UVA Darden MBA Interview汇总（2009-2010）

myice

Darden面试成功要诀说出自己的故事，射出强烈的秋波，让面试官发出拿什么将你遗忘的感叹。

Had my interview with a member of the AdCom this morning. Allinterviews are 100% blind, she knew nothing about me or my application.It started with her asking questions about my childhood, where I wasfrom, what my family was like, etc. We progressed through undergrad andmy career, but rather than focusing on "resume-type" accomplishments,we talked more about WHY I made certain decisions, and what matters tome.

We eventually got to "why MBA", but I was never directlyasked "why Darden". I tried to weave a few pieces of "why Darden" intoour conversation. Before I knew it 45 mins was up, she gave me theopportunity to ask questions....so we talked about job prospects for abit. After an hour we were still chatting, but she had to cut it off.

OverallI think (hope) it went well, but with interviews like this its alwayshard to tell. I forgot to mention a few things that I'd hoped to workin. Oh well.

My advice to those still yet to interview:

create a mini-list of items you for sure want to cover (interestinganecdotes), its easy to get caught up in the conversation, then beforeyou know it you missed your chance to talk about that interestingundergrad EC (since you're already talking about your job)
beready to NOT talk about accomplishments, she almost seemeddisinterested when I did. I guess it makes sense, there is no point tojust regurgitate your resume during the interview - they already haveit on file. Talk about something ELSE, something interesting/dynamic
do your homework and be able to convey sincere interest in the program(I honestly think this is a big part of the interview...they try togauge this)
She said her comments would be added to my overallapplication file, then it would undergo a final review and a decisionwould be made.

Thats about it I guess.  Feel free to ask me any specific questions, I'd be happy to help out.  

Ohand also, she said they release ALL decisions (including financial aid)on Jan 28th, so no crazy stressful hair pulling out for weeks on end(ahem...Kellogg...). I was happy to hear that.

Best of luck to everyone.

bigpig

楼主辛苦了

myice

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!

myice

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.

myice

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.

myice

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.

myice

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)

myice

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?

myice

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

myice

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