09年Wharton MBA interview面试精华汇总

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刚结束２００９的第三个面试，写点面经赞人品。办公室没有中文输入，用文写的，大家忍忍。
请大家给点鼓励！

Wharton
Introduction

My first invitation was from Wharton. I applied for R1 and received email
invitation around 10/23. Because I am in the southern U.S., I
scheduled an interview with an alumnus in my city. The interviewer has aneastern European last name.

The interview took place around mid-November at the alumnus’
office building. He has an EE PhD, and after Wharton, he is working for a MC company. We walked down to a coffee shop to do the interview there. It was very noisy. Bad for the interview.

Questions
Why MBA, LT/ST goals, Why Wharton, why now?
Tell a situation where you core value is compromised?
What is your understanding of leadership?
Have you visited Wharton before? Have you talked to any students?
Tell me your working experience.
Lessons

First of all, I should do the on-campus interview instead
since I had not visited the campus. This may let people think I did not have enough interests in the school.

The interviewer was tough and challenged several times when
I spoke. And some basic questions like” why do you need to learn leadership at Wharton?” I think MBA is all about leadership.
I did not believe he was friendly when he asked this question. He also
challenged other parts of my answers. Perhaps I should avoid him at the first place when I picked interviewer online. I should also be prepared for the worst case possible. Not every interviewer is friendly as the schools have claimed.The interviewer did not reply to the thank-you note.
Again, this was my first interview. I received rejection letter before Christmas.

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刚刚面好Wharton，上海校友面试的，这人一下午居然要面5个，比较无语。没约上hub，约了校友，发现校友也快变hub了，排队面。他反复说今年非常非常competitive。

没有很多常规的“说故事举例子”题目。个人感觉准备的时候再一次好好的想想到底怎么stand out，怎么differentiate，而不是只根据问题来准备。面试虽然是他问你答，但是你要尽量master，其实还是有很大空间展示自己的。（我没机会了，同志们继续冲）。

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沃顿面试

I thought I'd write something very briefly about the Wharton interview, since it seems many people just got invites.

1) Wharton interviews are blind. 面试官不会看过你的application.所以application的内容不单单可以说，而且还应该说（要不然他无法了解你申请商学院的目的，等）。他们唯一看到的是你面试时候交给他的简历。

2) The interviews will be about 30 minutes long. Adcom and 2nd year students on campus are strict on time, although alumni may take longer depending on themselves.

3) 无论是adcom, 2nd year students, 或者校友给你面试， all interviews are treated exactly the same. The three options are there just to make it convenient for you to schedule something. Similarly, don't worry about which alumni to choose- the recommendation of all alumni, whether just out of school or 10-20 years out, are treated with the same importance and respect.

4) About 30-40% of applicants are invited to interview, and then about 30-40% of interviewed applicants are accepted. If you were not interviewed you cannot be accepted. The interview is just taken as another data-point in your application. A good interview does not guarantee admission; a bad interview does not guarantee a Ding. This is as you may expect, given that it is a blind interview. The idea is that Wharton wants to know as much about you as possible: the recommendations tell us about you from a person who's worked with you; your essays tell us about you from your own perspective; and the interview tells us about you from the perspective of the first impression of someone who has just met you, but is closely associated with the school.

5) The interviews tend to be very standard, asking all the basic questions: walk me through your resume, why MBA, why Wharton, why now. They also might ask a few behavioural questions (tell me about a time when you failed... etc). But in general it is not designed to trick you, so this interview might be your easiest among all your business school applications!

6) Don't worry about bringing in videos, newspaper clips, etc. You should be able to communicate your achievements verbally.

7) Also don't worry about giving gifts, etc to the interviewer when done. A simple thank you email would suffice.

8) The date of the interview (whether early or late) does not matter. The interview will be conducted by someone who has never read your file, and will in all likelyhood the report will be read by someone else who did not interview you. Hence when you interviewed is not a factor at all.

9) On-campus interviews are conducted by 2nd year students. Hub interviews are conducted by adcom.

