myice

2/10/06 -- Adcom R2 interview

I had my Stern on-campus interview on February 8, 2006. As soon as I checked in, the Admissions Office gave me a Stern T-Shirt and a folder containing information about specializations and clubs that I had mentioned in my application. The interview lasted 30 minutes and my interviewer asked a lot of questions; as a result, it was less conversational than other interviews I've had. She was not able to answer all my questions but I had lunch with a student afterwards and his input was really helpful--I highly recommend doing this if you visit Stern. There was also a second-year student in the office who was available to answer questions all day long. Here were the questions I was asked:

She had my third essay (and my resume) in front of her and she asked me one or two questions about the essay.
What has been your biggest accomplishment at work?
How would your coworkers describe you?
Can you give me an example of a time when you had difficultly with cross-cultural communication? (In my previous position I worked abroad frequently)
Describe a typical day at work.
Give me an example of a time you worked in a team.
What advice would I give my successor at work?
What are you looking for in an MBA program?
What do you want to do for your summer internship while in school?
Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years, both profesionally and personally?
What do you like to do outside of work?
Retrieved from "http://www.clearadmit.com/wiki/index.php?title=SternInterview"

myice

Stern Interview

The interviewer did not have me go through my resume. The questions were as follows:

What did you gain from your undergraduate experience?

Why should we accept you/ what would you bring to the program?

If you had to pick two extracurriculars at Stern what would they be?

Describe a time at work that you were in the riders seat and you wish you were in the driver's seat, or vice versa.

When you were looking at MBA programs, what were the qualities you were looking for?

How would your colleagues describe you?

Do you have any questions for me?

myice

Spring 2006 - RD2, Adcom

Stern requires that you visit the school for the interview. All interviews are done by adcom employees, and if not direct employees then alumni or students who work for the admissions office. They give you the option of scheduling lunch with a student and a class visit with your interview - if you haven't ever visited, I would take the option to do both. I also asked the student to give me a quick tour of the building - that actually was very interesting. They also have guided tours, but it was nice to have a student's perspective.

Interview:

I met with someone that worked directly for the admissions office. I had actually met her earlier that morning when she walked me to my class visit. She only had my resume in front of her and told me she had read my application. Right away she asked a question about my 3rd essay (the personal one) which was expected b/c I had ended that essay specifically with a question that would be asked if I ever met with Stern. Other q's:

How did you end up here today?
What are you most excited about coming back to school?
What will your co-workers miss about you when you leave?
We also hit on a few topics related to work about: working on teams, what else I would like to learn at my job, how I handled conflicts (with customers).

Be sure to have questions for the interviewer. She knew I had lunch w/a student beforehand so I was pretty set to go on information but have some extra ones anyway.

myice

January 2007 - Round 1 - Adcom/on-campus (Published Feb. 1, 2007)

I recently finished an interview for Round 1 at Stern. While the questions were fairly straight-forward (many are seen further down on this page), the overall interview was more challenging than others I had this year. This is because the adcom really does know/read your file before the interview, and comes prepared with specific questions about your career history. After a quick 30-second chit chat, we dove right into the questions.

Questions asked in my interview (but probably not in this exact order):

How did you choose your undergraduate school/major? How did you use it to get your first job?
Short/long term career goals. How do you plan on leveraging Stern's strengths to achieve your goals?
When is a time that you've worked well on a time?
Describe a team when you've been on a team that didn't work well together, and what did you do to try to fix things?
During the first few weeks at Stern, how will you distinguish yourself from the other new students? How do you want to be known?
In 40 years, you are asked to return to give the commencement speech at Stern. What will be your major accomplishments, and what advice would you give to the graduating Stern class?
You are applying to several top schools. If accepted into all of them, how will you make your decision?
The adcom couldn't have been friendlier or more interested in my responses. He/she truly wants to get to know you and judge whether you will be a good "fit" for the program. My advice is to know your strengths/weaknesses going into the interview, have a concrete idea of the clubs and classes you want to take, and just be yourself.

myice

December 2007 - Round 1 - Adcom/on-campus (Published Jan 15, 2008)

As you probably know, the interviewer has reviewed all of your material. So obviously it is a bit different from most interviews.

