| Just returned from a trip to Philly and had an on-campus interview this afternoon. Overall, the interview went very smoothly, because the question set the interviewer prepared for me were very standard. No surprise or behavior questions asked.
-Walk through your resume -Why MBA? -Why Now? -Why Wharton? -Your long and short term goals -How Wharton will prepare you for your goals -What can you contribute to Wharton. -What do you do outside your work? -What other schools did you apply? (I told him I applied for 4 schools in total, but he didn't ask which other ones. It was a little strange.) .....
There are a few other questions which I can't quite remember now but they were very standard questions. The conversation was very casual and informal. Because it was Friday afternoon, I felt the interviewer (a second year student) was a little tired and he yawned a couple of times - I think he probably partied too much on Thursday evening and it was definitely not because of me. :-)
There are a few tips I would like to share with my fellow comrades: - Visiting classes will not only help you get a feel of the Wharton class settings, its students and faculties, it also provide you with some common topics with the interviewer. I signed up an elective class, Venture capital and Finance innovation. Most of the students are 2rd year students. The interviewer happened to be in that class. During the interview, I told him that I was totally lost and didn't follow the lecturer's highly quantitative analysis. He commented: I don't blame you. I didn't understand it neither. So we cracked a few jokes about the class. My point is that we should always find every opportunity to build a conversation with the interviewer - visiting class is one way to help with it.
-Before the interview (Friday afternoon 2:15pm), I got there at around 1. I checked in at the front desk, signed in, and submitted my resume to the assistant. And I asked the assistant if my interviewer has been assigned yet. She told me yes. So I asked if it is possible that she can let me know who that would be. She was nice enough to give me a business card of my interviewer. So basically I went to the second floor and used a public computer to google the interviewer's background, which helped my interview a little bit, making it less "blind", at least for my side. I highly recommend to try this "trick" if you are going to do an on-campus interview. Every little bit help, isn't it?
Some other observations: -Parking condition there is horrible. Try meters first ($1/hour, maximum 3 h). If no meter, there is a garage right beside the Huntsman's Hall but very expensive, $8 for the first one hour, and $2 for every extra hour. In any case, public transportation is very good in philly so next time if i need go there, I probably will take a train and go to the campus by taxi. -Wharton students are very down-to-the-earth. I had a great time talking with some chinese students there. Thanks SH, CX, and LD. I appreciate your help.
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