Simon (University of Rochester)

"Friendly interview with Adcom. Approx. 30 minutes. Blind interview. - Tell me about yourself. - Why MBA, why Simon? - Long term goals. - Tell me about a time where you experienced culture shift - Tell me about a risk you have taken and how it went. - Tell me about a time when you have traveled abroad/cross-cultural experiences. - Questions for me?"

"A conversational interview with adcom members lasted about 35 minutes. 1. TMAY 2. Why MBA, why now, and why Simon 3. A short goal: how do you achieve that? 4. TMAT the experience with culture shift 5. TMAT: You face challenges at work. What did you do? What was the result? 6. What will you bring to Simon diversity? 7. question for me it was a pleasant chat"

"I just had my Rochester Simon's AdCom interview. It was a blind interview and the interviewer (Matt McCormick) had not seen my application components and only had a hard copy of my Resume in his hand. He was a representative of AdCom itself and also a current Professional MBA student at Simon. The entire interview was very conversational and lasted about 30 minutes. He had a fixed set of questions that he asked in order - 1. Walk me through your Resume, talking about your professional experiences and your undergraduate degree. What drives you to go for an MBA at this point in your career? 2. What intrigues your interest in Simon's MBA program as compared to other MBA programs? 3. What are your short-term goals post-MBA in 2 years? What is your backup plan or option? 4. Simon has a diverse cohort. Have you ever travelled to the US or any other country outside your home country, whether personally for leisure or professionally and experienced a cultural shift or change? Then he asked a couple of questions about a few characteristic pillars that Simon AdCom looks for in prospective MBA students - 5. Have you ever faced a conflict in a team environment at your workplace? How did you respond to it? 6. What does leadership mean to you? What are your leadership traits? 7. Tell me about a time you took a risk. How did it work out eventually? 8. Anything you'd like the AdCom to know about you which is not a part of your Resume and your Application components? 9. Any questions for him about Simon."

"Interviewed by Andrew Brayda. Lasted about 20 mins. Questions were generic - 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Any international work experience 3. Why MBA? 4. Why Simon? 5. ST and LT goals 6. I asked 2 questions at the end about experiential opportunities and what else he thinks I can work on to be prepared for the Simon experience. It was a pleasant chat!"

"Interview by Andrew Brayda. The interview lasted for 30 mins. 1. Introduce Yourself. 2. Why MBA? 3. Short term goal and alternate goal? 4. Why Simon? 5. Any experiences dealing with high pressure situations. 6. What are your transferable skills from your present role to your post MBA role? 7. Re-applicant improvements. 8. Any questions for me. The interview was very cool and conversational. We also discussed about our football and Ronaldo as I mentioned I'm a Ronaldo fan."

"Interviewed with Sarah from the AdCom. Questions were in line with earlier debriefs- -Walk me through your resume -Short Term Goals -Back Up Plan -Leadership Style -Your role in a team -What your team thinks about you -Why Simon -How will you contribute to Simon -Anything we didn't talk about -Questions for me"

"I had my interview with Sharise Kent. It was a very comfortable interview that lasted 30 min. At the very start she mentioned that it was a blind interview. Following are the questions that she asked: 1. Why MBA? 2. Why Simon? 3. Short term goal post MBA. What is your back up plan? 4. How have you experienced diversity? What have you learnt from it? 5. Tell me about an initiative that you took? What is your leadership style? 6. How will you contribute to Simon? 7. Any questions for me?"

"Hi! I completed my interview today. The interview was conducted by the director of admissions - Andrew Brayda. It was very conversational. Apart from the standard MBA interview questions, questions were mainly on DEI. Also, it was a blind interview."

"General Question Why MBA? Why Simon? Some cross-questioning on goals and professional career? Leadership style? What is DEI to you? Tell a story to substantiate. Team conflict? How you handled it? Learnings?"

"The interview was taken online (via Zoom) and lasted for about 40 minutes. An AdCom member took the interview. She was very accommodating and friendly. She told me that it was a blind interview, and she only had access to my resume. So, she encouraged me to elaborate my answers wherever necessary, even if I had mentioned the information in my application. The questions were: - Tell me about yourself and walk me through your resume - Why a second MBA? Why now? - What gets you excited about Simon? - How will Simon help you get to where you want to go? Do you have any target industry, company, or position? - Tell me about your typical workday. What are some challenges and things that you like at work? - What are your strengths? - Based on your cross-cultural experience, how would you contribute to Simon? - Do you have any questions for me about Simon? There was no writing task."

