Darden MBA面试汇报(3-5)

，奉上Darden的MBA面试。

AD com的电话面试，1个小时的时间，开场白相互寒暄过后，她简单的介绍了一下申请流程。说我的case由两个人看过后觉得还不错，就给了interview，然后她说从你小时候，到大学，到现在tell me your story；然后说一下Why Darden，Why MBA，Goals。

剩下的就是我一个劲的说，她会在她感兴趣的地方打断，跟你有所交流。没有问太多成就，就是聊天。

问了两个问题：
1、DPA
2、R1录了接近10个会不会影响R2的录取，她说不会，R3也有机会。

她告诉我从现在开始是我最难的阶段了：waiting..........我说：yes， 我知道了。

1月04日 上海 11：30-1：30 Darden

面的是Darden。正如很多朋友说的，Darden是没什么规律可循的，所以我想这也是大家为什么一直没写面经的结果吧。只是根据面试官的个人风格走着看。我了解一下，大概都是神聊。不过好的就是我和面试官一起吃了午饭，结果啥也没吃饱...不过最后他买单，哈哈。说实在话，没什么问题，大致涉及的话题我知道大概有创业，旅游，文化差异，还有我这聊了点童年经历对一个成年人的影响，还有聊了喝酒(哎...这个形象不好...)

据说主要是看personality，我觉得只要不是很shy，英文OK，喜欢分享的人，应该没什么问题吧。呵呵。我知道的申请的人，都拿到offer了。

祝大家都好运。祝来年的新一辈也好运。

Darden MBA R2 Adcom Skype Interview 面经

趁热打铁，新鲜出炉，刚刚结束Darden的Intervew with AD in Darden. 40分钟整。

1) Typical questions tell me your story （your family, your undergraduate major, your career progress etc）
2) Why MBA
3) Why Darden
4) Contribution to Darden
5) Community Services
6) Q&A

AD最后一直在说case study 希望每个人contribute ideas, exchange thoughts，有人不喜欢发言，不喜欢与人讨论、分享等等，估计Darden喜欢的学生是will to share and collaborative,于是补充说我们公司经常培训，就用的是case study，我很喜欢case study啥的。

Darden Alumni Interview @ 台北
I had an alumni interview with a Korean alumna in Hotel Formosa in Taipei.

She is very nice and kind, keep smiling through all the interview.

The interview took 40 minutes, she even treat me a cup of orange juice..

Questions are very standard:

Please describe your career progress
Why MBA? Why Darden?
The biggest challenge you might face when you are in Darden
Greatest achievement at work
Regretful experience at work
Strengths/Weaknesses
Questions
Good Luck to myself

In @ Darden 和一点点面试经验
住的地方不能上网，今天早上才查看status。竟然被录取了！！

整个晚上，告诉自己要平常心，虽然还是辗转反侧。。。

当初sonia700分被录取的经历让我觉得Darden是一所不以分数论英雄的学校，因为我也只有700分。

申请的第一个学校，essay其实写得并不是最好，好在Darden的essay要求不高，加到一起才1000来字。所以，要狠狠地感谢我的面试官，应该是面试给自己加了很多分。

但是，面试的过程比我想象得简单很多。据说Darden的面试会叫你讲life story。但是我的面试官上来就问我why MBA然后是Why Darden。回想起来，她问过的问题只有这两个。眼见着面试只过去了20分钟，她就叫我问问题了。

与众不同的是，我们的面试真的是一场聊天，就像我参加的一场information session后与alumni的Q&A。所以，我很放松的问起她在学校的经历等等。Q&A用了也有20多分钟，聊了这么久，要感谢面试官的耐心与真诚，也幸亏我对Darden做了足够的研究。

没有任何teamwork,leadership,challenge,failure。。。问题，竟然也没有Darden经典的life story。但是面试之后的感觉是两个字：尽兴。

这应该是一次非典型的面试吧。或许原因之一是，我和面试官来自同一个行业。

如果说面试是成功的，我有两个心得：

面试前，我用一个晚上，写了自己的一个小传，非常简单，从小学写起，写那些对我的成长有影响的点点滴滴，写父母对我的影响与教育，写每一个选择后面的动机。写过之后，确实觉得有一点豁然开朗的感觉。
面试时，与面试官保持平等对话，想象成是朋友间的一场对话。
大年初四，看了一场电影Slumdog Millionnaire，就像电影最后的字幕：It is written，所以如果尽力了，随缘就好。不管成与败，都这样安慰自己。。。

G700/iBT105/BS and MS from a top University in Shanghai/2.5 years oilfield engineering/2 years consulting/some international working experience/some community service experience

Round 2 / 2nd Year Student (Published April 2nd, 2010)

The interviewer said I would have about 30 minutes to "Tell me your story, you can start from wherever you want, high school, college, your choice" He said he would chime in with questions every so often but after 30 minutes he would have some additional questions. It was very relaxed, more like a conversation than an interview. My advice would be to make sure to get through the early part of the story pretty quickly because my interviewer asked a lot of questions and I had to shorten the second half of my story because of it. After he asked the basics:

Why MBA?
Why Darden?
Why now?
Goals?

