We at General Education, are really delighted to share this interview experience with all MBA aspirants who are thinking for Cornell MBA.
Atul’s Profile Overview –
https://www.linkedin.com/in/atul-mohan-32457b17b
| Name | Atul Mohan |
| GMAT score | 730 |
| Undergraduate | MIT, Manipal |
| Company | Startup |
| Industry | Technology |
He shared his experience –
I interviewed with Cornell Adcom in Bangalore. It was scheduled for 12.30 PM in the afternoon. I already had an admit in hand which calmed my nerves before going in. It was delayed by 45 minutes because of prior interviews running longer. However, the Adcom was pretty apologetic and invited me for lunch.
The interview was very conversational. The questions revolved around my background, what motivated me towards an MBA and why Cornell was the best place for me.
The one question that She really focused on was my personal leadership example and even more, on the takeaways and what I could have done differently.
Based on my previous conversations with Cornell students/alums, I knew this was one school which really meant “community” (which is probably as common a word as “networking” in the MBA lingo). The Adcom wanted to know who were the current students/alums that I had spoken to and encouraged me to speak to even more alums/students to get a better sense of what Johnson and the wider Cornell community is like.
There were a lot of to-fro and follow up questions without the feeling of being grilled. There was no case to solve, no market sizing and certainly, no puzzles to tickle my brain.
The interviewer genuinely wanted to understand my reasoning behind my application, my decision to apply to Cornell Johnson and how I would be a good fit. We overshot the interview by 30 minutes which is almost always a good sign.
To prepare for the interview, I went through my essays, mock interviews with friends who were also applying for US B-schools and then, self-recording myself to improve my pitch.
I used the STAR format to prepare my examples around impact, leadership, conflict etc. which really helped me articulate my stories well.
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Please share what you have learned from this interview experience.
Good Luck!