Thursday, November 8, 2007

Interview prep

I just got back last night from a quick trip to London and am now home until I leave for my Chicago interview next Wednesday. I haven't been able to focus a ton on prep up until now because of work projects, but have started looking at interview feedback over at accepted.com and clearadmit, as well as re-read my application. It seems like a lot of the questions asked of the people who completed the interview feedback are covered in the essays - why MBA, why now, why Chicago, short term/long term goals, etc. so I feel pretty prepared for those just from the essay preparation. As for the other questions, I'm planning to re-read all the materials about Chicago - the website, the MBA brochure, etc. - so I can easily pull from that if they go deeper into than the initial "why Chicago" question, and also thinking of leadership/teamwork/weakness/etc. examples beyond what I used in my essays to have them at the ready should I be asked a question on those. But even then, my best examples for those would have been used in essays (either for Chicago or other schools), so I already have some good examples committed to memory. Also, since I haven't yet visited the campus at all, I signed up for a class visit, lunch with students and tour the day before my interview. I'm sure that I'll be able to use that experience in my interviews also. I'm really trying to not over-think this either, since I know they just want to get to know me as a person, and don't want to hear me just rattle off memorized responses to questions, so my plan is to make sure I have relevant facts and examples ready to be used, but also focusing on staying relaxed and confident between now and then.

Still no word from Stanford or Harvard, but am trying hard not to think about it in order to prevent any nervousness about not getting an invite from those two schools to affect me in my Chicago interview. There's still a lot of time left to get an invite from those schools so am staying confident.

2 comments:

e.catharsis said...

It doesn't sound like Stanford has issued any invites yet -- not AFAIK, at least.

As for HBS, there's still 50% to go (read Dee's blog post from today) so you have a good shot.

G'luck!

mbarunnergirl said...

i visited last year in January and it was plenty cold then.

let's hope to see each other at admit weekend! :)