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!
Something about pushing the submit button makes you immediately think about interviews – how to prep, how much time to devote to them and what your chances of landing one are. I also started to ask myself, “well, if I DO get an interview – what are my chances of getting accepted into Harvard, Wharton or Columbia’s program?”. All the schools I am considering publish their acceptance rate and the number of applicants, but very few publish the number or percentage of applicants that interview. Harvard is the big exception to this, you can easily find that they interview about 1,800 applicants a year. In contrast, the same statistic for Columbia was very difficult to find, and I am relying on an obscure blog post I found that states they interview approximately 50% of all applicants. As with most things, I decided to get this information down on paper, so that I can more fully understand the implications. Although, these numbers are from a mash-up of sources (with varying degrees of reliability), I think at least directionally, what I ended up with told me what I wanted to know.
It is sort of interesting that after you get over the initial hurdle of landing an interview, Harvard, the most selective school of the three I applied to in R1, is actually the one with the higher chance of getting accepted (again, that is POST-Interview…you or I have less than a 20% chance of getting the interview in the first place).
In terms of prepping for interviews, I have been working on compiling a list of questions from all over. After I am happy with this, I am going to put some talking points for each question and begin to do some mock interviews with a friend of mine that used to do them all the time for a staffing company. Next weekend, after submitting my Columbia application, my goal is to get my interview prep plan organized, so that I can start to execute on it and hopefully be very smooth when (and IF) I am extended an interview to any of my target schools.
Any other ideas on how to prep for interviews? Are the diagrams above surprising?
mbagirljourney 
I don’t dare think about intervews before I get an invitation
Right know, it’s more like “what if I don’t get any interview?” rolling around in my head.
It’s great that you stay so calm and professional during this whole process 🙂
Pretty. Really like the diagram. Shows that putting effort into the Harvard app might pay off as that is the major hurdle.
Thanks so much!
If you get an interview invitation from Wharton (or HBS or CBS) that would be great!
We have a few resources that might be of help:
1. http://info.accepted.com/mba-interview-prep
2. http://www.accepted.com/mba/businessschoolinterview.aspx
3. http://blog.accepted.com/2013/02/10/tips-for-tackling-team-interviews/
4. http://blog.accepted.com/2013/04/08/more-wharton-interview-tips/
Best,
Linda