Sandy – does it matter who interviews you for HBS interviews? I have heard that in some cases it is adcom member, the head of admissions, and in some cases it is an alum! Does it say anything about your candidacy and will it weigh more if its an alum vs the head of admissions? –IN SHORT, NO, BUT SEE NOTES BELOW

HMMMMM,AS TO ADCOM VS. SENIOR ADCOM OR DEE DEE HERSELF-SELF  I DONT THINK ADCOMS PRESELECT KIDS TO INTERVIEW, W. DEE OR SENIOR ONES PICKING THE INTERESTING CASES, ETC. IF THAT IS CASE, WHAT DEE CONSIDERS INTERESTING VS. WHAT I DO, WELL, A DIVIDE, SINCE I KNOW A LOT OF THE KIDS SHE INTERVIEWS AND THEY SEEM RANDOM, ALTHO MOST KIDS BEING INTERVIEWED ARE PRETTY IMPRESSIVE TO BEGIN WITH.

ONE THING THAT DOES HAPPEN W. A DEE INTERVIEW, WHICH TENDS TO BE LESS ROBOTIC AND MORE LIVELY THAN MOST OTHERS (“BUBBLY” ONE KID SAID) IS YOU ARE DOUBLING DOWN.  IF SHE LIKES YOU, YOU ARE IN, IF SHE DONT, YOU AINT.  THAT IS PROB LESS SO TO SOME FUZZY DEGREE W. OTHERS ADCOMS, WHOSE VIEWS MAY GET MEDIATED BY WRITTEN REPORTS, NOT BEINGG THERE WHEN DECISION IS MADE. ETC. ETC.

SOME KIDS–BUT RARE– DO GET SENT TO ALUMS, UNDER VARIOUS CASES, EITHER KID  REQUESTS. E.G. CALI INTER. AND NO SPOTS AVAILABLE, OR IN SOME CASES BY ORDER–E.G. INVITE OR LATER ARRANGEMENT.  THIS MAY HAPPEN MORE FREQ IN LATE INVITES, E.G. THE 50 SHE SAYS THAT ARE IN THE MAIL OR ON HER DESK. THERE ARE SOME FAMOUS AND BIGHEADED ALUMS WHO ENJOY DOING INTERVIEWS AND YOU FREQ HAVE AN OFF THE GRID EXPERIENCE, SOMETIMES AT THEIR HOUSE, FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. SCARY. STANFORD!!!!!

GETTING THE ALUM  SEEMS LIKE A WILD CARD TO ME, IN TERMS OF OUTCOME, B.C. THEY OFTEN DONT DO THE STANDARD HBS Q/A.  BUT  I DONT THINK ANY SPECIAL TYPE  KID IS SENT TO BIGFOOT THE ALUM, E.G. PRETTY GIRLS, OR FOOTBALL PLAYERS.  IT IS RANDOM AND MORE OFTEN W. NON “FIRST BURST” INVITES.

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MILITARY INTERVIEWS AT HBS

A MILITARY GUY ASKS:

but I think I’ll be drilled especially hard on “why MBA”, “what are your career goals”, etc.

What are your thoughts on how a military applicant should prepare and handle an HBS interview?

below is typical mil interview report

Sandy,

Had my HBS interiew yesterday on campus with ————, assistant admissions director.  It was actually much more straight forward than I thought.  She began by telling me that she and several other people had read my application and that her notes would go into my file for the final decision.  Standard intro.  Throughout the interview, it was apparent that she was very familiar with my story. She had a list of 3-4 questions that she said she wanted to talk about.  All specific things I mentioned in my essays and admin data.  Here’s the breakdown of the more general questions:

- Tell me about your _ job in college

- Why   army / why  service academy

- What can I contribute to the class

- Did I go to a class. –

Tell me about how did x in Iraq

- Tell me about your current job

- Challenges transitioning

- Tell me about what you learned from a mentor (personable leadership and the importance of communicating with your subordinates, leadership by walking around)

- Ever had a bad leader.  Did you learn anything

- Why HBS (

- How are you preparing for b school

- Anything else you’d like me to know

Interview was right at 30 min.  Maybe a couple min short of.   Only other thing, she never asked me about leadership.  I’m guessing she knew I had it.  Finally, she did ask me about my thoughts on the Petraus report.  I dodged saying that there are always things to improve and that it’s good that we’re having a conversation about it. 

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