ISB Interview experience (10/31)

ISB interview was definitely less formal than my earlier interview with Tepper.

I called at 7:10(EST) and I was surprised to see that adcom was waiting for my call.
There were 3 people (2 adcom and 1 alumni).

The interview began with the adcom asking me to talk about "Crisis" as it meant to me.
Hmm...I definitely didn't see that coming...was expecting more like.."Hey Siva..how are you and how is Edison...how is weather this time of the year" !!
I think I handled it ok.

Then one adcom asked me to explain one of the achievements I had mentioned in my resume.
They went in-depth into it . I guess basically to ascertain that I had actually done it.

Next question was on SOX as I had mentioned it in my essay. Answered it well.
They went a little more in depth on what I thought about SOX, capitalism, communists etc.
Answered it ok.

Then started the scrutiny into my goals. Explained my short-term and long-term goals.
They went after my long-term goal of becoming an entrepreneur and attacked my counter-arguments in a very polite way. I did my best to logically reason my aspirations.

Finally, they asked me if I had any questions which I responded by asking 2 questions.
That's it. The adcom thanked me and I responded similarly.

The interview lasted exactly 30 mins and I have mixed feelings about my performance ! Anyways by Dec 15th, I should have a better picture of where I stand.

Now need to focus on the rest of the apps...Berkeley, Kellogg, NUS, Ross, XLRI, IIMA and C.

CMU Interview done !

Interviewed with CMU on campus in Pittsburgh.

CMU Interview was very casual and conversational. The campus was great. Especially the day I visited was the time when the colours were changing in Pittsburgh. Had a great time visiting the Carnegie Mellon campus. The staff were very cordial and my interviewer was genuinely casual all through the interview. The interview itself consisted of typical questions :
- Can you tell me about your Background ?
- Why do you need an MBA at this time ?
- What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses ?
- Give an instance when you faced a challenging situation as a leader and how did you overcome that challenge ?
- Why Tepper ?
- What would be the red flags and green flags in my application if I were to put myself in the adcom's position ?

That's it. It was over in less than 30 minutes.

The student tour was done by a 2nd year student who was really humorous !
He showes us around Poisner Hall, the hi-tech classrooms. He stressed on the quant nature of the program and said that he really liked the management game. The school has a lot of resources for entrepreneurship (Art Boni is the director of the entrepreneurship centre and this student had actually pitched in San Jose the previous week.)
He did say that there were very few who took the MIPD track as it was at this time mostly focused on industrial design products.

The guy with whom I had lunch was even better....he gave some good pointers on how best to utiilise the MBA period and especially gave some advice on how not to get distracted by areas which look tempting moneywise but need a lot of background and commitment to make it big.(Inv Banking,Finance) etc. That was useful because I was having a thought of considering this area but am now thinking twice.

Good part of CMU is that they give you the aid offer along with the admit letter....so no more waiting and sometimes makes decisions easier.

Fingers crossed till Dec 21st now.