Updated to reflect new interview questions and answers..

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Wharton：

Q：为什么申请MBA？为什么申请Wharton？
A：在读Wharton之前我是做consulting，对于这个行业的人来说，工作了三五年
之后去读MBA可以称得上是一个typical career path，就我个人而言也是这样的，
工作了四年之后，我想要学点新的东西，想要有机会可以去了解一下其他的行业
和机会，这就是我选择读MBA的原因，至于为什么是选择Wharton，是因为我觉
得Wharton的finance和marketing，是一个非常全面的program，这刚好符合我个
人的期望。
我在读MBA之前也是做咨询的，我之所以在工作了三年之后选择去读MBA是因
为我发现几年工作下来，如果让我去领导一个小的team的话我是可以胜任的，但
是如果要进一步作为一个领导去带领一个大的团队的工作的话，就会有很大的困
难和挑战，我感觉在个人的管理和领导能力上需要有很大的提升，这就是我选择
去读MBA 的原因；至于为什么选择Wharton，一方面是因为Wharton的finance
很强，尽管我也是学经济出身，但是我之前在本科的专业是accounting，对于经济
的基本以及战略方面的内容并不是很清楚，这一方面Wharton可以给我有很大的
提升，另外一个很重要的原因是，在跟很多的名校的alumni接触的过程中，我发
现Wharton的alumni给我的感觉是最脚踏实地的，另外就是Wharton的学生非常
地diversified，对国际学生比较友好。

Q：Wharton是否非常看重申请人的international experienced，海外工作背景是
否会对申请有很大的帮助？
A：我个人的感觉是，海外工作背景是有所帮助的，但是如果没有海外工作经验也
并不意味着劣势，在我们这一届的中国学生中，很多学生都是完全没有海外工作
经验的。

Q：Wharton是否对re-applicant有偏好？
A：我个人认为Wharton对re-applicant是抱着欢迎的态度，我有一个朋友去年申
请Wharton没有成功，今年再申请的时候在round 1拿到了offer，我觉得Wharton
在某种程度上看重re-applicant的commitment。

Q：你觉得你成功被Wharton录取的原因是什么，你申请时候的优势是什么？
A：我的profile在MBA申请人中算是非常typical的，TOEFL是111，本科GPA86，
研究生的GPA是89，GMAT750，有三年的consulting工作经验，我感觉就背景而
言我的challenge是我的工作经验相对比较少只有三年，而且我的profile跟其他
consulting出身的人很多都很相似，比较难以做到differentiate出来，我认为这也是
我一开始被放进waiting list的原因，至于为什么最后会被成功录取，我个人是认
为我的整个application中不存在硬伤。

 
Q：如何申请Wharton的healthcare major？
A：在Wharton，healthcare是一个独立的major，在申请的时候，你会需要做两个
面试，一个是general MBA的面试，另外还要被healthcare的人面试。如果你想申
请healthcare major，那么你在申请MBA的时候就需要做好准备，因为跟general

MBA不同，申请general MBA项目的学生是在进入学校之后第二年才决定自己的
major的，而healthcare这个专业则是在之前就要决定。

Q：我被放进了waiting list中，我是否有必要寄supplementary？
A：我当时也是被放进waiting list中的，不过我并没有寄supplementary，因为学校
也有相关的规定不能寄，我个人认为寄多的东西是一种冒险的行为，因此并不建
议。但是当时学校给了一个on-line chat的机会，我在这次活动之后，给组织这次
活动的Thomas写了一个thanks mail，表示谢意；另外据我所知也有人在被放到
waiting list中之后做了campus visit之后也是成功被Wharton录取了的，去年被放
到waiting list之后被录取的总共有两个，round 1跟round 2各一个，round 1的是
一个男生，round 2的是我。

