Admittted by Columbia J-term last Tuesday and finished Yale interview last Thursday. Share my 2 cents here. Hope it helps. Sorry I can't type Chinese in the office. 

My background is ok but definitely not super strong. But I only applied for top 5 schools+Yale. MBA is a serious investment, only the top tier school can justify your opportunity cost and financial risks. If I can make it, you will too.

GMAT 720/5.0, TOEFL waived, GPA: 3.8, China 非重点本科, US 2nd tier school graduate degree in economics/finance.

Reference:           1. How to get into the top MBA programs (very very good, even though the essays included are a bit lengthy, if you have time to read them through, writing a good essay will become a piece of cake).

                             2. Accepted.com and clearadmits.com (very good tips regarding essays tailored by each school's different requirement)

                             3.  65 HBS essys (good as a supplemental reading materials)

Tips: 1. Apply 1st round   

         2. Apply 3-5 schools and leave your favoriate at last (practices make perfect is such a truth. by the time you finish all your 5 schools, you will love writing essays!)

Columbia J-term:

Submitted 10.10, invited for interview 10/29, interviewed 11.3 (alumni), offered 11.6. I have 4 years experience in top tier IB. So the no-internship J-term suits my background the best. One of my recommender (trader I support, executive director) also graduate from CBS. Guess it helps a lot. My boyfriend is also a Columbia almuni.

I chose an American male alumni who works at a start-up. We scheduled a Saturday afternoon interview due to his intensive travel plan. We met at a Starbucks and kind of just chatting all the way through the interview. Questions he asked: 1. Why MBA, 2. Why now 3. Leadership experience 4. Ethical dilemma  5. Career goal after MBA 6. Why Columbia 7. Why my current employer

Yale:

Submitted 10.24, invited for interview 10/30, interviewed 11.8 (campus adcom). The interviewer is an Asian lady. The questions she asked : 1. why undergradute school  2. why MBA 3. Why Yale 4. Why now 5. Career goal 6. entrepreneurship experience 7. Leadership experience and how to handle difficult situation 8. Personal interests and hobby 8. questions.  We had a relaxed conversation and went over our time limits by almost 10 minutes.

After the interview I attended the CDO class by Prof. Fabbozi (I work in structured finance sector. This class is too good to miss). Personally I perfer case study and the lecture style is a bit boring to me though. Yale campus is very big and beautiful. It is only 1.5 hours away from New York City. Don't think it will be a problem for future job hunting.

Anyone has questions regarding CBS and Yale's interviews or applications, feel free to email me. Finger crossed for my application for Wharton, Stanford and HBS. All best wishes for us!!