Your MBA Interview Prep: Make a Claim and Back it Up Responses

This blog series covers the types of questions you can expect to receive in your MBA interview.

“What is …[the most important leadership trait]?”

Claim questions are simple and direct—but your answer should be complex and direct. Just like with your SAR responses, you will want to use stories here, not just statements. They may ask about attributes or skills you have but they're not looking for a list, they're looking for examples of when you’ve exhibited those things. Go ahead and use multiple examples! They don't all have to be long, but they should be detailed. 

Some questions will be about your future goals. Think: "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" A question like this should still be backed up with experiences, if possible, or anecdotes that prove that you have the skills necessary to achieve this goal. You’ll also want to include what you hope to learn in business school that will position you for success.

Other claim questions will require you to showcase your critical thinking. “What advice would you give to your classmates who are interested in working in your current industry?” Don’t just provide advice, tell a story from your experience that inspired this wisdom. 

Questions could also seem to require opinion-only responses. Something like: "How do you feel about your company’s CEO?" But don't get it twisted. This is a "make a claim and back it up"-question. You believe the leader is succeeding (or not) “because…" 

Other “make a claim and back it up”-questions that you may be asked: 

• How will you add to the diversity of our school? 

• What is your greatest strength?

• How do you deal with ambiguity? 

• What traits are the most important for a leader to have?

• What is your management style?

Your MBA Interview Prep: SAR Responses

This blog series covers the types of questions you can expect to receive in your MBA interview.

“Tell me about a time when…”

Throughout your MBA interview, we encourage you to share anecdotes whenever possible. But there are some questions that you MUST answer with a story. These are "SAR responses" because you'll describe the situation (20% of the response), the action you took, and the result (collectively 80% of the response). Some SAR prompts will be familiar because they are commonly used in interviews. You may have also used some of these anecdotes in your essay responses. Go right ahead and reuse any applicable application content. Those were your experiences and your takeaways, after all. There's no need to invent a whole new self. 

Consider how you would respond to prompts like these:

• Describe a failure and what you learned from it.

• Tell me about a time when you challenged the group consensus.

• Tell me about a time when you took on a leadership role.

• Tell me about an experience when you learned from people different from yourself.

• Tell me about a time when you developed an imaginative solution to a problem. 

Your MBA Interview Prep: Articulate Why You Want This MBA (Not Just an MBA)

This blog series covers the types of questions you can expect to receive in your MBA interview.

“Why our MBA?”

“Why our MBA?” Or: “Tell me why you are interested in this program,” etc. This interview prompt will appear, in some form, early on in your interview.

Make it clear how this MBA will help you to achieve your goals. Your response should include school-specific details, like what classes or experiential learning opportunities you'll take advantage of, what unique resources you’ll utilize that maybe aren't available at other schools, which professors you're eager to learn from, the student clubs you'd like to join, the names of companies you’re interested in that recruit from the program, and maybe even what you like about the area. And don’t forget to bridge these details with your past experiences and future goals to reinforce your interest in these offerings. 

Whatever you do, don't say something ingratiating and general: "It's an esteemed program where I'll learn from esteemed professors who lead in their esteemed fields." We're teasing about this phrasing, but go deep rather than broad. Answer the question with a few salient details and you'll be golden.

Your MBA Interview Prep: Prepare a Three-Minute Elevator Pitch

This blog series covers the types of questions you can expect to receive in your MBA interview.

“Tell me about yourself.”

The first question your interviewer asks will likely be something general that invites the widest-ranging answer. This question comes in many forms. It could be as short and blunt as: Tell me about yourself. It could be: Walk me through your resume. It could be: Talk to be about anything you believe will enhance your candidacy for admission. 

These opening questions require a three-minute answer. Think of it as an elevator pitch response. Naturally, your response should reiterate your commitment to pursuing an MBA and make it clear why an MBA will benefit your career and help you to bridge your past experiences with your future goals. It is okay to stay in a linear timeline: I did X and transitioned to Y. What's important is explaining the motivation behind your decisions. You can also share who you are via your three most impactful experiences. 