 
Q：Wharton会在多大程度上value那些有较长的管理工作经验但是本科学历较弱
的申请人？
A：首先要说明的就是，最终还是要看你整个的application，学校看的并不是单纯
的某一个点。但是跟HBS喜欢年轻学生的倾向相比，Wharton相对更喜欢有较多
工作经验的人，就我们班的学生背景看来，那些有较长的工作经验但是本科学历
较弱的人，跟那些本科经历非常突出而后只有较少工作经验的人，这两类人各占
是一半，但这只是一些显示结果的数字，并不能说明什么问题。

Q：Wharton的学生在读完MBA之后回中国的人多吗？
A：据我所知，大部分的中国学生在在读完MBA之后都是想要回到中国的，尤其
是现在，中国是最有发展前景的，有一部分人可能会先去香港工作一段时间，因
为那里的金融产业比较发达，但是就长期看来，大部分人都会希望在中国大陆发
展。

Q：Wharton的essay中有一篇是关于weakness的，那么我写在Essay中的
weakness，跟我的推荐人在推荐信中说提到的weakness是否需要match？
A：我认为你在essay中写到的weakness跟你的推荐人在推荐信中讲到的weakness
是不一定要match的，因为推荐人写推荐信是站在他立场从他的角度来看你，因
此如果他提到的东西跟你讲的不match那是完全可以理解的。但是如果你的推荐
人所讲的weakness刚好是你在essay中写到的strength，而他讲的strength却被你
写成是weakness，这就有问题了，这种情况是应该避免的。我的建议是你可以跟
你的推荐人坐下来好好的谈一谈，你可以跟他沟通一下，为他提供一些相关的信
息，也可以把你写的essay发给你的推荐人看一下，这么一来就可以避免一些不必
要的冲突，而且你也可以向他说明你希望他从哪几个方面来写你。我当时就把我
写的essay很早就发给我的推荐人看了，不过我这么做的目的主要是希望他能够利
用写推荐信的机会写一些我在写essay过程中没有机会写进去的东西。

Q：请比较一下在Wharton的学习强度跟做consulting的工作强度。
A：在时间上看来，两者是差不多的，但是性质却是不同的。做consulting尽管有
很大的工作强度，但是在走出工作后就是personal life的时间了，与工作完全无关，
但是在Wharton，你是很难把学习和personal life完全地分开来的；另外，做
consulting工作总是会有一个deadline在催，你会需要在deadline之前把工作出色
的完成，然而在Wharton，尽管也有deadline，比如考试或者是测验的时间，但是
这里面是有个人选择空间的，你会有机会选择你说想要的生活方式，尤其对于
MBA学生来说grade并不是最为重要的，除此之外，参加课外活动，做networking
等等也都是非常关键的；可以说在Wharton最大的challenge并不是学习或者是课
业本身的强度，真正的challenge是在于你会需要同时做很多件事情，但是工作时
不同，你只会被staff到一个项目中去，因此你只要集中精力去做完这件事情就可
以了，在Wharton，学会更好地时间管理是一个很大challenge，因为常常会有很多
的突发事件，如果你不善于管理时间，那么很有可能会错过很多很好的机会。当
然这也会是一种非常好的learning，你会从中学会如何更有效地管理你的时间，如
何在必要的时候做trade off。另外还值得一提的是，很多人在进Wharton都认为他
们已经很清楚自己未来想要做什么了，但是进入Wharton之后又不知道了，因为
Wharton所能够给你提供的机会和资源实在是太丰富了，这里的选择和诱惑实在是
太多了，因此对于个人而言，想要弄清楚自己想要什么也会是一个很大的
challenge，但是这同时也是非常关键的。

Q：你在Wharton读书以及申请的感受？
A：在进入Wharton之前，我跟很多人一样都只把Wharton看成是一说finance很
强的学校，但是进入Wharton之后我才发现，Wharton真的不仅是一个金融的学校，
而是提供了非常全面的general management教育。对于申请人，我最大的建议还是
be yourself，不要为了申请一个学校而去make up story，最重要的是要想清楚自己
究竟想要做什么。对于interview，我个人的体会是要展示自己personal，以免给人
的印象是你只是在把一些准备好的leadership的技巧和内容说出来而已。

