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[分享]wharton interview anecdotes - 1

[日期:2005-01-26] 来源:ChaseDream论坛 作者:netghost [字体: ]

Why Wharton/ Why now/ Ever disagreed with my manager/ Ethical dilemma/ What other career path I would have chosen if back 10 years/

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I had my interview for the first round. It is blind, all they see is your resume, so be prepared to talk about it. Also be prepared to talk about leadership, and more importantly, teamwork examples. Also this question is guaranteed: in looking at your application, what would the admissions committee be most concerned about?

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Alumni interviews are basically the same as 2nd year student and adcomm interviews--at least in terms of the questions asked. However, from my personal experience and from what I have read in this forum, alumni interviews seem to last a bit longer than 2nd year or adcomm interviews.  Perhaps that's because interviews are not lined up back to back and it's a bit less formal.

I had two interviews--one for Lauder and one for Wharton.  My Lauder interview actually went a lot longer than typical.  Both interviews are pretty similar and very relaxed.  As many others have posted, typical questions include:

1. Walk me through your resume, starting with your choice of college.
2. Why MBA, why Wharton.
3. What can you contribute to Wharton.
4. Describe the real you outside of work.
5. How would others describe you.
6. I indicated that I'm interested in pursuing a career in technology, so my interviewer asked my opinion on what is the future trend in technology.

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Just did my interview yesterday with adcomm in London.  The McKinsey offices there are pretty sweet.  No big surprises:

  1. Why did you go to school x, why did you major in underwater basket weaving?
  2. What kind of things did you do outside of class in college?
  3. How did you move to each of your jobs, and why?
  4. How would your friends describe you?
  5. what do you do outside of work?
  6. What do you get out of your extracurricular activities, in terms of personal development? (this was the only one that caused me some trouble, but I should have been ready for it)
  7. What will an MBA do for you?
  8. Why did you decide to apply to Wharton?
  9. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you were expecting to be asked?
  10. What do you see as the biggest weakness in your application?
  11. What questions do you have for me?
  12. What was Carol Brady's maiden name?  (fortunately I watched a lot of Brady Bunch, so I knew this one)

My only advice is to have a real strong idea of what your take-aways are for the interviewer, and make sure you hit them, whether you're asked a direct question about them or not.  The 30 minutes goes by really quickly.  The adcomm was obviously a skilled interviewer and kept the discussion tight and focused, so I felt I had time to hit all my main points.

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I had my interview with an adcom yesterday. It was very rushed as others have posted. They were running late as I was called in later than my time. I basically walked him through my resume starting with my UG and G schools. Then my jobs describing how I have progressed. I have about 8 yrs of experience so it took sometime. But I answered the Why MBA? Why Now? Why Wharton? questions without being asked during the resume walk-through. Since it appeared that we were running out of time, he asked me if I wanted to address anything specific. I had couple of "weaknesses" in my application which I wanted to discuss. So I took the opportunity to do that. Then when I asked him if he would like to ask any questions, he basically told me that I had done a good job of presenting my case and there are really no other questions.

It was strange interview in the sense he seemed rushed yet very polite to let me do the talking and not ask any questions. I believe I probably didn't get full 30 min, maybe I got 25 but I could be wrong. The overall impression I got was that either I was already "in" and so he was thinking "you're in, let me move onto next guy" or the exact opposite, like "I want to throw your application in the trash right now, so let's move on"! :-)

For what it's worth, my stats are 730 GMAT, 8 yrs WE in technology

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Well, this thread has died down, but for those who still have it marked as “high interest” as well as for the benefit of next year’s prospectives, I will post my Wharton interview experience (Note: this was my second visit to campus, so please read post from mid-November for references to just visiting the campus.)

I arrived in Philly mid afternoon on Monday the 18th.  As the weather was nice and classes were wrapping up for the day, I walked over to the campus (I was staying at the Inn at Penn) to see what was going on.  While walking into Vance Hall, I ran into a couple of first years that I had met prior and talked with them for a while (I had kept up e-mail correspondence with them between November and Feb.)  As one of them had about an hour and a half to kill, we decided to grab a cup of coffee and talk about Wharton.  I basically barraged her with questions about Wharton - her first semester, what she liked, what she would change, pros/cons, Huntsman Hall, recruiting, interning, class schedule, time schedule, etc (she has been a wealth of info.)   One thing that I have to say is that every student that I met at Wharton was more than willing to go out of their way to help, share their experiences, and answer any question in a straight-forward way (kudos to the W students as well as to the Adcomm – who run as transparent a process as possible.)  I noted the same thing from my November visit – for such a relatively large program; Wharton does an incredible job at giving itself a personal feel and making the application process as enjoyable as it could be!! ;-)  After coffee, I grabbed a bite to eat for dinner (New Deck Tavern??), and then headed back to my room to read over my app. and look at some questions for the following day.

