Yale 校园面试经验

完成了Yale校园面试。面试官是个三年级学生(joint degree)，很友好。始终面带微笑。过程较轻松，聊天式的，主要涉及的有：

1. Why MBA

2. Why now

3. Career goal

4. Why Yale

没问什么leadership experience。但对我的简历很感兴趣，在里面找了几个问题，尤其是对我的业余爱好。总共用了45分钟。

面试完听了一节课，教授很风趣。我向他say hello, 他说，你很幸运，我刚刚已经上了一堂课了，练了一遍了。希望不会让你感觉boring.

现在就等结果了。有没有谁知道Yale会不会提前告诉你结果，还是非等到3月份的deadline才一块通知。

没有笔试，就是2人在一间小屋里，看来是设计用来专门面试用的，很小，只放在张圆桌，两把椅子。两人面对面坐。至于如何把面试变成聊天式的，我觉得一个在你，一个也在对方。我遇见的这位面试官很和气，使我放下了武装，另外你自己也可以边回答边提问，这样就显得轻松一点，不知这样对不对。我自己感觉还可以。

Yale 很漂亮，可能每个人感觉不一样吧，我不觉得楼有什么破，当然不是新楼，不过我不大喜欢新楼，那些很古老的建筑反而能引起我的兴趣。我觉得Yale是我心目中那种典型的西式学府的样子，很合我意。

I work temporarily in the US. I think Yale MBA is a very good program. Although its ranking is not so high, only ten-some (mainly due to its short history). It's still a rop ranking B school. The new first year curriculum is very practical. The biggest plus is when you join Yale SOM, you have the alumni network of the whole Yale. Bill Clinton, Hillary (maybe the next US President), Bush will all be your schoolmates. Think about that!

Yale on campus interview (+ Darden and Emory)

今天刚刚结束Yale的校园面试，，第一时间奉上面经。

2月11日晚抵达纽黑文，入住New Haven Hotel，99美元/晚（税后110.88美元），是Yale网上lodging list上最便宜的一家。

2月12日早10点抵达SOM招生办，办公室秘书先给我一张写有我名字的胸牌、一张当天课程安排表和一份SOM的宣传报，然后就等待面试。10点45份面试准时开始。一个二年级学生领我到二楼面试专用间，仅有一张小圆桌和两把椅子，总共问了5道问题：

1. What motivated you to choose your undergraduate major?

2. What motivated you to choose your job? (I didn’t change job after graduation.)

3. Why MBA?

4. Why Yale SOM?

5. What is the biggest challenge you face in your job?

我逐一回答，语速较快，他则不断记录。面试时间30分钟，我回答了27分钟，最后3分钟我提问。我提问的问题他答不上来，说可以稍后通过电子邮件给我答复。

面试结束后，一位教授给十几位来访的面试者简单介绍了Yale SOM的情况，大概20分钟。然后来了4位一年级的student host，教授离开。4位学生接着介绍基本情况，约10分钟，然后领着所有面试者参观SOM的campus。SOM校区很小，总共就4栋小楼，外表比较陈旧，但内部装潢和设施较新。然后领我们到SOM的学生食堂吃午饭（免费提供）。吃完后一年级学生离开，面试者分头行动，有的回招生办面试，有的开始旁听课。我由于时间充裕，接连听了两堂课，1点至2点20分和2点40分至5点，分别是advertising management和Business, Government & Globalization。感觉两堂课教授讲课均占95%的时间，学生有提问和回答，但非常简短，没有热烈的课堂讨论场面，使我在听第二节的课时昏昏欲睡。第二堂课教授挺幽默，讲课前和我打招呼，然后和同学们说“You should behave today. We have a visitor!”大家都笑了。

5点结束时回到招生办取行李，发现一位秘书在等我，说4点半招生办就下班了。我表示歉意。然后她给我叫出租车，说20分钟就到。我和她边等边聊，但直到5点40都没来。她又打了电话，才被告知不知什么原因前面订的出租车取消了，只好再订一回。6点我搭出租车离开，她也下班。我们俩是最后离开招生办的人，倒也蛮有意思。我对耽误她准时下班表示歉意，她毫不介意。

