myice

Round 3 / On-campus / Second-year Student (Published April 10th, 2010)

While Fuqua stresses that their interviews are about finding "fit" and most interviewees reported very conversational interviews, mine felt more like an interrogation with very specific questions and little chit-chat in between.

Tell me about yourself.
What do you plan on getting out of your MBA?
What kinds of personal growth are you looking for in business school? (Apparently teamwork and leadership are personal and not professional?)
Why Duke?
Tell me about a time when you were on a team and one person wasn't pulling their weight. What did you do?
Tell me about a time when you quit something.
Tell me about a time when you changed someone's mind.
Tell me about a time when you faced conflict in a team.
Tell me about a time when you created a pivotal change in your organization. What specifically did you do?
What did you do to create cultural change?
3 strengths and 3 weaknesses
In Fuqua's defense, every other interaction I had with current students was positive. They are friendly, eager to chat about their experiences, and truly seem to love the school. I just got unlucky with my interview match.

RESULT: Wait listed April 22nd 2010

myice

Round 2 (Published March 10th, 2010)

Walk me through your resume
Long Term/Short Term Goals
Why MBA
Why Now
Why Duke
Tell me about the type of leader you are
If you can't look for the good, what do you do in difficult situations?
What would you look for in a team (specifically learning team)?
How do you deal with conflict?

myice

Round 2 / On-campus / 2nd Year Student (Published February 16th, 2010)

Attend the tour earlier in the day and had an interview with a second year student in the afternoon. Very straightforward.

Walk through resume.
Why MBA?
Why now?
Why Fuqua?
What does diversity mean to you?
Challenges with a team?
What is one thing you are proud of?
All in all, I thought we had great rapport, but I probably talked too much. Best of luck everyone!

myice

Round 2 / Off-campus / Alumni (Published February 16th, 2010)

Duke interview was very straightforward -- he asked me to walk him through my resume, so i started with my decision to attend Brown and then each job and how this progression has led me to apply to b school and specifically to Duke. i guess that covered his 1-why an mba and 2-why duke

Other questions:

"how i can contribute to duke based on my college experience and work experience"
"tell me something people dont know about you"
"what would your boss say about you (or what would your friends say)"
Then i asked him two questions of my own and the hour was up.

myice

Round 2 / Off-campus / Alumni (Published February 16th, 2010)

I met Fuqua Alum class of 95 at his offices in Bangalore. Blind alum interview. Alum only had a copy of my resume.

Tell something about your family background?
Why MBA?
Why now?
Why Fuqua?
How will you contribute at Fuqua?
What does leadership mean to you?
Examples of leadership experiences?
When did you fail as a leader?
Failure as a team?
Undergrad experiences- what motivated me to get involved in those experiences?
What is one thing you are proud of?
What other schools have you applied to? Prioritise them, give reasons.
How will you explain your job to a 6 year old?
It was a very relaxed interview. Very conversational. The alum was pretty friendly and very passionate about Fuqua. The famed 'Team Fuqua' spirit was very evident in his flexible and accommodating behavior throughout the scheduling of the interview and in the actual itnerview itself.. He was extremely nice and it made my resolve to goto Fuqua much stronger if they have people like him!

myice

Early Action / Off-campus / Alumni (Published December 21st, 2009)

My interview was conducted at Duke’s offices in Fleet Street, London. I was told by admissions to show up at 7:30am for registration and an alumni reception. Unfortunately, no Duke staff/alums arrived until approx. 9am so I and the other applicants had to wait outside the main entrance for 1.5hrs. Apparently, the interviewers were instructed by admissions to arrive at 9am. Approx. a week after my interview I received an apology (read: letter) and gift from admissions (a Fuqua paper clip) for the mishap.

Apart from this glitch I thought the atmosphere was enjoyable once we arrived in the office. There were around 7 or so applicants and 3 alums, two of who conducted the interviews while one alum was tasked to entertain us. I got to know some of my fellow applicants and exchange contact details.

The interview was blind and conducted by a Class of 2007 alum who had read my resume the day before. He was a snr. manager working for a large US firm in London. The interview lasted for 45 minutes in total with 15 minutes set aside for me to ask questions. My interviewer made it clear at the beginning of the interview that he was not allowed to provide feedback and that he wouldn’t be able to keep eye contact because he was planning on writing lots of notes.

