Wharton’s Interview Questions For Applicants Leak by: John A. Byrne on November 21, 2010 | | 44,070 Views November 21, 2010 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit The interview has become an essential step in the admissions process at all top business schools. Unlike Harvard, whose admissions staff does virtually all of the applicant interviews, Wharton heavily relies on alumni and second-year MBA students to conduct these sessions with applicants. Admissions staff does a minority of the interviews. In a typical year, Wharton will interview between 30% and 50% of all its applicantsāfar more than either Harvard or Stanford. Most schools that enlist alumni to do interviews, including Stanford University and Northwestern Universityās Kellogg School of Management, suggest questions alums should ask but those interviews are less structured than the new behavioral approach adopted by Wharton this year. The variety of questions in those interviews tends to be open-ended versus the new Wharton model, which dictates that only three of six standardized questions be used. The switch to behavioral interviewing was first disclosed in a Poets&Quants interview with a top admissions consultant earlier this month. Itās not clear why Wharton chose to go the behavioral route. Some observers speculate that its traditional interview process turned up weaker students than it wanted last year, or that admissions simply believed the process would make it easier to winnow out the large number of applicants the school invites to interview sessions. In the presentation, Kumar points out that ātraditional interviews can be subjective and often end up assessing the candidateās interviewing capability, rather than their suitability for the MBA program.ā Traditional interviews, she adds, also duplicates many of the findings in the applicationāsummarizing professional experience when a school already has a resume and essays that draw out professional goals. As a result, says Kumar, they failed to add new or substantive information to the application. APPLICANT āQUESTIONS ARE NOT EXACTLY STATE SECRETS.ā It isnāt clear how many consultants are using all of this information to coach their clients, but itās common knowledge that coaching for interviews is done and often based on posts by applicant willing to share their experiences. āThe questions typically asked at MBA interviews are not exactly state secrets,ā says Linda Abraham, of Accepted.com, a major admissions consulting firm. āThe actual questions are posted on applicant blogs and forums and shared in our database and in Clear Admitās wiki. We definitely use publicly available information in coaching our clients.ā Abraham, however, said she is not aware of the leaked presentation. āWe are not using any such information.ā THIS YEARāS SIX KEY QUESTIONS TO WHARTON APPLICANTS. Wharton alums are being told to ask applicants three questions, selected from six, on three ācompetenciesā identified by students, alumni, recruiters, and faculty as key factors in the success of a Wharton student: āteam building,ā āfacilitative leadership,ā and āpersuasive communication.ā The questions on āteam buildingā are: āDescribe a time when you have been working toward the completion of an important task, when it has been necessary to consider the opinions and feelings of others.ā āDescribe a time when you have worked as part of a team working towards an important goal, when you have addressed conflict between two or more team members.ā The questions on āfacilitative leadershipā are: āDescribe a time when you have worked with others to complete an important task, when there was no formally appointed group leader.ā āDescribe a time when you have ensured an important task has been completed, when you felt others were less focused than you on completing the important task.ā The questions on āpersuasive communicationā are: āDescribe a time when you have had to persuade others to your way of thinking, when at first they did not buy into your idea.ā āDescribe a time when your ideas have been challenged by others, requiring you to defend your opinions.ā HOW WHARTON WANTS ITS INTERVIEWERS TO FOLLOW-UP. Kumar then suggests follow-up questions that alums are to ask applicants after they give their answers. Under team building, for example, the additional questions are: āWhat exactly did you do?ā āDescribe specifically how you did that?ā āTalk me through what you did?ā Under āfacilitative leadership,ā the follow-ups are: āHow did it work out?ā āWhat was the outcome?ā āHow did you measure the success of what you did?ā Previous Page Continue ReadingPage 2 of 3 1 2 3 Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.