She asked a lot of the standard interview questions:

Walk me through resume?
Career goals?
Why Stern?
If you get into all the schools you applied to which will you choose?
I think the most interesting question was: Compare Stern's culture to your companies culture? (I am an entrepreneur)
How would your current colleagues describe you? How do you want your classmates to describe you when you graduate?
Strengths and weaknesses.
She asked about specific aspects of my application. Nothing too difficult. Mostly just looking for clarification.
Acdom was very friendly. Although she didn't seem as interested in my small talk as other interviewers I've met. The admissions office is very professional and has less of an academic feel than most programs I've visited.

myice

Round 1 / Adcom (Published February 14, 2008)

20 mins for Adcom questions:

Tell me about Accenture - you haven't been there that long - it seems like a significant step up - tell me about your role
How do you get the client managers and directors to accept the solutions you present?
Why Stern?
What do you want to have accomplished 15 - 20 years from now?
10 mins for questions from me.

myice

Round 1 / On-campus / Adcom from Achilles (Published February 18th, 2008)

As is required by Stern, I went for an onsite interview at Stern campus in New York for the interview. Anyways, since I didn't visit the school before so I really wanted to experience everything first hand.

My interview was taken by an Associate Director of admissions. She was really a very nice lady and made me feel comfortable before we jumped on the actual questions. She asked me about my plan for the New York trip and how I am finding the city and also talked about SF (where I am living presently) weather. Then she mentioned to me that this interview is not a blind interview and she has already read my essays, recommendations, resume and my application well. Also she clarified that this is not going to be an interrogation but will just be a casual chat which really helped in calming my nerves. Actually it was my first ever B school interview, so was a little tense but i was also confident on my preparation.

She started with my present experience. She was so well acquainted with my present profile that she asked me a very specific question about the work I am doing presently and that really impressed me a lot. As I am working in a technology consultancy firm I have worked for several Big Retail clients at multiple locations within US and in India. She also asked about my experience on that. It never seemed like she was just asking me questions. In fact it felt like we were just discussing things.

As I have worked with two biggest US retailers she asked me about what is my opinion about their working and what will I suggest them if I need to devise a strategy for them. This question caught me a bit off guard. I though about it a bit and then was able to answer it well.

Then we moved on to my short term goal and she asked me very specific question on that which again was impressive. This interview can really be called a personal interview and I was really impressed on the amount of effort she had put in going through my application material

Type of question which was asked was:-

Why I wanted to make a career switch?
How will I make the career switch?
How will Stern help me in making this switch and reaching my goals?
What will be the biggest obstacle I will face in getting to my short term goal/making the career switch?
How will you decide on which company you will join after passing out from Stern and why?
I was also asked:

If you are selected by several top schools how will you make your final decision?
I am unable to recall some of the questions but will update this post here if I am able to recll more.

The duration for my interview was 40 minutes including the time for my questions.

She mentioned to me after the interview that - "You really have done your research so well - Why was I asking you questions - you should have asked me" . So that really gave me a very positive feeling and I was just waiting for the results.

I was really impressed by the Stern campus, though it's a small campus. But the facilities were really excellent and all of the people were so friendly. After giving admits, the initiative which Stern has taken to connect all the admitted candidates and the way they reply to any of the queries which I have really shows the cooperative and collaborative culture which Stern has. Also its location in the heart of Manhattan - nothing can beat that. Just hop 2-3 subway stops and there you are standing on the Wall Street

For the interview one thing which is very important is:

You may not be asked on many of the things and thus may not get the opportunity to speak whatever you would have thought. So you need to plan during the interview itself that you speak everything you thought of conveying to the admission committee. Don't miss this opportunity and just space out various points in your replies and keep them impressed. It's important that whatever question you answer, you are able to convey one important point so that the interviewer remembers that. This becomes a little difficult when the interview is not blind since you need to go one step further from what you wrote in the application.

myice

Round 1 / On-campus / Adcom (Published March 10th, 2008)

I interviewed on campus in January for Round 1. This was my first time inside the Kaufman Center, which is an attractive building. I took a tour later in the day of my interview and thought it could have been better. The student leading the tour was quite knowledgeable and well-spoken, but verbose. The tour needed less "student" and more "tour." The tour group visited several floors but we often found ourselves standing outside of the elevators--I feel like we could have been shown more of the facilities.

