I Am In…Now How Do I Pay for It? Post 1 of 8
Like every other admit in recent B-school history, I have begun to seriously fret about my finances and wonder how on earth I plan to PAY for my MBA (it doesn’t help that this is the third question everyone asks me after I tell them I got in, right after “So does that mean you are moving to New York?” and “Is your boyfriend moving there..what is the deal there?”).
Review of Clear Admit’s Interview Guide for Wharton
Prior to my Wharton interview, which I withdrew before completing since I accepted admittance to Columbia’s program, Clear Admit offered a complementary interview guide for me to review on my site. I would like to share what I thought of the guide, and hopefully it will help some people who are on the fence about what resources to use while preparing for their interview.
Pros:
- Explained the TBD (Team Based Discussion) thoroughly, including goals of the TBD, who is involved (e.g. second year MBAs vs. Adcom members) and expectations. Prior to reading this, I didn’t have much background on the TBD yet – so this was very helpful.
- Included the current prompt interviewees are sent for the TBD
- A rough estimation of your chances of getting through the interview with an admit (shhh… its 1 in 3!).
- A list of typical questions for the one-on-one post-TBD interview.
- Some great tips for the interview (e.g.: err on the side of brevity, have a list of candidacy updates prepared)
Cons:
- Overall, I thought it was a thorough and really great guide to prepare for the Wharton interview. That being said, it would have been nice to see a couple of sample answers for each of the interview questions. Obviously, everyone’s answers are going to be different, but some people prepare best if they can see an example of what is ideal-rather than just being told what direction is preferred.
You can see more about ClearAdmit Interview prep here, including some free interview reports from applicants.
Application Advice For Those Just Getting Started – The Nut Shell
Today, I was emailing back and forth with someone interested in my newly offered resume and essay review service* and he asked for some advice on how to get started on his recommendations, his resume and his essays. I summarized the best I could and referred him to a number of resources that helped me throughout the application process and also imparted some advice I have learned along the way.
I thought it was a decent quick-and-dirty help guide for the most important parts of an MBA application and so wanted to share with all of you:
Columbia Here I Come!
I haven’t provided an update in a long time and I have A LOT to share!
Columbia Interview
My Columbia Interview went fantastic. I really liked my interviewer and the conversation was very casual and I had a great time. The best part of the interview was that I got to hear all about his experience before, during and after his MBA. All in all, it lasted about an hour and a half and I never got nervous or tripped up on any of his questions. He took a little while to submit the interview feedback, which made me super nervous, but that is okay. I think Clear Admit’s section on Columbia interview questions ended up being all I needed to prepare. I highly recommend checking it out if you have an upcoming Columbia interview.
Another Application Update and Interview Questions Galore!
Application Updates – Earlier this week I found out that I have been invited to interview at Wharton! Also, I completed my Columbia interview and feel pretty good about it. I am crossing my fingers that I get a positive response soon but trying to not get my hopes up too high in case the final decision is not in my favor…
To celebrate, I am posting all the interview questions that I have collected from all corners of the internet!
- Why are you interested in an MBA?
- Why are you interested in our school?
- Tell me a little about yourself
- Walk me through your resume
- Discuss a time when you were a leader
- What are your strengths
- What are your weaknesses
- What kind of instrument would you be and why?
- Why should we accept you?
- What are your short term career goals? Continue reading
Application Updates – Harvard and Columbia News
It has been quite a couple of weeks! I kept meaning to get a post up with my MBA Application updates, but wasn’t able to until today. Here are my MBA updates (in chronological order):
10/9 – 10/11
As a lot of you know, after submitting MBA applications the waiting game begins. The first possible day I could have heard any news on my MBA applications was 10/9, which is the first day that Harvard releases their interview invitations. The admissions blog is very clear; the first batch is released at noon on 10/9 and the second batch of invites are released at noon on 10/16. At 12:30 on 10/9 I checked my inbox…nothing from Harvard. I continued checking my inbox every hour on the hour…still nothing. I started to get anxious and I asked myself all of the questions most people who were hoping for an invite were asking themselves, “did I mess something up on my application?”, “was my profile not as strong as I had hoped?”, and most importantly, “how does this bode for my other applications?”.
The MBA Video Essay
Today I am thanking my lucky stars that I do not have to do a video essay. I feel for everyone applying to Kellogg, Yale and Rotman. A friend of mine is a R1 applicant to Kellogg and will be among the first group of applicants to experience the video essay at that school. A lot of the MBA application process has been thoroughly documented (e.g.: how to structure an essay, pick an essay topic and how to interview), but the video essay topic has less information about it. The internet has even less Kellogg specific information about the video essay because it is their first year doing it. I wanted to help her by finding out what I could about the topic and throwing some questions out there to the folks that read my blog:
- Has anyone done the video essay yet at any of these schools?
- What are the questions they ask?
- How did you prepare?
All Three Round 1 Applications Are In!
Well, it has been a long road and today I completed my third and final Round 1 application. I am both tired and excited. Even though I (hopefully) have at least one interview ahead of me, I feel like I am at the finish line. I am not really sure what will happen next, whether I will get an interview or be accepted into any of my target programs, but at least I know that I tried my absolute hardest and I can be proud of that. I have learned so much through this process and a lot has changed since I started my MBA journey. Today, I would like to take a moment to reflect…
What If I get an Interview?
Just a few hours ago, I submitted my Wharton MBA application. I am over a week ahead of the deadline and I am so happy that I did not wait until the last minute. I feel pretty good about the application and was very happy to have caught a last minute typo (eeeek!!). This gives me all of next week to tweak my Columbia essays. Two down, one to go for Round 1!
mbagirljourney 