Round 2 (Published March 10th, 2010)

Tell me about yourself. I want to get to know you.

Very informal and conversational (most conversational by far!!! of 7 interviews I completed)

Round 2 / Adcom / Video Skype (Published March 8th, 2010)

The interview was blind (i.e. the interviewer had not seen my application), and was conducted by Kathy Grant, the Assistant Director of Admissions. As mentioned by several candidates, the interviewer simply asked me to "tell my story", but to hit points like Why I picked my undergraduate degree, Why an MBA, Why Darden, Why Now, and also asked to highlight issues of leadership.

The interview was quite informal and pleasant, and the interviewer seemed to be trying to gauge my personality more than my experiences. She asked very few follow up questions and obviously expected me mostly to lead the discussions.

She seemed to be genuinely interested in my experiences and travels, and was generally enthusiastic. Only time will tell.

Round 1 / Adcom / Telephonic (Published January 28th, 2010)

I applied to Darden in round 1. Got interview invite in last week of December. It was a telephonic interview with adcom on January 7th. It was a telephonic interview and it was very casual. Adcom interviewed me and it was a blind interview. Adcom had no access to my application or resume. As I was an international applicant, I was offered an telephonic interview.

There was only 1 main question - tell me your story. But the interviewer asked me to cover information about my childhood, my education, my jobs and why mba would make sense. Also touch upon why you made certain decisions in your life.

Be ready to give a 30 minute monologue. Practice a lot because there will be no hint from the interviewer regarding how you are proceeding. So you should be able to drive the interview in the right way. Be ready to show a great fit with Darden.

Round 2 / Adcom (Published February 26th, 2009)

I interviewed on 16 Feb. The interview was with an ADCOM member.

The only question was “tell me your story”. This is typically a 30-45 min interview and we are looking to get a better sense of who you are as an applicant. This leaves a whole lot of wiggle room in how you approach the question but this is the only “question” that was asked…everything else was guided based upon how you answered the question…From the 1st question in talking about myself I she asked about my major (why I picked it), why I thought I would be a good fit to the case study method, what my aspirations were after graduating. The interview took 35 min and left me about 10 min to ask questions (asked about how internships were filling up and how the economy has impacted the application numbers)….All in all I left and felt it was a really friendly, easy interview. It seemed very “stress free” and I definitely walked away confident in how it all turned out.

Round 1 / Off-campus / Alumni / Admitted! (Published February 25th, 2009)

I was told by alumni and friends to prepare well for the 20 minute monologue in response to 'tell me something about yourself' opening. While I was getting ready to embark on the monologue, the first question came from the most unexpected quarters of my resume. I was asked - 'What did you do differently that you were able to record highest sponsorship in your undergraduate festival'. My interviewer was as ex-Mckinsey Associate Principal and I guess he was adept at startling candidates.

I was thoroughly probed on the reasons for choosing a US business school over IIMs (India) which give equally good ROI. He wanted to see if I have a good enough reasons to invest a fortune in the US MBA education. I was able to convince through the argument of diverse class profile at Darden, compared to IIMs where more than 60% of class comprised of engineers.

I was then questioned on my experiences of leading teams on client projects and how I improved my team's performance. Here my interpersonal skills were thoroughly evaluated. I had sufficient content to appease the appetite. But a person who has had limited people interaction would have not fared well. Overall, almost 25% of the interview (~15 min) time was spent discussing my experiences with colleagues, clients and peers. One needs to prepare well for this section.

Finally, my interviewer spent around 10 minutes evaluating my business acumen (I guess he was validating my professional achievements). I was probed on some client projects (consulting). I was able to strike chord with the interviewer when I told him about my experiences of working in a restaurant. He also had similar experiences during his graduate education and we had lot to talk and laugh about. So if you have anything interesting or out of place to talk about, do not hesitate to share as it will make you stand apart.

Finally, I was able to improvise my questions based on my interviewer's background which I think was well appreciated. I asked him about his experiences of working in Consulting vis-a-vis Industry and his recommendations for me (I told him earlier that I would not pursue consulting after MBA).

Overall the interviewer was very friendly but with no-non sense demeanor. He had not read my essays and only had access to my resume prior to the interview.

I received admit, so I guess all went well. Good Luck!