Duke Interview and Visit Recap

Though it's been almost a month since my Fuqua interview, I thought I'd share some of my experiences and insights on this blog for 1) future interviewees who may benefit from my experience and 2) to sort out my thoughts as I prepare for my upcoming interviews.

So I had my on-campus visit/interview with a 2nd year student in early November. I told myself at the beginning of this application process that I would go visit every school during the interview phase and Duke was no exception. I flew from LA all the way out to NY for a biz trip, then took a short flight out to NC.

First things first, the whole on-campus visit experience was so organized and friendly. I was pleasantly surprised at how they had a 2nd year student greet me at the admissions office and prepared a folder for me with agenda of the events that I had signed up for that day. I first went on a tour of the school with a bunch of other prospects. Let me just say- I absolutely loved the facilities. They had recently renovated and expanded the place so everything looks new and clean. And I could really tell that they go out of their way to make sure that things are very convenient for the students. For example, each study room has a motion sensor that detects whether the room is being used or not, and there are TV monitors out on the hallways that tell you which rooms are vacant vs. occupied. This way, students don't have to waste time peeking into each study room to find a free spot.

But more importantly, the environment was very laid back and friendly. I could tell right away that this was truly a supportive and collaborative learning environment. There were lots of interactions in the hallways and everyone was so happy to see other as they were grabbing their lunches and mingling in the cafeteria. It was definitely a pleasant surprise compared to my experience at Columbia (which I may write another post about later).

Anyways, so this was my first interview for b-school so I felt a bit ill-prepared and nervous. The interviewer was a 2nd year student and the interview took about 45 minutes tops. Here are the questions I recall:

- What are your short term and long term goals?
- How are you and Fuqua a proper fit for each other?
- Tell me about an ethical issue you had to face.
- What does "leader of consequence" mean to you?
- What is your weakness?
- How will your friends describe you (3 adjectives)?
- If you had your own company, what type of people would you want to hire?
- What is a criticism you received that you didn't like?
- Tell me about a situation where you had a difficulty motivating an individual.
- Give me an international business problem that you want to solve.
- Tell me more about your extracurricular activities.
- What was the most challenging part about working in [non-profit A]?
- Any questions for me?

I don't know if it's just me, but I thought some of my interview questions were a bit out of the norm. I stumbled a little bit on a couple questions, but all in all, I hope I did enough to show the interviewer that I was very interested and excited about their program.

I regret not taking pictures of Fuqua's beautiful facilities. I will try to take some pictures on my next set of school visits.

So up next- Wharton and Kellogg interview next week! If any of you have already completed their Wharton or Kellogg interviews, feel free to provide me with some tips and advice... I would greatly appreciate it~

interview invite from Wharton!

Wow, it's been too long since I updated this blog. Since my last entry, I have applied to four schools in R1 (Wharton, Kellogg, Ross, and Fuqua), visited Columbia and Duke, and interviewed at Duke. I've updated my target school list and status of each application on the right side of the blog for quick reference on my progress.

Now that I am caught up to speed, my most recent status: I just received the email to interview for Wharton! I am so excited and relieved that I am given this opportunity to go to the next step in the process. Man, the online world can be stressful and very scary- everyone at the Wharton s2s discussion boards or the BW forums are walking on thin ice right now waiting for interview invites by the hour. Reading those posts got me more nervous as the final notification date was getting closer and closer. Well, I am ever so grateful as I am going to chug along and prepare for my Wharton interview (which I will probably do on-campus). I also have my Kellogg interview scheduled in early December, so I will need to plan my trips wisely around my hectic work schedule to make sure I can manage my workload.

Best of luck to all the applicants who are still waiting for the interview invite email. You still have one more day so keep your head up!!