Business schools have begun rolling out interview invites for Round 2 MBA applicants. If you have already received the interview offer, congratulations. You have crossed a crucial stage. Now it's time to focus on interview preparation.
The MBA interview is the final step in your journey to your target school that can significantly impact your chances of admission. Through the interview, schools aim to understand who you are beyond those carefully crafted words. Therefore, the first and most critical step in the MBA interview preparation is to know your content and understand the type of questions a particular school may ask.
At MER, we reached out to our previous admission cycle’s successful students. Some of them gladly shared their interview debriefs. In this blog, we have compiled their interview questions and experience, including interview questions of candidates who went to different programs, but shared interview debriefs of schools that interviewed and waitlisted them.
In this blog, we explore the interview questions and candidates’ insights for MIT, Emory, UNC, Marshall, Vanderbilt, UCLA, and Kellogg.
1. MIT
Robert Hall- Accepted into MIT with a 20K Scholarship and Kellogg with a 40 K scholarship; Joined Kellogg
An admissions director interviewed me. She wanted to cover so many questions and hardly gave me 40 seconds to a minute to answer each question. The interview was with another interviewee. There were two one-hour interviews: one was a behavioral/fit, and the other was business/management-focused.
The following are some of the questions they asked me.
Behavioral interview
1 . Why MIT?
2. Why now?
Robert: In the follow-up questions, I detailed my family and employer and how I developed a plan to balance it all.
3. What is one thing that you have put immense time into in your personal life and that you are most proud of in the past three years?
Robert: I answered by training my service dog, who was there with me.
4. Why an EMBA?
Robert: The other questions were follow-ups to my answers; they always asked follow-ups.
Management interview
1. Tell me about a time when one of your direct reports was not fully functioning in their role, and how you approached it, and what you did?
2. What do you see as the biggest threat to your organization, Alpine, in the next two years?
3. What have you learned from building a start-up?
4. What fiscal responsibilities did you have at Korn Ferry?
Robert: I provided details of my fiscal responsibilities.
5. Has Alpine's strategy changed since the beginning? Was I involved?
Robert: 70% of my interview was focused on my role at Alpine and my involvement in the company's strategy and future.
Click here for Robert Hall's testimonial.
2. Emory
Anupriya - Accepted by Vanderbilt and UNC with a 100K scholarship each; Joined UNC
Here are the interview questions for Emory.
1. Tell me about yourself
2. What is your role in your family business?
3. Tell me about your current role in your company.
4. What are you working on/targeting for next week at your current job?
5. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
6. How will you utilise the resources available at Emory?
7. How will you contribute to the group projects at Emory?
8. Who is your current supervisor? How would he describe you in 3 words?
9. How would your peers describe you? (3 words)
10. How will your father describe you? (3 words)
3. UNC
Anupriya- Accepted by UNC and Vanderbilt with a 100K scholarship each.
My interviewer was the Admissions Director.
1. Tell me about yourself?
2. What are your goals? How will UNC help achieve them?
3. What is your role in your family business? What challenges did you face there, and how did you resolve them?
4. Tell us about a leadership story in your current job other than the one mentioned in your application.
5. How do you manage disagreements within a team?
6. What am I currently working on? What is your target for next week?
7. How have you empowered women?
8. Why are you interested in the Vetter program?
9. Do you have any questions for me?
4. Vanderbilt
Anupriya- Accepted by Vanderbilt with a 100K scholarship
A second-year student interviewed me. The interview questions were very basic.
1. Walk me through your resume.
2. Tell me about your goals.
3. How will Vanderbilt help you achieve it? Why Vanderbilt and not another school?
4. Tell me your proudest leadership story.
5. Do you have any questions for me?
5. USC, UCI, UCB, and UCLA
Ashish Anil Rajmane- Accepted into USC ( 20K scholarship), UCI (35 K scholarship), UCLA Anderson, and Berkeley Haas; Joined Berkeley Haas
The following were the types of questions that were asked in my interviews with USC, UCI, UCB, and UCLA.
1. Why did you choose Civil Engineering as your undergraduate major?
2. Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career?
3. What specifically attracted you to our MBA program, and how did you learn about it?
4. How do you plan to manage your time effectively during the MBA program?
5. In addition to the hobbies you have mentioned, do you have any other personal interests?
If you are accepted into multiple programs, what will be the key factors in your decision-making process?
