answer..
He had another guy lined up for an interview but that guy probably hadn't reached on time. So had a generic chat for another 20 minutes. So it was definitely 2 hours in total!

On the whole it was VERY conversational. He was quite clearly a very proud Booth alum and spoke very passionately about Booth. Got to know a lot of interesting facts about life@Booth that I hadn't heard from anyone in person or read anywhere...

The only problem with the whole conversation was that he was a born & brought up Finance guy whereas I'm nowhere even remotely connected finance. So I didn't understand large parts of what he said.. And asking him too many times about what he was saying would've really made me look stupid..
Further he was not at all aware about my current industry and also did not have much insight into my post-MBA industry...So during the Why MBA & Why Booth part, he pretty much sat through with a poker face.. I don't know if I did a good enough job of explaining my reasoning for everything!

Fingers crossed now! Have no way of saying how it went!!

Inside Chicago Booth's Admissions Office - What happens when you click that "submit" button?

Kurt Ahlm, Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions - Chicago Booth - When applicants hit the submit button on our online application system, essentially what happens is that from the backend we have a team that compiles the applications and verifies that these applications are complete. Once that is been verified, the applications are put into the reads cycle, which starts with a second-year students team that goes through a pretty extensive training on reading and evaluating applications. These students, or the Admissions Fellows, conduct an initial evaluation of the applications and come out with a recommendation of whether to interview a candidate or not.


Each of these Admissions Fellows reports up to an admissions director who does his or her own read of the application, independently, after which he or she also votes whether or not to interview. If there is a a match, the candidate is invited to interview, otherwise the application will then come to me for a third review..... read more

Hi Everyone,

For all those who have shared their interview experiences, a BIG thank you! I have my interview next week and have TWO important questions (specifically for all those who have interviewed already).

First,
Did any one of you get any specific question which gave you an indication that someone from the Booth adcom had given your interviewer some pointed questions to ask with respect to something that you had specifically mentioned in your application/essays? I know that Booth interview is supposed to be blind (only Resume) BUT i had heard somewhere that in case there are any doubts/queries in one's essays, the adcom sends a communique to the alum about it. Plus, I think someone also told me that in some schools, the interviewer gets a copy of all the notes (+ie and -ive) that the adcom reps have prepared during the appl essays!
Is that the case with Booth?? Please share your thoughts!!!!!

Second,
In case the answer to the above question is 'no' and it is indeed a blind interview, then is it a good idea to give the same examples that one has mentioned in the essays or should one cite different examples while answering questions? Also, while taking notes, does the interviewer take note of the specific situations/examples also that we mention?

Thank you in advance to all who get the time to respond!

I have been travelling internationally and haven't had a chance to schedule an interview yet. Can someone please explain how the scheduling process works? If i request to schedule an off-campus interview through the system today, would it match me with an interviewer or give me a list of potential interviewers? Also, is it better to wait till monday to contact the interviewer or is it okay to send them an email on the weekend to schedule the interview? I would like to have the interview scheduled for after thanksgiving so that i am not jet lagged and have like a week to prepared.

If i were to use booth's online system today, do the interviewers also get a notification email? If not, maybe i can choose my preference in the system today and email the interviewer on monday to ask for an interview in the week starting 28th?

Thoughts? Thanks..

When you select an off-campus interview Booth will send you an email the next day with your interviewer; you don't get to choose your interviewer. I'd send an email to the interviewer immediately, I doubt they care if they receive it on the weekend versus Monday. In fact, if you wait until Monday your email will be competing with the interviewers work emails, etc. Also, I'm not sure if the interviewers get a notification email of who they're assigned to. I do know that interviewers are assigned to multiple candidates, so even if they get a list of who they're assigned to, they may not even notice if you haven't contacted them yet.

Nothing in my interview made it seem like my interviewer had read my application. I definitely would tie pieces of your essays into your responses. I definitely weaved in things from all of my essays. My interviewer was writing a bunch throughout the interview, so I have no idea what specifically was written.

I just had my interview a few hours ago. It was very conversational and it actually turned out that we had some mutual friends. I got the typical walk me through your resume, why mba and why booth. The only behavioral question was tell me a time you were in a challenging team environment. I also got a leadership style question. Other than that, it was just a conversation and very back and forth. As she told me about her experiences, I took those opportunities to ask questions instead of waiting until the end. In total it was an hour long and I think it went well. I also believe that all she was exposed to was my resume and nothing else.

I had my interview with an alum on Saturday afternoon in a coffee shop. Thanks to all your suggestions, I was dressed in a suit which I promptly got rid of after asking for permission from my interviewer.

The questions which were very standard and were as follows:

1. Walk me through your resume (I spent about 10 mins saying my rehearsed lines)

2. Why MBA? You already seem to be working in the sector... (I requested permission to elaboratore on my long-term goals and then went on to why MBA...)

3. Why Booth? (I explained the rehearsed reasons and added my short-term goal in the end as the most tangible benefit from Booth)

4. What will you contribute to the Booth community? (Again, I had prepared for this)

5. Tell me about a leadership experience (I think I screwed this up - I said many things but didnt necessarily structure it well)

6. Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult team situation

7. Three words that your peers would use to describe you

8. Why were you selected/chosen/recruited for your current role at XYZ firm?

9. What other schools have you applied to? (I also added why did I apply to those schools and current status)

That was the end of the interview and it lasted for about 70-80 minutes. I won't say that the interview was conversational. Infact, the interviewer reticent and was just shooting off questions and taking notes whenever I said some things that resonated with her.

All in all, I would give myself a 3.5 out of 5. Given that all questions asked were very standard, I could have prepared myself better. For the record, a thank you note was sent about 24 hours after the interview and was replied to in another 24 hours.

I hope this is helpful. I wish you all good luck with your interview. Regards!

I just had my interview and wanted to contribute some experience as a return of courtesy: my interviewer was a 2nd year student. The overall interview experience was really conversational and pleasant. It was conducted in a meeting room and beside a small round table, which makes me relax my nerve a little bit( I'm very sensitive to the environment, hehe)

The questions are quite standard: walk through resume, why mba, why fit, what you can contribute to booth, one challenge and one leadership experience. So just prepare your story well and you are good!

One small tip: bring a cup of water, which you can get in the entrance of the reception, into the interview room . You will get dried out because of the heating and all the talk. Besides, drinking some water helps me really cool down and gain a little time to gather my thoughts.

Good luck to everyone!