HBS MBA R1 / Off-campus / Adcom
I had an interview for R1 with an admissions board officer for Harvard Business School. The interview was held in an office which had been rented for the interviews in a very convenient location in London.
The admissions board officer was a young woman who was very welcoming and at once made me feel at ease. She was very straight forward and informed me that the interview would be 30 minutes in length - she would interview me for 27 minutes and I would have the chance to ask questions in the last 3 minutes. The interview proceeded exactly in that manner. The nature of the questions were very specific (no general why business school, why Harvard types of questions) and it was clear that the admissions officer had gone through my application in detail. It was very important to have reviewed my application before hand and to have been able to substantiate all the examples and details which I had provided. The question themes that stood out during the interview were for leadership, teamwork, ability to take initiative, problem solving and being able to stand out amongst others.
In terms of specific questions that I recall these are some:
As you know there are many people applying from a finance background, why should we consider you vs. other candidates?
In essay 1, you mention you lead a team of people while working in India, please describe how you were able to execute this and what aspects you found difficult.
Why did you choose to major in X at your undergrad university?
Why have you chosen to you leave your job at this time?
Is there anything else that you haven't mentioned in your application that you would like to share at this time?
What are your plans before business school?
Who would you want to sit next to in your first year at HBS?
Also, I found it useful to insert anecdotes I knew about the school while answering more general questions to demonstrate I had done my research. |