List of interview questions:

Tell me about a story/headline you recently read in the news that has impacted you personally or professionally
Explain your role in teams
How would you explain your job to a 6-year old?
Tell me about an important goal/accomplishment that you have achieved in life
If you were working for a consumer products company and were about to launch a spaghetti product in France who are the 5 people you would include in your team and what are the skills you would be looking for and why?
Why Duke?
Tell me about your career goals after business school
Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict at work
What would you do if you were working with a team member who didn’t cooperate
What are the three things your best friend would say about you?
If your best friend had to tell me a story about you, what would he say?
Is there anything else you would like to tell the admissions committee?
I have to admit I was caught off guard by some of the oddball questions because I had mostly prepared for situational questions (i.e. what would you do if a coworker….blabla). A friend of mine works at Fuqua and advised me that there would be lots of situational questions but there were very few of them. My advice is to prepare for a wide range of questions, but specifically pay attention to the ones listed above.

I was impressed by the alums I met and the diverse (read: international) student body that Duke attracts.

Result: Waitlisted

myice

Round 2 / On-campus / Adcom (Published February 23rd, 2009)

I interviewed with an adcom member at Duke as a round 2 applicant. Interviews for US residents who live on the east coast are strongly recommended but are actually requested by the applicant and are not invitation only. I had a 45 minute on-campus interview, and it was my first time visiting Fuqua. I took a tour and spoke to current students during lunch and in the waiting area before my interview. Preparation for my interview was done by thoroughly reading Fuqua's website, reviewing my application, and looking through the interview database at accepted and clearadmit.com. After I had the interview, I felt this level of preparation had been more than enough.

The interview was very comfortable and conversational without being too informal, and none of the questions seemed out of the ordinary.

We started with the question, tell me about yourself (ie walk me through your resume and how it fits into your future goals), which took up a large chunk of the time.
Having never lived in the mid-Atlantic, I was then asked why I wanted to go to school in North Carolina?
What impressed me about Duke?
How would I describe my leadership style?
Give a specific example of interacting with a group I was leading.
Am I more comfortable as a leader or a follower?
Do you have any questions?
Everyone I encountered was very friendly, and there was definitely a focus on leadership potential within a team-oriented environment and on global awareness (Fuqua is very proud of both these things). Fuqua's facilities have been recently renovated and expanded, and the building reflected that and was lovely. I was told that there are frequently parking difficulties and to plan ahead for that, so I had my friend drive me in and then look for a parking space. He had no problem finding one, however, and the adcom provided us with a parking pass for the day. I would definitely recommend a trip to Duke as part of the application process, if possible.

myice

Round 2 / AdCom / Telephonic (Published February 18th, 2009)

I interviewed with an Associate Director of Admissions who specializes in Joint Degree programs. In my application, I indicated interest in the joint MBA/MEM program (Nicholas School). I haven't yet applied to the joint program. I received an email invitation to interview by phone (I am active duty military stationed on the west coast) and was happy to have that opportunity. My interview was very much a conversation, friendly and relaxed, and I don't think I missed out by not having a face-to-face interview.

Format/Questions I called the main AdCom phone number and was connected quickly with my interviewer.

He started with some small talk about the weather and asking where my base is actually located, which later provided good material for me when asked about what appealed to me about Duke and describing my extracurricular activities.
He jumped right in to my resume, asking me to describe my job in further detail, and why I chose to pursue it/if it was the standard progression from my undergrad major (Environmental Engineering). It isn't, so that allowed me to expand on my academic/technical interests.
All his questions really flowed from my previous responses, so I never felt caught off-guard. My interviewer responded positively to all my answers and followed-up with a sentence or two about Duke, which made it much easier for me to gather my thoughts and prepare myself for the next question.

