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 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 / 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

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

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

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

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

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

NYU Stern Part-time面经

以为part-time是不用面试的，因此申请完了一直高枕无忧的东游西荡，差点还打算回国呢。

接到面试邀请以后才开始着慌，狂背，感谢yaoyao99回我的贴。Stern的online reservation只有一个是大约五天后，还有两个spot都是感恩节之后。我想好好过个节，就冲动的挑了最近的。

那天有点冷，我知道附近有个Starbuck's，就提早去了想在那里准备。哪知道里面狂多的人。就过两条街，去了一家中/日/墨混合的餐厅。想耗两个小时，结果午餐吃完就被人家清出来了，只好又晃到Starbuck's。 坐在那里数排队的MM脚上的UGG。

面试我的是一个PPMM，她说刚从中国面试回来，是admission的assistant director。她人美心也好，问的问题大都不难。

第一个问题：Tell me something about yourself。
从落草开始，一直回顾到现在的工作。

第二个问题：Tell me something about your current work。
可能刚才不够详细，具体讲了自己的工作，也顺势提到了为什么MBA，why Stern的原因。后来才意识讲的太多了，把之后要讲的话都讲完了。

第三个问题：可能是因为我提到了被Stern吸引的原因之一是他们的campus recruiting，她开始向我介绍part time的career resource，并指出和full time学生是不一样的。其实我早就知道了，但还是非常专著的听。

第四个问题：besides academic，what do you want to get from Stern?
从这里开始，我开始得咽喉炎。因为之前大讲了一通我为什么这么倾心Stern，我不想重复，但又想不出其他什么好话，最后还是结结巴巴地又把先前讲过的重复了一遍。

第五个问题：because you want to make a career change， what skills do you think you can bring to your new career?
这个问题真不难。可是我彻底昏了，喃喃自语了半天，MM也给我搞得迷惑不解。其实什么analytic skills， time management， team work， 这些着三不着四的不都是可以transfer的么?

第六个问题：你的理想职业是什么?
我如释重负，居然脱口而出，这个问题我准备过乐!

第七个问题：你还有什么问题?
我问了一个无关痛痒的小问题，是关于学校的一个新闻，学校的网站上绝对找不到答案的。

又因为MM自己也在上part time， 我问了问她的experience。 随便聊了聊。

送我出去的时候，MM问我接下来准备干吗。我说，去看变形金刚！MM说，听起来不错。

经验：我准备的时候太剑走偏锋，看了一堆莫名其妙的问题，什么你最喜欢的leader，你的role model，你最近看的书。如果时间紧，还是应该着重准备那些基本的问题。如果你是career change，一定要好好准备这方面的问题。其实我看到前人的面经的，就是没怎么在意。

最后倾情推荐：

不知道是不是地球人都知道的，一个面试的数据库：http://www.accepted.com/mba/InterviewFeedback.aspx

我google来的，可以按学校找，很有用！

myice

NYU Off-site Interview @ Shanghai

地点在以前实习的地方，本以为很好找，结果去了发现通知上的meeting room名字写的不准确，一通好找...

-start with my interest in Music

-describe what you do at your current job

-what's your supervisor's/client's most impressive comments on you?

-why career switch?

-why specific direction in your career switch?

-job hunting strategy? alternatives?

-how friends describe

-a difficult situation in your job?

-school selection criteria?

风格是adcom面试里比较意识流的，很随性，同时n多细节让你感觉到学校对申请人的重视和关照。总体来说和预期的差不多，看过accepted的interview database里所有的问题基本上就不会有什么意外。

剩下就是等待了，命运会指向何方呢？...