Yale MBA Round 1 / Adcom / On-campus (February 10th, 2009)

nihong

I had a positive experience interviewing with a member of the Yale admissions committee. With my previous experiences (an interview at another school and a mock interview with a Yale student), I felt relatively prepared, and I think it helped me loosen up for my session. Though most of the reports I’ve read mentioned that 2nd year students held the interviews, I was scheduled during break time and mentally prepared for a member of the admissions committee. This turned out to be a good choice, as I did get an adcom member for my interview. The others waiting at my time slot had a student for their interview.

My interviewer was very relaxed and easygoing throughout, and that made me feel comfortable. I tried my best to do the same, smile, and not appear too uptight. That said, I did realize it was still a formal interview, and made sure to include as many key points as possible.

Questions given:

Small talk – where the interviewer was from, where I was from
What did you do in high school?
Why did you pick your college?
Tell me about your major and why you picked it.
What did you do after college?
So what are your goals?
Why an MBA?
Why a Yale MBA?
What will you do with your company while at Yale?
Any questions for me?
Though we were overtime by a few minutes, I was still allowed to ask a couple of questions.

I had a good feeling after this interview. Fortunately, it seems the admissions committee might have felt the same, and later I was thrilled to receive an acceptance from them.

My thoughts:

Yale specific – Based on my interview and what I’ve read of others, there’s a lot of focus on the “why” and choices made at every major point. I believe the purpose isn’t to see if you were a super star from the beginning of time, but rather to get an in-depth picture of what makes you tick. In my case, I hadn’t really done anything or found my way until the end of college. I let the interviewer know that, but I also tied it in with the progression of my story.
Yale specific – Sometimes, the questions “what would you do on campus/how would you contribute/how did you show leadership” don’t get asked, so be prepared your most important points from these questions into other answers. Most likely, they would fit under the “tell me about your career” and “why Yale” questions.
General - Keep it like a conversation. Yes, I read this one a million times, but until I had both interviews, I didn’t know how to distinguish the two. In my first interview, I had prepared so much that my answers were like water bursting through a dam – a bit overwhelming and definitely going one way. At my Yale interview, I made sure to take some pauses, occasionally confirm a question from the interviewer, ask my questions based on what the interviewed talked about, and in general, tried to engage the interviewer as a person instead of as an audience.
General – I had 30 minutes in my mind, but I had no idea how short it really is until it was over. Considering the standard question and answer period is 3-5 minutes, it can even be shorter. I shortened the answers to my major questions to about 2-3 minutes, and my other answers to about a minute.