 
Q：在Wharton，一天24小时都具体做些什么？
A：第一年跟第二年会有很大的不同，每个人也都在过不同的日子，总的感觉是时
间非常地不够用，每天都会有非常多的活动邀请你去参加，当然每天还要上课，
看case，组织或参加小组讨论，在recruiting season，还会需要去参加很多公司的
on-campus presentation，可能你还要私下找自己感兴趣的公司去做interview，除此
之外你还会需要参加各种club组织的很多的活动，有很多的networking的活动也
是你不想错过的。举个简单的例子，就单单是看case这一项就会占很多的时间，
即便你是英语的native speaker，真要把一个case完整地看完也会需要用3个小时
时间，更不用说我们国际学生，而很多时候一天会需要看超过三个case，但这个
时候你只能选择看最重要的case，另外的就只能放弃。因此大部分人的睡觉时间
是比较少的，而且课程压力还是比较大的，Wharton的考试要求也是相对比较严格
的。因此，在这种情况下，每天你都会有无数的事情需要做，你会感觉自己的

时间严重地不够用，如此一来，学会prioritize你的时间就显得非常关键了，还有
非常重要的一点就是你一定要清楚自己真正想要做的是什么，学会trade off。

Q：Wharton会不会把学生的academic表现disclose给公司？
A：对于这个问题，学校并没有相关的policy，而是由学生经过vote决定的，为了
保护学生，最终的结果是不把学生的academic表现disclose给公司。从学校的立
场看来，学校的观点是认为这是学生的personal property，因此应当由学生自己决
定disclose还是non-disclose。同时，这种不向公司透露学生成绩的做法也是为了
鼓励学生更多地把自己的时间和精力放在自己真正兴趣的事情上，而不是为了
recruiting或者是更好的成绩而去选那些更容易拿高分的课程。

Q：在Wharton有什么样的teamwork的经验？
A：我读MBA之前是做consulting的，因此本身就是在teamwork的氛围中工作，
但是不同的是在咨询公司的team中，我跟我的teammates往往都是一些非常相似
的人，我们在一起工作可以有非常高的效率。但是在Wharton的team中，却有很
大的不同，team的成员往往是来自非常diversified的背景，在刚开始的时候，我
常常非常痛苦的发现别人完全不明白我在说什么，teamwork的效率非常低，这使
得有时候我们不得不放弃，但是在这个过程中你会学会应该如何去跟不同的人合
作，我想这为我以后工作中去管理不同的人是会有很大的帮助的，这真的是一个
很大的学习过程。

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Wharton Alum interview Mar.7这么晚才面试上，估计能帮到的战友不多了。


在校友的办公室面的，比较能集中注意力。问了
－ walk thru yr resume
- career changes (跳过槽，问原因）
－Why MBA
- Why Wharton
－Career goals
- What will you contribute to wharton community
- Your understanding of Leadership
- Your strengths
- What are the three words your colleagues describe you
- How do you manage to achieve many things at the same time
- What do you think is the most important in life
－Questions for him
(最后两个问题说是out of curiosity问的，没怎么记录）


校友人很nice也很有insight，剩下的交给运气了。。。
祝大家好运！

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Wharton今年共申请了四所，现已面完三所，还等着Yale，还是申请得最认真的，怎么还没给面试呢。。。



从命中率来看，申请材料写得还算可以，但最近公司实在太忙，面对与金融危机的斗争，总觉得面试准备不足，sign...

明后天应该是Wharton Hub interview 的日子，先在这share下今天下午与Wharton alumni面试的情况，给明后天的战友们打打气。其他2个面经明后天继续发表



The 03' alumni is quite nice.似乎帮wharton面试好多年，但今天可能没怎么准备，问题如下：

1) Walk through your professional experience (似乎开场不确定该问什么，我就主动回答起了这个问题，呵呵）

2）Why did you choose current industry?