Practice some possible responses to ensure you're not going wildly under or over the three-minute mark. Don't try to memorize anything word-for-word as this will lead to fumbling with your words or coming off as wooden. But have an outline in mind—some milestones you know you want to pass. 

Some sub-questions you might answer to build your "Tell me about yourself"-answer are:

• What was your path to this point? Did you always know you would pursue a career in business?

• How has your work experience prepared you for business school?

• Do you want to expand on any meaningful professional experiences and how they reinforced your interest in graduate business education?

• What are your post-MBA career goals? 

• How will an MBA bridge your past with your future? 

• What fun fact about you could you close on?

Admissions committees like it when applicants include personality in their answers, especially when answering this question. Revealing something fun about yourself encourages a connection between you and the interviewer.

Your MBA Interview: Practical Tips

Amidst your pre-interview preparation, don’t overlook day-of planning. Review our tips below to ensure that you feel your most confident when the day arrives.

What to bring:

Theoretically, you need to bring nothing. The interviewers have everything they need from you already. But there are a couple of things that we suggest you bring along to an in-person interview (which, if possible, we recommend you choose over the virtual interview).

1. An extra copy of your resume. It never hurts to have an extra copy in the case your interviewer asks for one.  

2. A copy of your application. This application isn't for you to hand over to your interviewer. This copy is for you. Review it while you're waiting so that you can refresh your nervous brain and stick to the same takeaways. You should feel prepared to talk about any experience included within the application and/or resume. If you feel you've reviewed this application all you can review it, take a break, and read the newspaper or a book while you wait. 

3. A notebook. You can and should ask questions during your interview too. Feel free to bring yours prewritten and jot down shorthand versions of your interviewers' answers. Just be sure to look up and nod periodically as you write. 

4. The right clothing and accessories. You already know to wear something professional, but this tip has less to do with being interview-appropriate than with being activity- and weather-appropriate. If you're touring the campus before or after your interview, wear or bring comfortable shoes. If it's going to rain, bring an umbrella. If you're from Florida and you don't have a warm coat, borrow or buy one before your interview in Boston. When you're engrossed in interview prep, these are the kinds of things you'll forget. 

5. Water and a pain reliever. Being physically uncomfortable during your interview is a nightmare. Make sure to bring a bottle of water that you can sip prior to your interview, and if you're prone to stress headaches, have some pain medication on your person. 

6. Fun plans. You might live in this city or town someday. If you have the time, explore it. This will give you something to look forward to after your interview, and it might come up in interview small talk. "Will you be doing anything while you're in town?” Yes! I'm checking out the botanical garden this afternoon. This simultaneously shows your interest in the area and makes you seem like you have a life and interests outside of studying.

Your MBA Interview: Practical Tips

You’ve been invited for an MBA interview. Congratulations! Amidst your pre-interview preparation, don’t overlook day-of planning. Review our tips below (and check back tomorrow) to ensure that you feel your most confident when the day arrives.

Morning of your interview:

• Review your application. Don’t forget that anything included in your application could be grounds for discussion. If you have any red flags, be prepared to discuss them calmly.

• Practice brief answers to common questions aloud. This might include your introductory elevator speech (“Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume”) and “Why this program?”.

• Eat something light and plain and be sure to hydrate. 

Writing Tips to Ensure Your MBA Application Essays are Memorable

We’ve gathered up our top five writing tips and will share one each day this week to help you incorporate personality and bring your MBA application essays to life. 

Don’t forget the basics. One of our mottos is: "Clarity above all things." When you write an essay for your application, leave no room for misinterpretation. The reader needs to see the story how you do. Crisp and untangled writing is also best given character count limitations and how much you need to share.

Writing Tips to Ensure Your MBA Application Essays are Memorable

We’ve gathered up our top five writing tips and will share one each day this week to help you incorporate personality and bring your MBA application essays to life. 

Make it universal. Let the reader share in your learning by making it about more than yourself and your own experience. Look for the transcendence and let the admissions committee in on it. You didn’t just overcome a fear of public speaking, you learned to challenge yourself and break past self-constructed barriers. You didn’t just overcome cultural differences while working in a diverse group, you learned about seeking out commonalities with others. Whatever it is you learned, dig deep for that universal finding that will help to ensure your reader finishes your essay feeling they are better off for the experience. 