Back to the interview itself:

An admissions committee member greeted me on time and made small talk as we walked back to her office. Stern is not a blind interview, and it was my first interview where the interviewer had read my application. Even so, I didn't do much extra preparation (just know your essays and application well). While the interview wasn't blind, I was still asked the standard set of questions plus a few others (but even these weren't tailored to my file). I noticed that the Stern interviewer asked me more follow-up questions than interviewers at other schools. Her questions included:

Why MBA?
Why Stern instead of other leading programs?
Why now?
What would you contribute to the program?
Describe some firms you are interested in working at (NY-based)?
What are you going to do to get hired?
At graduation how would you want your classmates to remember you?
I was quick to answer most questions. The only one that caught me slightly off-guard was the one about how I would work to find a job. I also made sure to prepare several things that differentiated Stern from competing schools (such as things Stern has that Columbia doesn't).

I know that Stern admits a higher percentage of interviewed applicants than other schools, but my sense is that this percentage is a little lower this year (waitlist seems to be heavy). Nonetheless, I was offered admission within 2 weeks after my interview. While I believe Stern is an interesting program, I plan to attend another school.

myice

Round 2 / On-campus / Adcom / Accepted (Published April 3rd, 2008)

I was interviewed on campus on March 17 by an AdCom. She was really easygoing and after some general small talk she went in on the usual questions-

Why an MBA?
Why Stern?
How will you contribute to Stern?
Tell me about a time you were on a team?
Tell me about your achievements?
Where do you want to work the first summer?
What type of companies do you see yourself working for?
Most of the questions were team oriented...they really focused on how I worked in teams and the results of those situations. The most interesting question was to describe how I would want to be introduced if I was invited back to the school to speak in 20 years.

I would say the most important thing to do is to prepare for how specifically you would fit in and lead at Stern. Know what activities and clubs you are going to be involved in and how you would contribute. If you really want to impress them, have a specific idea or too that you would want to implement to enhance a school activity. Also, you should definately know where you want to work and how you will get in there.

They say that they will give you notice in up to 3 weeks, but they actually get back to you pretty quick. I received notice about 10 days later that I was accepted. I will be attending.

myice

Round 1 / On-campus / Adcom (Published December 16th, 2008)

I interviewed for NYU's fulltime MBA program (rd 1).

I met with a female adcom member and another woman from admissions sat in to listen. She took notes and made one or two comments throughout the conversation, though I tried to make eye contact with her so she felt involved. The discussion lasted 40 minutes.

I thought that this would be a non-blind interview, but I did not get any questions on my application or essays. She had my resume in front of her and asked a few questions from it.

As we walked into her office, she mentioned one of my volunteer activities. She was very friendly, but she asked this before we were even sitting, so I wasnt sure if this was part of the introduction small-talk or if we had already begun the interview. She did not ask many follow-ups, which is why we were able to cover so much material. The questions were more rapid fire as opposed to other interviews which were much more discussional.

I was asked the following questions:

What are three words to decribe Stern?
What do you like about NYU?
If you got into all the schools you applied to, how would you decide?
Example of a difficult interaction with a coworker
When was the last time you were happy at work?
When was the last time you were frustrated?
How will you get an interview in the industry you want to work in?
What is different about what you do now compared to the industry you want to work in?
What will you do if you cant get a job in that industry?
What are some examples of companies in that industry?
What clubs will you join?
She asked if there was anything else I wanted her to know about me. I blanked on this and stupidly said no, but I included something in my thank you note. She replied and said that she would include it in my file.