"It was a pleasant conversation, no pressure was felt. We started by touching on topics from my resume, studies and work experience. The interviewer indicated that she had not reviewed my documents, so there are several responses from the essays that were repeated in the interview questions. 1. Walk me through your resume 2. Why an MBA? 3. Why Simon? 4. Short-term goals. Specific company? 5. Alternative plan? 6. Cross cultural experience. 7. Any Questions for me? The interview was super relaxed and felt more like a conversation. Lasted 30 minutes."

"Good experience. 35 minutes interview with adcom going through the basics. It was a conversational chat, made me very comfortable. 1. Walk me through your resume 2. Follow up questions on work experience and volunteer groups 3. What was my programming experience (academic/professionally) and what programming languages I knew 4. Experience with a quantitative environment in both academic and professional experience 5. Why Simon? Why not other schools? 6. What is my leadership style? 7. Tell a time when I took risks 8. Short Term career goal/Alternative plan? Specific company? 9. Questions for me?"

"I had my interview with Nicole from the admissions team. She told me upfront that it'll be a blind conversational interview so that she gets to know me better. The questions were as follows. 1. Give me a brief introduction about yourself. 2. Questions about my work experience. 3. Some questions around extra-curricular. 4. Why MBA? 5. Why Simon? 6. What is your leadership style? The interview lasted for only 20 minutes. However, it was one of the best interviews for me so far. I was very confident at the end of it. Advice to everyone: Just be calm and be yourself."

"Interview was extremely conversational. It lasted for around 35 minutes . 1.Walk me through your Resume ? 2.Why Now ? 3.Why Simon?(They are very keen in listening about Diversity) 4.ST and LT Goals? 5.Any Specific Company ? 6.Tell me about a time when you worked with Cross functional team and what are your learnings ? 7.Anything you would want us to know ? 8.Any Questions for me?"

"This is by far the BEST interview I've had with any school! Simon really cares about the students and their reputation. My interview lasted for 35 mins with the Assistant Dean of Admissions. She was so lovely, upbeat, interested in me and my story. 1- Walk me through your resume and tell me about yourself 2- How do you see Simon fit in your short-term and long-term goals? 3- Why did you choose to apply to Simon? What about Simon excites you? 4- Tell me about a challenge you faced professionally? 5- What is your proudest achievement at work? 6- How do you feel about team collaboration? 7- Do you have any questions for me?"

"I had my interview with a member of the adcom. 1) Walk me through your resume 2) Why Simon 3) Short-term goals 4) Alternative goal 5) Written essay on "How do you handle challenges?" Overall, it was more like a conversation, rather than an interview. Lasted around 25 minutes."

"I had my interview with a member of the Admissions team. 1. Walk me through your background? 2. What is your short-term goal? 3. What's your alternative short-term goal? 4. Why MBA and why now? 5. What do you like about Simon? 6. Tell me about a cross-cultural experience you've had? 7. What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle it. This was the final major question and I was given 5 minutes to type my answer in the chat box. 8. Do you have questions for me?"

"Interviewer - Christina D (member of AdCom) Duration - Exactly 30 minutes. She mentioned that she had other interviews lined up. Very friendly interviewer and made me feel completely at ease. It was very conversational. 1. Could you tell me a bit about yourself? (walk me through your resume) 2. Why Simon? 3. Any international work experiences? personal or professional. What did you learn from it? 4. What is your leadership style? 5. About a time I failed Overall, no curveball questions."

"Interviewed with adcom. She was very nice, much of the beginning was me talking about my resume (I have very unusual work experience). She asked about my post MBA goals, working on a team, and international experience. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Following is a list of questions that I collected through GMATclub forum and used to prepare for my interview. 1) Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your resume. 2) Short Term /long-term goal. Any specific industry/companies/functions? What are some target companies you aspire to work in? 3) Why this is the right time for you to pursue MBA? (Why MBA, Why now) 4) Why do you want to come to Simon? / What about Simon makes it a good fit for you? 5) How will you contribute to Simon? 6) Which extracurriculars I would like to try? 7) What is your backup plan in case that plan doesn’t go as expected? 8) Have you had any experience of traveling internationally? If not do you have any experience across different cultures. / Travelled to other countries on work assignments. Do you have any international work experience? 9) Strength and weakness? 10) Tell me more about this experience you have mentioned in your resume./ Tell me about your time at your company. / Can you explain to me what you do in your current role and how does your day looks like? 11) Tell me about your hobbies. / What do you like to do outside of work? 12) Do you have any questions for me? I faced questions in line with the above list. Prepare with these questions and know your resume well. Make sure you ask questions to the interviewer that shows you have done your research and that you are very interested in Simon. Be confident and show your excitement for the program!"