possible interview questions....

Question

So I'm supposed to have an interview soon and I didn't really go over any of my weaknesses in my essays. So I'm sure I'll be asked about them during the interview and I was wondering the best way to respond. 


The topics I feel that will be brought up are my low gpa, I don't have any good reason why my gpa sucked other than a lack of focus. is this a bad reason? 

Also, I think my reccomenders did a subpar job, will they ask me why I chose the reccomenders I did? I was on a time constraint and my first options were lagging. What would be a good response to having sub par reccomendations, or why I chose the ones I did?

TIA

pelihu · Answer

It depends a lot on which school you are interviewing with. Some schools have "blind" interviews where the interviewer does not have access to your application package. Other schools use students and alumni who stick to a script during the interview. I actually think it is relatively uncommon for for schools to ask specific questions about your essays, though it does happen. I haven't heard of a school asking specific questions about recommendations.

aaudetat · Answer

I'm with Peli on this one.

It is, however, a good idea to have an idea of how to answer the "So, tell me about your greatest weakness" question. It's on everyone's all-time greatest hits list.

ayl9899 · Answer

Thanks for your comments, but hypothetically if I know that the person interviewing me will have looked at my application and that one of my reccomendations was mediocre and of concern. what suggestions do you guys have on how to downplay them?

lepium · Answer

I agree that most interviews are "blind". However, the few that are not blind are sometimes based on the application, not just the essays. Eg: HBS adcom reads your app. If they think you are worthy of interviewing, they'll write a series of questions that your recommender should ask you, and these questions are related to what they've read about you in the complete application package. I don't think they'd actually ask about specifics in the recommendations, but the issue could come up if they considered it relevant.

All adcoms are actually trying to get to know you, what made you make any decisions you made, etc. So think of the application as a whole, rather than the sum of its parts. And think of app. related questions as help in their way to get to know you.

L.

possible interview questions....

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