Yale MBA Round 2 / On-campus (March 5th, 2010)
To begin with, let me just say that I highly recommend checking the daily schedule of events that SOM plans for interview invitees before you schedule your interview (I unfortunately scheduled my interview in such a way that I missed two events I wanted to go to).
The interview itself was very similar to what's mentioned earlier. I met my interviewer downstairs in the admissions lobby and he took me to a small interview room where we sat across from each other with no table between us. He then proceeded to tell me about his background.
After that, we spent the majority of time discussing my resume. I started off describing my background and lead into talking about my internships. Along the way I was asked why I chose my undergraduate school, why I chose my internships, and why I chose my first job. Next, he asked about other parts of my resume ("talk about extracurricular X"). I spent a good amount of time detailing what kind of things each of my activities were and how much time I spent on them and how those activities have lead to things I do post-college. After this, I was asked to talk about my "best" team leadership experience.
Then, I was asked why I'm doing an MBA and why I want to attend Yale and where I see myself 5 and 20 years down the line. Lastly, I was asked what questions I have (I ended up asking about job prospects, how the economy has effected programs at SOM, and more information about my interviewers background since we had a similar profile).
Overall Vibe: I think the interview went well. For about the first 3/4 I felt he was trying to be intimidating, but I think we connected towards the end when we started talking about startup ideas (both of us were very interested in entrepreneurship).
My recommendations:
If you are arriving on campus/in New Haven the day of the interview, schedule it later in the day so you get a chance to go to class, take a campus tour, and talk to students before the interview. (Though this probably isn't a good idea if you are the nervous type)
Be ready to drill into details on the "Why Yale"
Don't BS. The person you are talking to is a student who came from a similar position as you did. I had quit my job (for good reasons) and was almost afraid to say it because I didn't want to show immaturity, but the interviewer was very understanding of my line of reasoning for quitting.
Be ready to answer "Why or How" to everything you say (especially the more general things like "I think I am very good at X" or "I think X situation shows that I'm good at Y" |
