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Dear Future Business Leader,
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MBA Application Interview Tips – Variety & Importance
There have been a lot of discussions available online about various interview questions and experiences with different schools. Nonetheless, almost no well publicized articles are available which focus on the relationship between the type of an interview offered and the implied importance of such an interview for a given school.
Schools change their procedures based on their needs and different management styles. In general, there are the following few determining variables for a regular B-school application interview. - Is it required or discretionary?
- Is it by invitation or by your own request?
- Is it after the admissions committee reviews your entire written application or before?
- Is the interviewer someone who has access to your entire application or not? (Blind interviews refer to a lack of application access. Examples include Wharton and Columbia. Non-blind interviews are the opposite. Examples include Harvard, MIT and NYU.)
- Is the interviewer one of the admissions committee members or a student /staff reviewing the applications or alum who just volunteers to interview?
All these variables can be mixed and re-ordered based on the application pool size, the application timeline and the availability of help each school gets.
The general conclusion you can draw is that if an interview is required as an indispensable component of the entire application, if it is by invitation only, if it is conducted by someone who has access to your file, especially if it is conducted by members of the admissions committee, if it is after the application being reviewed, then this interview plays a crucial role in getting an acceptance letter. The less stringent these criteria are, the more likely the interview carries less or equal weight in comparison to other components. This is not to say that you can be totally relaxed and do not work for it. Life is not a sure bet. You want to ace it on every front. But some extra knowledge about the determinants does not hurt.
Please be aware that sometimes these interviews are the final votes for borderline cases if there are too many similar applicants, too few spots left or the applicant has other identifiable weak areas.
If you need insightful advice and additional practice with interviews, our Admissions Consulting staff members are glad to help you and share their years of experience both as an interviewer and an interviewee. Just visit us online at the website indicated in the email signature and sign up for any mock interviews directly. Please be aware only in New York and London we offer in-person mock interviews. For all other locations, we can arrange either phone or online mock interviews (via microphone)!
Recent Student Compliments on Our MBA Admissions Services
Date: August 9, 2006
I just wanted to let you know that I have been accepted by the business school which I applied for in June.
I am sure that one of the key success factors was the essay. I am aware that my essay got only to the level of quality through the very professional and rapid feedback from your staff members.
Thanks to the team of Manhattan Review for making this help available quick and with high quality!
D.
(Note: This student is based in France. We offered our feedback within 3 days of request.)
Recent Student Score Report
Date: August 7, 2006
I got a 670 on the GMAT and I am very happy with that result. I find it difficult to have enough time after work and on weekends for all the things (GMAT, TOEFL, Essays) that are necessary for a business school application. Therefore I am glad that I took your GMAT course because it saved me a lot of time in the GMAT preparation.
Thank you again and best regards
Max
(Note: This student took our weekend crash course in Germany.)
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