Tuesday the 19th.  Got up and grabbed some breakfast at the street vendors outside of the UPenn campus.  For those who have not been, you have to eat at these stands.  The food is great and unbelievably cheap – bananas are a quarter ($0.25), breakfast sandwiches are about a buck ($1.00), and bottled waters are a buck ($1.00) – fantastic.  Anyway, a couple of minutes before 9:00, I met up with another first year that I had met from my first visit and I went to class with him – “Government and the Legal Environment of Business.”  The class was very interesting – discussing antitrust issues with the focus being on the Microsoft case as well as AOL/Time Warner.  Both the professor and the students were great – good conversation and points brought about throughout the discussion.  The professor was very cool, and I believe he used to be the head economist at the FCC.  Next, I went to a Finance Class that was really more of an Economics class.  Lecture format, but the professor was fantastic – witty, funny, and really jazzed up the topic well (I mean come on…as much as he could for lecturing on Productivity Growth and Price indexes!)  While I did not go to the second class with my first year host, I spoke with several students that were helpful, great at answering my questions, and passed along cards to drop them a line if I had any follow-up questions.  After the second class, I had a meeting with the head of a not-for-profit (not a student) that is run in conjunction with Wharton and UPenn (talking about his Program, how its run, ho it got started, goal of the program, etc.) - this lasted all the way up until my interview.  Around 1:30, I came down to the admissions office and took a seat in the waiting room, where there were several other candidates that were either visiting or interviewing.  When my interviewer was ready, he came out and called me in.  All-in-all, the interview experience was pleasant, very conversational, and last about 35 minutes (nothing to get stressed out about!)  While I provided the interviewer with a copy of my resume (for those who do not know, the interview is blind), he looked it over briefly and then slid it underneath his other sheets of paper and never took it back out.  The next half hour was mainly spent talking about my career, goals, interests, other activities, and a time for me to ask him questions.  The conversation flowed smoothly, with the interviewer speaking a decent amount of the time and with me speaking a decent amount of the time.  Questions and topics ranged from my current career goals to the books that I am currently reading or have read to extracurricular activities and community service.  Biggest “interview” question seemed to be the “What is the one thing in your application that the adcomm might find worrisome?”  Basically, I felt that this was an opportunity to address either a problem in my application or to further expand upon a point that may not have been made clear enough in the paper application - rather interesting question considering that the interviewer has not ever read the application.  After the interview was over, my interviewer walked me out to the lobby, wished me well, gave me his card and told me to drop him an e-mail if I had any further questions.  That was pretty much it.

So, at the end of it all, I feel relatively decent (as much as you can with a 20-25% chance!! ;-))  The only item that could potentially hurt was that the interview was sooo conversational – not sure if that is considered to be a positive or a negative.  Either way, I gave it my best shot and we will see what March 28th has in store.  Good luck to those that are still left to interview (second or third round) as well as to those who are interested in visiting Wharton this year or next.

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I am an applicant from Australia and had my phone interview with an adcomm member named May this morning (Saturday 8am) - which was Friday 4pm EST.
I am not a morning person and obviously a phone interview is much tougher than a face-to-face interview (I believe) so I am not too happy with how it went (especially since I didn't spend much time preparing for it). Here is my synopsis anyway.
She was a bit cold and snappy throughout the whole interview and talked for about 5% of the time, with me babbling for the rest of it.

The questions she asked me were (almomst exact words):

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Why MBA?
3. Why Wharton?
4. How would your workmates describe you?
5. What is your most significant development need?
6. After your two years at Wharton, what would your classmates remember you by?
7. What is the greatest weakness in your application?
8. What are your plans after getting a Wharton MBA?
9. What do you do outside of work?
10. Do you have any questions for me?

I think I was a little verbose and it's tough to get your thoughts organized when you can't see the other person's reaction. My weakest part, though, was the questions I asked her. My first question was "What opportunities does Wharton provide to develop future managers in light of globalization?" My aim was to get her to explain some of the programs in place (INSEAD alliance, Global Immersion Program) - but she thought I was implying that Wharton was merely a "US School" - not good for me as it indicates that I did not do my research properly and didn't take Wharton seriously. I should have asked more specific questions and I think she was a little annoyed at the generality of my questions.

On the whole, it didn't feel comfortable at all until right at the end when she said "What time is it over there?" and I managed to crack a light joke. Damn nervewracking stuff. I hope the interview is not the critical part in evaluating the application...

Does anyone know how the whole process works, and what happens from here-on-in?

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Had my on-campus interview last week  and just sharing my experience for those waiting for the final week of interviews.
Interviewer was rushed, I probably got 25 minutes despite early morning interview. Good thing was that I was told that I would be asked 15 qs. in 30 mins, so I was prepared. Keep the answers short or you'll lose them.

Started with a read of my resume. Why undergrad? Why present job? On the job progression. Reasons for intervening jobs. Why MBA? Why Now? Why Wharton? What do I do outside work? What would I do at Wharton outside academics?  How do my friends see me? What do I feel is the weakness in the app? Time flies and the bell rings, after you've asked your customary question from the interviewer.

I was told that the interview is another data point. the student readers read the app and sort out the application into two piles. The top ones get into the interview stage. The interviewer adds his rating to the app and it is finally read once again by the adcom. More than 8,000 apps in the first two rounds!!

Attend classes, gives a good idea of the culture. Very friendly and relaxed as expected. not the stressed out, time pressured guys at Harvard. Professors involve students and keep them on their toes. The most important difference between Wharton and the other schools: student government. Administration listens to students and that's what makes Wharton dynamic and responsive. In short, I loved the place and am sure so will most of you. Philly also gave me a sense of community and I guess I did not find the West Philly area as too intimidating (despite the reputation). Some good multi-ethnic restaurants in the neighborhood.

For those outside the city: recommend the Inn at Penn: expensive, but 90 seconds walk. Other option is Sheraton University city hotel. Aprox. $ 90/day. Five minute walk.

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