Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview

Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview Maybe you are among the unlucky applicants who were/are on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head trying to understand why you did not get into an MBA program. As you look back and assess where you went wrong, you may narrow your focus and re-examine your interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right?  Your rejection  must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 to 60 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right?  Not at all. Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a “consensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].” Each file is read multiple times. With the need for a consensus, we can safely conclude that the committee is not waiting on the interview as  the  determinant. There is no post-interview snap judgment but rather serious thought and reflection by the admissions officers. Although we have discussed this topic before, it is worth repeating that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive/reactive.  Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt youâ€"but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was  the  determinant of the admissions committee’s decision. mbaMission offers even more interview advice in our free  Interview Primers, which are available for 17 top-ranked business schools. Share ThisTweet Admissions Myths Destroyed Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview Maybe you are among the unlucky applicants who were/are on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head trying to understand why you did not get into an MBA program. As you look back and assess where you went wrong, you may narrow your focus and re-examine your interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right?  Your rejection  must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 to 60 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right?  Wrong. Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a “consensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].” Each file is read multiple times. With the need for a consensus, we can safely conclude that the committee is not waiting on the interview as  the  determinant. There is no post-interview snap judgment but rather serious thought and reflection by the admissions officers. Although we have discussed this topic before, it is worth repeating that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive/reactive.  Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt youâ€"but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was  the  determinant of the admissions committee’s decision. mbaMission offers even more interview advice in our free  Interview Primers, which are available for 17 top-ranked business schools. Share ThisTweet Admissions Myths Destroyed Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview Maybe you are among the unlucky applicants who were/are on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head trying to understand why you did not get into an MBA program. As you look back and assess where you went wrong, you may narrow your focus and re-examine your interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right?  Your rejection  must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right?  Wrong. A former Wharton admissions director previously explained to us that there are no post-interview snap judgments. At Wharton, files are read multiple times before and after the interview, and “the interview report is placed into the file [after the interview], and the file gets recirculated and read a fourth time by a member of the admissions committee. It may get read a fifth time or even a sixth time. [For] most applications at that point, it gets pretty competitive,” according to the former admissions director. At Wharton, the admissions committee is not waiting for an enthusiastic report to confirm a decision it has already made; rather, the committee is using the interview as a part of the evaluative process as it weighs applicants against their peers. Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a “consensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].” Like at Wharton, each file is read multiple times. With the need for a consensus, we can safely conclude that the committee is not waiting on the interview as  the  determinant. Again, there is no post-interview snap judgment but rather serious thought and reflection by the admissions officers. Although we have discussed this topic before, it is worth repeating that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive/reactive.  Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt youâ€"but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was  the  determinant of the admissions committee’s decision. Share ThisTweet Admissions Myths Destroyed Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview Maybe you are one of the unlucky applicants on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head and struggling to understand why you were not accepted to your target MBA program. As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right? Your rejection must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 to 60 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right? Not at all. Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a “consensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].” Each file is read multiple times. We can safely conclude that with the need for a consensus, the committee is not waiting on the interview as the determinant. Admissions officers do not make any post-interview snap judgments but rather dedicate serious thought and reflection to their decision making. Although we have discussed this topic before, we should repeat that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive or reactive. Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt youâ€"but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was the sole deciding factor for the admissions committee. mbaMission offers even more interview advice in our free  Interview Guides, which are available for 17 top-ranked business schools. Share ThisTweet Admissions Myths Destroyed Blog Archive MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed I Must Have Botched the Interview Maybe you are among the unlucky applicants who were/are on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head trying to understand why you did not get into an MBA program. As you look back and assess where you went wrong, you may narrow your focus and re-examine your interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right?  Your rejection  must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 to 60 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right?  Wrong. Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a “consensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].” Each file is read multiple times. With the need for a consensus, we can safely conclude that the committee is not waiting on the interview as  the  determinant. There is no post-interview snap judgment but rather serious thought and reflection by the admissions officers. Although we have discussed this topic before, it is worth repeating that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive/reactive.  Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt youâ€"but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was  the  determinant of the admissions committee’s decision. mbaMission offers even more interview advice in our FREE  Interview Primers,  which are available for 17 top-ranked business schools. Share ThisTweet Admissions Myths Destroyed Interviews