Calling All 2011 Booth Applicants!!

w103psp, SLISeattle

I truly appreciate the support. I hope this is the case mentioned by Rhyme.
It will be less of an anxious waiting until Dec 17th, though... hehe.

wmcrockett,

Let me clarify. For an intl applicant, interviewing in your own country is supposed to be a better choice because the alumn is should be able to tell if you are someone outstanding or not (when compared to other applicants of the same country). For example, I worked full time throught college and attended to evening classes, and this was in a top 3 public university in my country. This extra effort is appreciated here, but from what I heard, is given less value in the U.S..

On the other hand, an alumn (foreign or not) is expected to be a worse interviewer than an Adcom member since he/she naturally has less experience interviewing people and gets less training.

So, in my case, if my particularities (which were supposed to differentiate me from other applicants from my country) weren't enough for me to engage my interviewer, if we didn't "connect", so to say, then I prefer to be interviewed by an Adcom member, who is a well trained professional who interviews hundreds of people each year, and can give a more accurate evaluation on my candidacy.

I know I didn't mention I was an intl applicant, so there was no way you could know about all this. Anyway, that is my rationale behind my post...

How was your interview experience?

My interview lasted under 15 minutes. And I am not kidding. By the watch it was under 15 minutes. All he asked were 4-5 standard questions on my work, why mba and why booth. Did not even give me a chance to highlight any of my leadership or extra currcs.

I dont have a good feeling about my interview.

It's disturbing how luck plays such a huge factor in how experienced, nice and helpful you interviewer will be. It's frustrating that after hours of hard work and stress one person's bad attitude can mess up your chances. However, I'm not sure on the level of importance the adcom at Booth place on the interviews. I know it varies from school to school, but I think at Booth it's about 20% of the entire application.

Agreed

I have to think adcom anticipates and accounts for potentially sloppy interviews, especially w alums. I think important point is that the interview is more of a screen than a boost. I don't think anyone gets into bschool because of a great interview, but a bad one can keep you out. So it's unfortunate if you don't hit all your key points in an interview, but hey, that's what the written app that gets read by 3 adcom members is for. Your interview is primarily to make sure you are personable, speak English, and can thoughtfully discuss your career. An interview non-event sucks but I don't think it's a huge missed opportunity or will in and of itself cause a ding... Good luck!

Posted from my mobile device

Just finished my interview with an alumni (2010 graduate). It went well, it was definitely fun. 90 minutes in total, at a Starbucks.

We talked briefly about each others day at work, and she led that conversation into describing my current role. It wasn't strictly structured, more conversational but covered all of the questions: Why Booth, Why MBA, Why now, What if I hate my internship what is plan b, Describe my leadership style with an example, Teamwork, Professional groups at Booth, Social clubs at Booth, 3 things my friends would describe about me, What other schools I've applied to, Hobbies/volunteer activities & interests (and inspiration for those). We shared an interest and coincidentally it was the theme of my powerpoint, and I had taken the color printouts. I shared the relevant slide and she asked if she could keep the rest. She then asked me to talk about things that are important to me but aren't on my resume. This took up the first 45 minutes, and she made copious notes. Often times, after my answer, she would talk briefly about Booth.

The next 45 minutes, I asked her questions about Booth and she was super excited to talk about the city, the school, students, etc. She loved her Booth experience! She offered to introduce me to people in the industry I want to switch to.

All in all, I think it went well. And now we wait until December 15th!

And thats a nice positive interview. Congrats.

Thanks Rhyme for the great webinar coaching the other day, definitely helped!

Is there any status indicator anywhere on the Booth application site that shows whether the interview report has been submitted or not?

As per Booth email, no.

Well, there's also another status area when you click into the "interviews" link, then "view your interview schedule", my status shows as "In Progress". Is it the same for you? It's been over a week since my interview and I believe the interview report needed to be submitted in a week.

I finished mine last night, so even if it's supposed to change I don't expect it to for a few days. Perhaps a question for adcom?

I just completed my offcampus interview today with an alum at starbucks. The conversation was causal for me and it lasted about 45 minutes. Most questions are general:

Why MBA?
Why Booth?
short and long term goals?
What's my background?

I also had question about my internship in college. My interviewer definitely studied my resume beforehand.

This question below came to me as an odd ball, but I just went with my first instinct. Good luck people.
What do I consider successful?

The status will change again. Mine now reads:

In progress
Interview Completed

madmax,

i had a similar experience at an on-campus interview... poker face, hard to read... i did catch her smile a few times though...

with that said, i think my interviewer gave me opportunities to talk about my resume and candidacy in general, and most of the questioned mentioned in this thread by fellow GMATClubbers were asked during my interview (so if your interview is coming up, start reviewing!)... overall i thought the interview went "okay" though not stellar.

at the end of the interview, she seemed to have left in a hurry though she did give me a business card with her email and phone number (pretty standard)... i wrote a quick thank you email after the interview and received no response...

the way we departed and the fact that she hasn't responded to my thank you note tells me that maybe the interview probably went a bit worse than i perceived...

Don't worry so much! You probably did better than you think. Also, in my experience, interviewers--whether you're interviewing for a job or for b-school--don't generally respond to thank-you notes, regardless of how well you did.

Hello All

I had my off-campus interview with an alum last evening. He had gone through my resume, and started off by "you have XXX, YYY and ZZZ...why do you want an MBA?" Now, I was expecting questions on XXX, YYY and even ZZZ, but not altogether I somehow mumbled something out. However, he was clearly not satisfied and what followed were multiple rounds of questions on "Why MBA", "Why Now" and "Why Booth". I think he was trying to test how passionate I am about pursuing my goals. And about getting an MBA. "What if you are not able to get what you want, then what is the Plan B?"

After that, he asked me a couple of situation based questions - I suppose to test me again whether I know anything about what I want to do - such as, "if you are in your dream-job and AAA happens in future, how will you tackle the situation"!! I took 15sec to answer that

The above questions are more or less in order. He did not ask me how I'll engage the Booth community, any leadership or team-work oriented experiences! Overall, he seemed like a really nice guy, was very patient while I was mumbo-jumboing, and even asked me the same questions again a couple of times when I couldn't answer them satisfactorily the first time. I don't think he was trying to scare me or make me uncomfortable. And clearly, he was very happy with his Booth experience.

Any comments anyone? I can't believe that it's over and am not daring to think how it went