[灌水]emory interview

flyingty

some tips:

An excerpt from the Q&A:

Q: How does the interview process work? Do applicants initiate it?
A: More or less it's applicant-driven. Anybody who comes to Atlanta can have an interview any time. We don't require that there be an application on file.

We also go to many cities -- all the major ones in the U.S. and a large number outside the U.S. In some cities, there will be a waiting list [for interviews]. For example, when I recruit in Beijing or Shanghai, there are so many requests that we pre-screen them. In some cases, not just anybody can interview. In some cases they're screened.

If we don't go to a city where a candidate is, they have to apply and [be] selected for an interview. In those cases, we do phone interviews.

Q: What types of interview questions should a prospective student expect?
A: The focus is on gaining a deeper understanding of their work responsibilities, as well as their career progression. It's typical for candidates to have had several jobs by the time they apply, and sometimes it's with different companies -- that's fine. We want to know, maybe, why they changed jobs. How they got their job is always an interesting question, I think. And we also ask what are their key responsibilities. Ultimately, we want to know what will this candidate contribute to class discussions.

Beyond that, we look at interpersonal skills. We want to know their team skills. We want a sense of what role they typically play on a team, how their teammates might describe them. It's a conversation -- we do not want it to be a stress interview. We want them to have a chance to present their best self. So we try to make it a pleasant experience.

We're one of the few schools where the vast majority of interviews are done by a member of the admissions committee. That makes the process more consistent. It also means that the candidate typically has an advocate on the committee.

For the full version of this Q&A

Comments from Student 1:

I scheduled the interview over the phone. It was held at a hotel bar in San Francisco, they come out to interview in San Francisco twice a year. [The interview] was with a former admissions officer, who is currently in charge of student life. I had not yet applied, so she just had my resume for the interview. This was a very friendly/comfortable interview. It was more of a conversation than an interview, which in my opinion makes for the best interviews. She spent a great deal of time telling me about Goizueta and the different areas that might appeal to me. We went through my resume and through the standard why B-school, why now, why Goizueta questions. The only different question was why would I want to move to Atlanta.

Comments from Student 2:

I ended up interviewing with four of the five schools I applied to: Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and Emory. The Emory interview was with an admissions officer on-campus, the rest were off-campus with Alumni (mainly because I live in Germany). Regarding locations, MIT and UCLA were in the Washington, D.C. area over Christmas break. Harvard was by far the most organized with their Alumni interviews and the most international - they were able to set up my interview a few blocks away from my apartment in Hamburg, Germany! On top of that, the man that I interviewed with was a top executive and on the board of one of Germany's largest and most successful companies (very motivating for an aspiring MBA student).

For all of my Alumni interviews, I found the Alumni to be professional, friendly, and open to speaking with me about their school. For Emory, the admissions officer was just fantastic, making me feel comfortable right away, asking insightful (she read my application) questions and answering all of my questions about the program.

The interview questions were amazingly similar between all of the schools and I did not find that they asked me any out of context or trick questions. The questions were focused on me and my experiences. In the case of Harvard, it was more of a behavioral interview than the others, trying to gather information about how I react in certain work and life scenarios. Most of the interviews included questions like, "What brought you to Germany?" "How did you end up getting a job abroad?" "What are your career goals?" "Why business school?" "Why now?" "Why this school?" At the heart of it, they all seemed to be trying to figure out what made me tick, what I could bring to their program, if my goals and personality seemed consistent and aligned with the way I presented myself in my application, and whether I would be a good fit with their program. Many of them also asked me questions that were similar or an extension of my essay questions. For example, if I wrote an essay about an ethical dilemma at work, they would ask me how it was resolved in the end or to provide them with additional details about the scenario.

As far as advice for preparing, the best preparation is completing the application for the particular school before interviewing and then reviewing the essays just prior to the interview. Applicants should have a clear idea of why they want an MBA, their career goals, why this particular school, and what they can offer the school. These questions were consistently asked on essays and in interviews. I used my interviews as a chance to openly discuss and expand on what I considered my weak spot -- my undergraduate GPA. This turned out to be a good approach, not just because I got accepted into my top choice school, but because it let me explain the situation and how I overcame the weakness in a more personal way then what was possible on an application.

shuishuile

thanks very much, although your information is a little bit late. hope somebody else who still have not had the interview can make full use of this article.

uiber

Hi shuishuile and cooperqi, is your interviewer Nancy Roth Remington? Do you know her e-mail address? Sorry for my impolite question and thank you very much in advance for your reply!!!

shuishuile

nancy_remington@bus.emory.edu
she may not read your email until Feb. 4 since she is still in China and may not has any internet accsession to internet. i got a auto-reply yesterday!

uiber

Thanks shuishuile!