Hi! My name is Cindy Sullivan and I am a senior consultant with Admissions Consultants, a consultancy firm for aspiring Graduate, Law School, Medical School, College and Business School applicants.
I am going to answer some common questions about the business school application process. But first, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I have a graduate degree in Human Services and Counseling from DePaul University where I graduated with distinction. After spending just over two years, as an Assistant Director for DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, I joined the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and an associate director of MBA program. During my two and a half years at the University of Chicago, I made literally hundreds of accept, reject and waiting list recommendations for the Graduate School of Business.
The interview is a critical part of the business school application process. This is your opportunity to bring your application to life and connect in a more personal way with the admission’s committee. You need to embrace this opportunity to showcase your excellent communication skills and help the interviewers see that you are the perfect candidate for their program. The most prepared applicants come across as professional, personable and interesting. Interviews that are often squeezed into thirty-minute lengths of time really expose your ability to articulate ideas clearly and concisely. Show evidence of your strong communication skills, intellectual curiosity, social skills, your self-confidence, teamwork success, work ethic, independence and adaptability. You must demonstrate these qualities with clear examples.
In my experience interviewing applicants, the superior interviewees remained undaunted and answered all questions concisely while providing examples and background to illustrate their responses. You can impress your interviewer by setting yourself apart and highlighting your unique qualities. You also need to know all about that program, and how you are a fit with that program this is so important, this level of preparation takes a lot of thoughtfulness and practice. I cannot say enough how you need to practice, practice, practice, you can practice with friends and family but most importantly try to conduct a mach interview with a professional who can actually give you constructive feedback. The mach interview can help you highlight your strengths and address potential areas of concern.
Before your interview you really need to organize a lot of information about yourself so that are not repetitive throughout the interview. For example, a common first question is, tell me about yourself? This question presents an opportunity to sort of plant the seeds of your strength to cultivate interest at the beginning of your interview. And as the interview moves along you should be able to surprise your interviewer a few times by giving them something new to consider. When answering questions like, describe your strengths, what are you passionate about? And did your colleagues describe you? You have the opportunity to offer fresh and diverse aspects of your character whereas some people make the mistakes of sort of repeating their strengths over and over in response to these questions.
Also, to maximize the impact of your answers, always be sure to back up your claims with examples and making your qualities unique and authentic and being them to life.
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