总体感觉Yale SOM的现在最大的宣传卖点就是其综合核心课程（integrated new core curriculum），学院显要位置都有宣传海报。遗憾的是我听的两堂课都是选修课，未能领略核心课程。但一起来面试的一位印度裔金融人士私下和我说，Yale的综合核心课程也有marketing的成份，其他商学院虽仍按照传统分科教学（finance, economics, accounting等），但也同等注重综合教学方式。本人没有商业背景，不敢妄加议论。就校园而言，SOM谈不上美丽。我自我感觉今天面试做得很好，如果有幸获得offer，我还是会很激动的。毕竟Yale的名气太大了，非常具有吸引力。

Darden MBA on Campus Interview (Dec, 2006)

顺便向大家简要介绍前两次面试经验，都是我主动要求的。第一次是去年12月中旬到Charlottesville进行了Darden的校园面试，气氛随和，友好。面试者是招生委成员，就问了常规的why mba, career goal, why darden等问题，但特别问了我的业余生活和爱好。

面试持续30分钟。Darden校园很美。中午校方安排了一位二年级学生和我午餐（在学生食堂吃了一只汉堡包），同时向我介绍darden的情况并回答问题。感觉Darden的学生都很热情。CD上的两位darden中国学生主动为我提供接送服务。那位二年级学生也主动把我送到火车站，令我很感动

Yale Hub in Beijing

Linda is a really nice lady.

1. where did you grow up and why your undergrade/major?

2. why the company?

3. why chose to be in the postion now?

4. greatest achievement?

5. what is you most proud of?

6. written test topic: where you want to travel and what do you want to do there?

Yale Adcom Beijing Hub Interview 面经

linda 同志是第一次来中国，感觉上不是很有经验的样子，偶都快成老太太了，她还问我关于本科的事情。

1. why did you choose your undergraduate school/subject

2. questions about why did you chose the positions/what you have achived (鉴于本人工作了11年，这个花了俺俩很多时间）

3. Why MBA

4. What you will do after graduatioin from Yale SOM

对了，还有一个笔试，变态题目：把我扔一荒岛上，只能够带一个人，一本音乐集，带谁，为什么？

说来有点郁闷，yale是唯一准备过的一所，但是却感觉一般呢。

Yale interview 經驗分享 (Feb 2007)

Had an interview with Yale admission officier in HK yesterday, and would like to share my experience here.

It's the first time the officier has been to Asia, so it's not a bad idea to start a conversation with her about the city and weather (CT was really cold right now). She is quite nice, asking me questions on my CV basically line by line, but nothing on my application essays at all. Here are some questions she asked.

1. why did you choose this university and major?

2. why do you work in this firm? reason for the resignation? ( I have worked for 3 companies since I graduated)

3. what did you do in each company? (and some follow-up questions)

4. career vision - long term and short term

5. what will you do after graduation?

This session is about 20 mins followed by a 5 min writing test. The topic of the writing test is "what's your favorite teacher / professor?" and then it comes to the Q&A. I asked 5 questions. The whole process is about 40mins.

Interviewees came for the meeting quite early!! just after I finished my writing test, I saw another candidate arrived already!
Good luck folks. It's not a difficult interview. I am sure you can get the job done!

Yale interview sharing

Shanghai, March 2, 2007

1. Why undergraduate school and why major?

2. Career progress

3. Speccific questions about my unique working experience

4. What's the most challenging part you face in entrepreneurial experience?

5. What's your greatest accomplishment?

6. Career goal

7. Why MBA, no Why Yale (I guess they don't want to hear so many same Why Yale)

8. Written test

9. Ask me any questions

Hope I and others can get into our dream school

any professor / teacher that you come across. You don't have any word limit. Mine is only a short essay with ~100 words.

My background is pretty normal. born in China, graduated from a uni in HK and working with a bank. 3 year working experience. GMAT > 700. didn't take TOFEL.
The interview lasts for 30 minutes

Written test: Required to write down a short essay in 5 miniutes

My topic is "What's your favorate place and why?" But you should expect different topics

Hope it helps.

Interview with Yale SOM

I am posting my interview experience with Yale

I went to Yale on Monday, toured the campus (the campus is actually a two-story U-shape cozy building). The lounge where students rest and socialize is a connector between the two wings of the building. It’s pretty nice, facing a beautiful lawn through an entire wall of glass windows. I also met several friendly Chinese students there. Most second year's secured ibank jobs in hk. A first year just got an intern at GS in hk. I am not sure if Mr. Yale is one of them.

