Yale on-campus interview with second year students

I am a mainland Chinese applicant.  After I got the invitation on Dec 17th, I decided to fly to Yale specially for the interview.  I think it is a right decision, although it took a great effort.  I scheduled my interview on Jan 7th.  My interviewer was a charming second year students.  She was very nice and the overall interview was like a chat between friends.  Typical questions like:

- Why undergraduate school and major?

- Why first company?  (I had an architectual engineering background but worked for an automotive company after graduation, so she asked several why questions on that)

- Achievement, leadership, extracurricular stories

- Why MBA, why Yale (This is where I put my career goals in)

- Questions

At the end of the interview, she asked that if I were the general manager of GM, what suggestion I would give to the CEO.  She said she was just out of curiosity, while I think it was a good question.  Fortunately, I prepared a very good answer and she smiled.

I felt relax all along the interview.  I think Yale is a very people-oriented school.  The adcom were very nice at reception and my interviewer kept smiling all the way through the talk, which helped me to release anxiety a lot. 

I was so lucky to have iammad support.  Before I went to New Haven, he called me for almost one hour for mock interview.  When we met, he showed me around Yale and shared with me lots of insight that I could also utilize in the interview.  What's more, he invited me for a supper dinner at his favorite Thai restaurant!  Thank you very much!

A few suggestions to other applicants:

- Show your strong interest about the school.  Talk as much as possible to alumni, current students and adcom.  The more you know about the school, the more you can show your passion via the interview.

- If time and money allow, visit the campus.  That's help so much to get a feeling of the program and the people.  Anyway, you gonna spend a big investment and two years of your life there, so I think it worth.

- You should be able to explain every transitions of your life and your choice.  Ask yourself WHY, on all academic, professional and personal issues.

- Be yourself and keep smiling.

Luckily, I got admission 10 days after my interview

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