Early November Catch-up: MBA Interviews

I’m back, after an extremely intense month of back-to-back R1 deadlines. R1 has been great and we have been receiving a number of interview invitations and even one admission offer already. I’ll soon continue with more essay question analyses but for my first catch-up post I thought I’d talk a bit about interviews.

Interviews

If you were a R1 applicant, you are probably either preparing for your interviews or getting anxious waiting for invitations or both. Each school is different but in general the invitations should start to go out anywhere between 2 weeks after a deadline and the week before the decision notification date. Here are some of my thoughts as someone who had directed the interview program at Harvard Medical School and as someone who has coached MBA applicants through the process.

My friend already received his invitation and I didn’t. Does the timing of when I receive my invitation mean anything?

Generally speaking, I will echo what all the admissions officers are saying: no. I do believe that the order in which committee members read and then make decisions on interview invitations is pretty random. In my experience on the admissions side, staff members would organize the applications, put them into folders, wait for remaining materials to come in, stack the completed applications, and randomly divide them into piles for the various committee readers. One reader might do all his or her reading in one sitting, while another might want to bring them home to read. In this process any number of people could be involved and an admissions office would have to be incredibly organized to maintain any particular order in which invitations go out. If there is anything to be gleaned from my little observation, it would be that the sooner you submit your application, the sooner your file would be set up, and the sooner it will go to committee to be read.

Having said that, you can also imagine that some applicants just jump off the page and that it would take all of 2 seconds for the committee to decide “Invite her!” There might be others that the admissions committee may want to think about and discuss some more.

In sum, I’d say that the process is systematic, random and human all at the same time. But don’t give up hope until the very end. I worked with someone once who did not receive an invitation from Wharton until literally the last day the invitations were going out. And he eventually got accepted, but he turned down the offer to go to Stanford instead.

 How can I best prepare for my interviews?

It goes without saying that you need actual practice to get ready, and this holds true whether you’re a native English speaker or an international applicant who has never experienced a western style interview.

Before I offer any tips, I should first mention what interviewers are looking for: personality, communication ability, and fit. They may also use the interview as a chance to get further information on something they may have questions or concerns about. But in general you don’t need to prove your leadership or work accomplishments any further since you already did this in your applications. The interview is a chance to get to know you better, to find out the things they can’t see from reading your application.

For that reason you need to practice enough to come across as someone poised and confident. You need to demonstrate that you’re a good fit with the program. This means that, for example, if you’re applying to Tuck, Haas and Kellogg that you seem like a person who loves teamwork and working collaboratively. If you’re applying to HBS, you need to show that you’ve got the confidence to thrive in a fast-paced, assertive 100% case-based environment.

Here are areas of content you should be thoroughly familiar with before you start your interview:

• You. You should know yourself thoroughly. What motivates you? What experiences have taught, challenged, frustrated, tested, interested, moved, changed, and impacted you the most? Why? How?
• Your future. What do you see yourself doing in the MBA program? Right after? 5 years after? 10 years after? 20 years after?
• The target school. What programs would you take? What are some classes you will join? What extracurricular activities will you like to participate in? Which students and/or alumni have you spoken with? What are their names? Do you have intelligent questions to ask the interviewer at the end of the interview?
• Your application. What is outstanding? What is unique? What makes you a good fit? What are weaknesses? What can you tell the interviewer to alleviate his/her concerns about your weaknesses? Are there any areas of concern that they should know about?

And here are some ways in which you can prepare:

• Run through sample questions and prepare your responses out loud. Some prep services like www.accepted.com post interview reports of former applicants. Find out their experiences and the questions they were asked. Write down notes, but avoid writing down entire answers. Force yourself to speak spontaneously and DO NOT rely on memorized responses.
• Conduct mock interviews with a professional counselor or other person whom you trust.
• Record your voice. Do you use a lot of fillers like “uh” or “like”?
• Videotape yourself. Do you have any distracting habits like looking away excessively or shaking your leg too much?
• Make a note of things you need to change. Then repeat until you get it right.
• Know exactly how to get to your interview destination. Do a test drive if you are not sure of the location.
• Eat well and rest/sleep well before the interview. Put yourself in the optimal physical condition for high level performance.
• Allow yourself plenty of time to get to your interview. Be prepared for traffic, train breakdowns, etc. I’m currently conducting interviews for my undergraduate alma mater and one of the most annoying things is when an interviewee arrives just in the nick of time or even late (and then doesn’t apologize).

Will my interview make or break my chances of admission?

It could, but it probably won’t. The interview, as they say, is just one piece of the application. However, the stronger you are or the weaker you are, the likelier it is that your performance will have some kind of direct impact on the final decision. Most people do “fine” – they’re nice, they’re pleasant, they’re articulate. This kind of interview will simply confirm an otherwise strong application and neither add nor detract significant value. However, there will be some applicants who will, in the words of one admissions officer I spoke with once, “blow [the interviewer] away” and there will be others who will perform so poorly that they raise new concerns that didn’t exist before.

In my experience, those who performed poorly were those who were too nervous and uncomfortable during an interview and those who couldn’t sound convincing enough as to why they wanted to attend the target school. Both are problems that can be easily remedied with sufficient preparation.