Click here for Ashish's testimonial.
6. Kellogg
Tanu- Accepted into Berkeley Haas, NYU Stern (15K scholarship), and Kellogg; Joined Kellogg
1. Tell me about yourself, your journey to this long career path. How did you reach here?
2. Explain your day-to-day work from the perspective of the MBAi course.
3. Since I had mentioned 'lead 11-member team', she asked me what it is that you, as a leader, bring that helps your team achieve the intended success?
4. How will your teammates define me in 3 words?
5. What is your leadership style?
6. Have you faced any obstacles that you thought you would not, and how do you react?
7. What is the critical feedback that you received and still hurts thinking about?
8. Why the MBAi course?
9. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
10. Looking at the economy today, are you ready to work globally?
11. If you don't get your intended short-term goal role, do you have a plan B?
12. Why Kellogg? Why now?
13. What will be your contribution to Kellogg?
Then we both talked about my experiences with Yoga, and if I have tried a certain class, and how it feels, etc.
14. What is something that you want to tell her that I haven't asked about?
15. What is one thing that you want to change about yourself and are actively working on?
16. Do you have any questions for me?
I asked, 'How should I prepare well before starting the program, if I am provided with the opportunity?'
Video Interview Questions
1. Tell me something about yourself that is not on your resume?
2. How do you deal with a situation when you have multiple projects, and you are asked to integrate changes into another project that you were not asked to accommodate initially?
3. What makes you think you are ready for an MBA now? Given an example outside of your work?
Click here for Tanu's testimonial.
7. NYU Stern
Tanu- NYU Stern Admit w/ 15K scholarship
1. Imagine that it is Fall and you are starting your Fall semester in New York. You are in the Auditorium with your batch, and you are called on stage to introduce yourself. You have 2 mins now, please introduce yourself to your batchmates.
2. I see you have leadership experience. What is your leadership style?
3. Why are you applying to the NYU Executive MBA program?
4. Why NYU Stern
8. Haas Video Interview
Tanu- Berkeley Haas Admit
1. What is your favourite food and why?
2. Why Haas? What do you think Haas is the right school for you?
She gave me her email ID after that and said I could write to her if I had more questions.
9. SMU Cox
Anupam Chatterji- Accepted into SMU Cox ( 10K scholarship), Kelly (20K Scholarship), and McCombs; Joined McCombs
An Admission Officer interviewed me for about 45 minutes. The interview questions were mostly behavioral in type.
1. My resume was discussed in detail.
2 . Tell me a time when you did not agree with a situation and how you handled it.
3. Tell me about your accomplishments.
4. You come from an Engineering background, and you are opting for Finance. Why are you choosing Finance?
10. McCombs
Anupam Chatterji- McCombs Admit
1. What are your hobbies?
2. Why MBA?
3. How did you meet your wife?
4. Have you visitedMcCombs? Which classes did you visit and when? How did you like it?
5. Video Assessment
The interviewer noted that she saw a lot of interaction with the students.
11. Kelly
Anupam Chatterji- Accepted into Kelly with 20K Scholarship
1. Why MBA after a decade of graduation, and why now?
Related Resources
Interview Debriefs of MER Students- 2023-24
Interview Debriefs of MER Students – 2022-23
Interview Debriefs of MER Students – 2021-22 Application Cycle
MBA Interview Debriefs of MER Students
How to Present Your Best Self in Virtual Interviews
How to Write a Thank You Note after your MBA Interview
About MER (myEssayReview)
Poonam Tandon, the founder of MER (myEssayReview), has a Ph.D. in English with 15+ years of MBA consulting experience and three decades of teaching experience in India and the US. A master storyteller, Poonam has successfully guided hundreds of students worldwide to gain admission into the esteemed MBA, EMBA, and specialized master's programs in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Throughout her four-decade-long professional career, she has reviewed 11,750+ essays written by applicants worldwide.
Poonam was among the top 5 most-reviewed consultants on the GMAT Club from September 2012 to December 2023. Click here for her students’ testimonials on LinkedIn.
You may email Poonam at poonam@myessayreview.com with questions about your application or sign up here for a Profile Evaluation.