3) How do you select right person? ( related to my occupation)

4) How do you develop people

5) Case of facing conflict within team

6) what do you do in spare time

7) Anything else you want to tell me

8) Q&A

The interview lasted for around 40 minutes. 间或八卦闲聊了下生活.

God bless us!!

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Follow up on Wharton Interview Tips

Below are some discussion with other Whartonites about the application in general.

Q: Is Wharton looking for certain types of candidate?
A:No. Wharton is looking for good candidates in every industry. As Ialways say, if you have unique background/experience, you are likely tohave better chance to get in than typical consultants/bankers as a lotof them are applying and every school is trying to diversify itsstudent pool.

Response from Vickiyan, class of 08:

I would like to elaborate this point a little bit more:
I'm not quite sure that Wharton is looking for candidate in every industryintentionally, but I believe what Wharton is looking for are goodcandidates. No bias on the background, and I don't think the diversityis intentionally designed and picked out: good candidates happen to bespreading out in every industry. What impressed people most are alwaysthe personal qualities: achievements, solid skills (hard+soft) andpersonality.
For your reference.

Response from Jason, class of 10:

To elaborate even further, I'm not sure that there even exists a 'typical consultant/banker'. Everyone has had such a variety of experience, growing up in different places, attending different schools, and many have a lot of different jobs in addition to being a consultant/banker. Indeed, even within consulting/banking, there are so many ways to distinguish yourself, to seek out your own path, and etc. At the end of the day, what it really comes down to is who you are: which is why I'm always against someone using a 'profile' to determine whether he/she is suitable for a school. Indeed what is most important is not your profile, but the stories that you can tell about your life! For your reference as well

Response from myself:

Jason, it's great to see current student being active and help prospective students here on CD. Your background is impressive, too.
Let me elaborate more on what I meant about "typical consultant/banker." For consultant, if you join those big consulting firms right after college, it is a natural or sort of mandatory move to apply business school after 2 to 3 years of work because those big consulting firms need you to have a MBA degree to move up. Also for banker, even though you don’t need a MBA to be promoted from analyst to associate, many analysts tend to go to business school to 1) take a break 2) try something else after work 100+ hours per week for 3 years.

From my observation, 5-10 years ago, you can see many top b-school students with this type of “typical” background/experience”. 3 years in consulting/banking and then go to top b-school. However, I do see the percentage of this type of students is decreasing, especially for candidates with pure banking/consulting experience. Two main reasons:

1. Average age or years of working experience to enter business school becomes higher. (You are an extreme case which is very rare. The average age for class of 07 is 28.6 and average year of working experience is 6 years.) Understand HBS and Stanford started to look for young talents these years but you can see the average year of working experience is still higher than say 5 or 10 years ago. Having said that, people with 3 year pure banking/consulting experience need to try hard to persuade adcom to admit them.
2. Bankers and consultants are too busy to work on GMAT and application. Imaging if a person works till mid-night everyday, has almost no weekend and travel every week, it will be tough for him/her to focus on application and we both know MBA application is not just filling the forms.

However, from my perspective, consultants are at better position than bankers to apply business schools. Few reasons

1) The firm will prepare and sponsor them to go to business school. For Mckinsey, they have very comprehensive training and materials to help BAs to apply business school. Also their senior people all have MBAs and know the application process well.
2) Consultants tend to have more diversified working experience from and hours is not as crazy as bankers.
3) Many consulting firms have the policy “up or leave.” You need to have an MBA to move up.
4) Bankers were paid too well before. If you can earn +200K (USD) a year, spending 70K to go to business (a year) means your yearly opportunity cost is 270K.

I can’t agree more on there is no typical candidate/career path to promise you to get into top business school. The most important thing is you need to tell and persuade adcom why you need a MBA and why you.