"You have listed this specific project on your resume. How did you accomplish it, and what were the challenges?" (I explained the various organizations I had to get working together and the funding/equipment/etc. issues and the successful result.)
"Your interest is in environmental issues. Can you tell me about a time that you've had to balance your personal ethic and passion for the environment with the needs of your job or mission requirements?" (Told story.)
"What does it mean to be an officer-in-charge? Who works for you, andwhat is your working relationship with them?"
"What is your role in your larger office? How do you interact with your troops and superiors?"
We then transitioned to my background/undergrad information.
He addressed the few but significant extracurriculars on my resume.
"In X, was this role the highest leadership position you could have held? What did you do in it/why did you choose it?" (It was not, and I explained that I pursued it and was quite happy with my decision because I was already in charge of another student organization. His response was positive.)
"As President of Y team, what were your responsibilities?
"I know Y has a very strong reputation, why do you think that is so?" (I talked about upholding tradition and working with fellow student leaders.)
He asked about my undergrad GPA, which is solid but not stellar, and the choice I made to spend lots of time on non-academic leadership experiences.
He asked about extracurriculars in my current life, specifically one 20hr/week activity, and how/why I chose to pursue it.
Next, we moved on to MBA/Duke-specific questions.
"Why are you pursuing an MBA now? What do you hope to gain from it?"
"Why did you decide to apply to Fuqua?" (International focus, small size, joint degree program that fits perfectly with my interests, spoke about concentrations as well.)
"What do you know about the area? What would you be interested in doing outside of class?" (I described conversations with Duke grad school friends that make me think it is a great fit for me, then mentioned the few activities/clubs I read about and would like to be a part of.)
At this point, we'd been talking for just over 30 minutes, and he asked if I had any questions. I asked about the student environment/culture and about financial aid, which took only about 5 minutes, and then we were done.
I enjoyed this interview (which was really much more of a friendly discussion) even though I hadn't had much time to prepare specifically for it due to my not seeing the email request until an hour before my scheduled time. I was expecting some more unusual questions (based on other Wiki reports) but everything was quite standard. I'm hopeful!

myice

Round 2 / Alumni / Off-Campus / Originally shared by Choc Heaven (Published February 5th, 2009)

Had my interview with a Fuqua alumni today.. lasted about 40 mins.. overall, was pretty much what I was expecting.. no big surprise questions...

The usual stuff..

Why MBA
Why x school
Why finance (thats what i want to do)
How has your experience been working at x and x firms
how did you find a change in work culture between x and x (i switched to a new place recently)
what kind of a role do you take in teams
tell about a time when you faced a conflict
how will you contribute to Fuqua
if your friends were to describe you in 3 sentences, what would they say..
Some interesting questions i remember are..

if you had a free day to spend, how would you spend it..
outlook for financial industry in the next 12 months
what was the last book you read and what did you like about it
My advice to any prospective Fuqua applicants is to know thyself - know your strengths and weaknesses.. re-read your essays, application, resume.. read up on past interview experiences on Clear Admit and Accepted.. it really helps!

myice

Duke Fuqua on campus interview 面经

飞去了Durham，去参加Fuqua的Campus visit 和 interview. 感觉Duke很不错，更加的喜欢了。去之前和Duke现在的学生联系上了， 他们真的很热情，尤其是Timzhou，特别感谢一下：）

不多说了，抓紧时间上面经吧

面试我的是一个来自非洲的mm，英文说的很易懂，在美国呆了很多年了。人很亲切，一上来就说清楚面试的程序，并说明她会记notes，让给我不要受影响。这位mm从Finance转去做consulting，还是挺个性的。整个面试中，这个mm都很supportive, 经常点头认同并加上great之类的，虽然不晓得是不是mm对每个人都是如此，但是遇见这样面试的，还是很幸运，让我面试的比较酣畅淋漓，希望是个好征兆。

整个面试时间较长，忘了看表，不过大约应该45分钟以上了,因为问的问题挺多的，我回答的也不短，前三个问题尤其长。问的问题如下（某些问题次序可能有差）：

1.    Go through your resume
2.    Why MBA?
3.    Why Duke?
4.    What do you think about the term of “Leader of Consequence”?
5.    Tell me one of your past experience that you were a leader of consequence
6.    Tell me one of your team work experience
7.    What will be your greatest contribution to Duke?
8.    What is your weakness?
9.    What is your role in a team?
10.    Tell me a situation where you met with tough situation in a team experience
11.    When you are in the program, in your learning team, there could be someone from IB who doesn’t care about the case study and doesn’t want to really contribute to the team. What will you do in this situation?
12.    If in your learning team there is someone who is quite arrogant and never listen to others, what will you do?
13.    Where did you learn your language? I mean your English.
14.    What else do you want me to ask you?
15.    Any question for me?

感觉Duke的问题还是非常注重team work的。Fuqua的设施很好，学生活动也很多。



想起来了，还有两个问题，比较经典的，补充一下：

Why now?

Tell me about one of your team failure experience. How did you deal with that, what have you learned？