Following that I went to lunch, paid by Yale. I was not impressed by the food though. There was a lunch-box vendor outside SOM building selling Thai food, which is a good thing! I also went to a class "advertising management". Not much different from the classes I attended at other university in the U.S. but the professor was more willing to give control to students.

Here comes the interview. The interviewer was a nice, pretty ABC girl (second year student). She told me upfront that due to the strict time limit (30minutes), she may interrupt me from time to time and that would not suggest she was not interested in my speech. She asked several standard questions:

1. Go through your resume

2. Why MBA

3. Why Yale SOM

4. What are the challenges you faced in your current work.

5. Since she is not familiar with my current industry (mostly analytical). She emphasized on my life outside work:

6. ersonal interests

7. Experience in organizing one of the conference type activities.

We had some interactions on the difference between Yale and other schools, namely Yale’s mission of educating leaders for the society. Of course we talked about the new curriculum.  She was very proud of both.

At about 20 minutes, she closed her notes and asked if I have questions for her. I used this opp to demonstrate that I had down my homework researching the school.

we finished in exactly 30 minutes and she greeted me mistakenly by "congratulations"! we both laughed at it and I joked "I hear that"

She sent me thank you notes before I even got the chance to thank her! Second years are used to send thank u notes, whichever her role is.

Overall, Yale is a different school than others. You want to research thoroughly and show your real interest and why that matters to you.

Just my two cents. Hope this helps.

Yale hub interview 08:30-09:00

1. self-introduction

2. why undergraduate school and why that major

3. why mba/why now/short-long-term goal/why Yale SOM

4. why started your company?

5. What's the marketing system and services that you provided to your clients

6. How many cofounders? the job discription of them and yours?

7. annual revenue and staff?

8. what's the challenge when you founded your company?

9. Discribe the development of your company in the last 6 years.

10. when you get up, what will make you feel passionate?

11. what's your hobbies?

12. written essay

13. ask her some question

Yale on-campus interview

我的好朋友昨天去了Yale，有幸见到了Mr. Yale，ONCAMPUS面试，并且听了一堂课。

朋友的背景是supply chain management，面试官是个2年级学生，对于这个领域完全没有了解，从non-profit出来的。面试时间exactly 30 minutes. 问题都是标准问题，大概包括：

• Why MBA

• Why Yale

• Why take ________ as your undergraduate

• Why supply chain management

• Why did you go to ________ for internship(undergraduate intern)

• Extracurrilular activities

我这个朋友写过书的，送了本他的书给面试官。

总得感觉比较中庸，因为是blind interview，而且对方完全不知道自己做过什么，所以交流没什么火花。

不求有功，但求无过吧。

祝他早日拿到offer

Yale面试准备

据悉，下周Yale会在北京和上海做hub interview。以前陆续谈过Yale面试问题，现在在强调一下，仅供参考。我第一轮是adcom的人在上海做的interview，问了如下问题：
1）Go through your past experience, including your choice of your undergraduate college;

2)why business education?

3) why Yale?

4) how to add to Yale's diversity?

5) internship plan;

6)你有什么需要问她的问题。

我提醒大家两个注意点：

1）别忽视了如何选择你的本科院校这个问题。这是个很有意思的问题。你必须回答的有逻辑。

2）绝对注意why yale。不要去一味鼓吹yale的non profit排名如何高，而一定要把why yale和你的career goal结合起来讲，这样比较有说服力。

另外，谈谈yale大学的一些东西，毕竟yale是世界名校。在谈到yale MBA的时候，千万别忘了05年7月新的dean上任后学校的一系列变化，尤其是accountability这个核心内容，这可是yale MBA以后的的主打方向，是它的核心理念。你一定要显示出你对耶鲁大学、耶鲁MBA非常详尽的了解，以及对这个学校的热情，虽说yale的MBA排名不如传统MBA牛校，但它毕竟是耶鲁，绝对不会迁就录取一个对耶鲁不感兴趣的人的。

当然，第二轮interview有可能问的问题会与我第一轮遇到的略有不同，大家好好准备吧。

Yale interview and the interviewer sucks

Did the Yale on campus interview in January. Not a favorable experience. Had been debating whether it is good to share. The other day I saw Coffeemug asked me for my Yale interview. Write it down anyway.