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08第三面－Wharton （yeah）
中彩票了，中彩票了。居然在倒数第二天收到Invitation。本来都要不指望了。不过，负作用是on－campus的位置全满了。偶道听途说，说还会加on－campus的位置，迟迟没有schedule alumni interview，每天F5的频率可比刷CGX的干劲。结果adcom出来说不再发了。 最最郁闷的是，某天早上看到一 on－campus opening， 大喜，打电话给朋友，5 秒后，没了。。。我，我，，，我倒。
还好找的这个Alumni很快就回了email，人也nice， 大大牛一个，还抽时间出来面我。超赞一下。
Questions:
Why do you want to go back to school?
Why Wharton?
Basically walk through resume, Under, graduate study, work.
Failure experience.
What do you do at your leisure time?
总结，我比较喜欢找早毕业的人面，顺带可以学习下人家的career经历。这次总结了上回Columbia Alum 面的经验，一开始就conversational，比较好适应。
另外：听说今年Wharton广发interview，cover rate 有56％， 但最后只收17－18％。interviewee 中还要三选一，惨烈呀。。那句话，成事在天了。 呵呵。。

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面筋：wharton 3.1 hub interview shanghai
周六早上9点，俺是第一个面试的，进了会议室adcom officer marilyn就说：好像名单上被面试人是个韩国gg，你是谁啊？当时吓得我一身冷汗，赶紧把所有和interview相关的邮件都拿出来给她show, 她这才说，可能是招生办弄错了，直向我道歉，所以大家去面试的时候，一定带上相关邮件。
问题：
career progress and follow up questions
why MBA and follow up on why not a technical MA in the sector I am interested in
why now
cross cutural experiences, how to handle work relations with foreign colleagues, and how to lead in such an environment
what do you do outside of work including community service
how do you learn english
any question
因为是blind interview, 在整个面试过程中，面试官一直在laptop前不停的打字纪录，有两次面世官叫我hold on, 示意我慢下来，看来语速控制得还够好。
Marilyn 以前在经合组织的环境部门工作，因为俺的public sector背景和环保志向，问了俺你认不认识这个领域XX ，XX 和XX啊？我提到了一个环保组织，她问这组织头头叫啥名？我紧张得忘了，只好说回去查了告诉你。
星期五晚上飞到了上海，在酒店房间里伴着窗外呼啸的车流噪音挣扎了半宿，各位在外地面试的同学一定选一家服务好又安静的住处，睡眠不好会影响面试效果的。

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Wharton面经 2.29
今天下午的校友面试。运气实在是太好了，遇上一位特别愿意提携晚辈的老校友（岁数比较大，自己创业的）。
整个面试一个半小时，大概只有30分钟左右是在问一些standard questions. 不分顺序有：
1． Tell me about yourself
2． Why change jobs
3． Why MBA, why now
4． Why Wharton (he really want details for this question)
5． What do you want to get out of your MBA experience
6． Long-term, short-term goals
7． Team work experience and style (he gave me an example of a tough team situation, ask me how would I handle it)
8． How would you imagine your first 3 months at Wharton, what is on your top priorities
9． How would you allocate your time spent at Wharton
10. How many schools did you apply, why (he analyzed every school for me, then he reached the conclusion: Wharton is the best ^_^)
11. Community services
12．Last, I updated the recent change on my job responsibilities
大概有一小时都是在聊天，他告诉了我他的背景和经验，他喜欢Wharton什莫，不喜欢什莫。还给了我很多学习和工作上的建议：在Wharton上MBA成绩不是主要的，要建立network, learn to handle team environment, work & life balance, family is important (因为我告诉他今年Lg和我一起申请，但没拿到Wharton面试，他就很认真地和我讨论如果我去Wharton，Lg应该去那所学校，我们应该保持很好的communication…), 以我的背景应该申什莫summer intern, 以后在北京应该进那一行。。。他还告诉我，面试的时候一定要be yourself, 我如果说那些准备过的答案时，他一听就知道，而且不喜欢canned answer. 再次印证了不要背答案，要自然。
最后他说：Wish you and your family the best! Hope to see you in Beijing as a Wharton alumnus.
实在太感动了，遇上这麽热心的校友。觉得因为遇上了他，现在真地对Wharton印象太好了。觉得今天认识了这位校友，不管怎莫说这一趟都没白跑。