This is the interview that I mentioned in an interview summary post. I learned from this Yale on campus interview that even you do an on campus interview still the interviewer may bring in negative facter.

It was a second year student. Asian lady.
...

Q: What is your strength that you may bring into Yale?

A: ..Blah blah.

Q: I see. What is your weakness in teamwork?

A: I fit well into teamwork. I work well as a team leader and good team player. I feel comfortable in team environment.

Q: Do you mean you do not have a weakness?

A: Well I do not mean I do not have a weakness. But I think I fit in the teamwork.

Q: Anyone has a weakness. So you do not have one?

A:...

Q: It is Ok. Do not feel be pushed. If you think you do not have weakness I can just write that down.

A: Well, I really got a little bit confused. Could you please clarify a little bit?

Q: I asked you what strength you may bring into Yale. Now in the same token I am asking you what your weakness is?

A: But you mentioned the weakness in teamwork. Could you please give me a scenario so that I may put myself in?

Q: Say you are in a group. You have a paper due next Monday. This is a team work. Is there any weakness for you in such environment?

A: OK. I got the point. I think XXX may be a concern.

Q: OK. I do the same thing some times.

Q: I was supposed to give you time for asking questions. But it is now 30 minutes. We should cut off.

Q: If you have any question please send me email.

A: I will. Thank you.

I drove back to the hotel. Felt frustrated.

Anyway I understood that I needed to send a thank you note. I opened my web mail. There was an email from the interviewer waiting for me.

She thanked me for coming for interview. She said that she assumed that she answered all my concerns but if I have further questions I may send her an email.
While I was waiting in the ADCOM office I noticed that other applicants got 35 to 45 minutes. (each has different interviewer).

I do not think I bear chance for Yale anymore after the interview. You may always comment that I performed bad in the interview. But I believe that the interviewer directed the interview into wrong direction.

I understood that I post this one will not bring me anything good. (I kind of do not like the interviewer. But I do not think it will hurt the interviewer in any negative way either).

I just hope that this may help those who are preparing for their upcoming interview. Just be prepared anything could happen. And try to be prepared and be cool. We volunteered to get into this game. Whatever we need to face it.

Yale on-campus interview experiences

Interview is blind. In MBA Tour last year, YALE admission officer there also said that the interview questions would be very straight forward.

Thank testtech, cheeyong, yangrongxos, and everyone else for providing help.

Questions I was asked:

1.Go through your resume, about your work, why you go to xxx school, why you study xxxx....

2.Why you come to business school? Career goal? (not exactly the same words)

3.Why now?

4.Why yale?

5.What are the challenges in your job?

6.What would you boss describe you?

7.Tell me about your interests (I listed several of my interests on my resume)

8.What did you do during xxx, did you do anything interesting (There is a half year gap on my resume, that is why he asked)?

These are all I can remember. Hope it helps.

For those who travel to New Haven to conduct the interview or to visit campus without a rental car, I recommend Marriot Courtyard hotel. I payed ~$85 after tax for staying overa nite. Very nice room, right next to campus, about 10 minutes walking distance to SOM. You can find its phone number on SOM web site, check the rate and make a reservation. Do not forget to mention YALE SOM discount. This is the cheapest I can find among all other hotels on SOM list. Certainly if you have a rent car and plan to park on campus during the visit, you will have more options to live in a more economical hotel in town within a reasonable distance.

For those who plan to fly to New Haven direct, leave plenty of room for flight schedule changes. There are only US Airway jets commute to New Haven, and I can not say any good words about their services.

About half an hour. Within this half hour, he/she will leave ~5 minutes to let you ask questions.

The interviewer was a 2nd-year student, very nice. A little tense at the begining though, but we both relaxed a little bit as the conversation went.

I went to the visit center almost an hour early. While I was waiting in the office, I saw he already interviewed at least two other applicants. One 2-year stduent interviewer was late for some reasons, and then the admission director interviewed the applicant. I think majority of the applicants wwill be interviewed by 2nd year students.

many thanks!

it's not easy to collect so many interview experience since not many people can receive yale interview invitation.