Writing Tips to Ensure Your MBA Application Essays are Memorable

We’ve gathered up our top five writing tips and will share one each day this week to help you incorporate personality and bring your MBA application essays to life. 

Embrace emotion. Take a lesson from advertising. What do the best commercials have in common? They make you feel something—humor, pride, sorrow. As you write your essay responses, ensure that you use emotion to connect with your reader. And, this doesn’t necessarily mean recounting only sad or difficult times. Rather, it means bringing your reader along on the full spectrum of your experience as you share a story from your life. We rarely feel just one emotion at a time, embrace the complexity.

Writing Tips to Ensure Your MBA Application Essays are Memorable

We’ve gathered up our top five writing tips and will share one each day this week to help you incorporate personality and bring your MBA application essays to life. 

Structure your writing to grab the reader’s attention. One of the goals of your writing is to inform, but it is equally important to engage your reader and get them personally invested in your journey. You might even take a cue from an action movie. When the lights go down and the curtain goes up, you see the star in a sports car going full throttle. What you don’t know, immediately, is who or where they are. Narrative writing does not have to be linear. After leading with an attention-grabbing scene, the writer can go back and provide additional context and information on what’s missing. 

Writing Tips to Ensure Your MBA Application Essays are Memorable

We see it all the time. You have compiled excellent professional and extracurricular experiences and great personal anecdotes. But, for some reason, when you write your essays they are still coming across as …flat.  We’ve gathered up our top five writing tips and will share one each day this week to help you incorporate personality and bring your essays to life. 

• Update your language. In your academic and/or professional life you likely use formal language in your written communications. However, we would caution you against being overly formal in your application writing. A personal essay is more like journalism than an academic paper. You're telling a story, and this one is about you. You want to sound intelligent and respectful but being a bit colloquial makes you appear confident and relaxed. As if to say, "This is who I am. This is who I plan to become." 

A great test is to read your writing aloud and see how easily it flows. Does your language feel natural or stilted? Does it sound like you? Make sure your writing style and language choices promote a connection between you and your reader.

Qualities to Highlight in Your MBA Application: Integrity and a Sense of Community

This week, we’ll examine the key tenets of the business school application: leadership, teamwork, innovation, and integrity. 

Integrity and a sense of community. Many leading business schools have missions that include educating principled leaders who will make a positive difference in the world. Business schools are, now more than ever, highly-attuned to applicants’ integrity and sense of civic responsibility. 

In what meaningful experiences did you elevate a community that you were a part of? What effect did you have on others? What effect did they have on you? What have you learned about finding common ground with those who are different from you?  What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Qualities to Highlight in Your MBA Application: Innovation

This week, we’ll examine the key tenets of the business school application: leadership, teamwork, innovation, and integrity. 

Innovation. The pace of change in business continues to speed up and business schools are looking for students who demonstrate skills in both critical and creative thinking and problem solving. 

Consider the following: In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? What did you learn? How did you feel?

Qualities to Highlight in Your MBA Application: Teamwork

This week, we’ll examine the key tenets of the business school application: leadership, teamwork, innovation, and integrity. 

Teamwork. Conducting business is a team endeavor. Accordingly, business school is a highly collaborative place where you will spend a lot of your team working together with your classmates. Highlight instances where you have shown humility and elevated the voices of others. 

Consider the following: During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others successfully? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? Have you had experiences with teams that were unsuccessful? What did you learn (remember: failures can provide great insight too!)?

Qualities to Highlight in Your MBA Application: Leadership

At Apply Point, we often remind our applicants that MBA programs are looking for individuals, not just resumes. Admissions committees want to understand the full spectrum of experiences that have led you to this point of your life and career, and have informed your future goals. But while you brainstorm, in addition to poignant personal experiences, be sure to keep in mind the key tenets of the business school application: leadership, teamwork, innovation, and integrity. This week, we’ll examine each of these core qualities.

Leadership. Throughout your application, you will want to showcase your ability to influence a team in order to accomplish a common goal. And keep in mind that there are many ways to demonstrate effective leadership. You don’t need to be the captain of a sports team or a club president to be an inspirational and persuasive leader. 

Consider the following: In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? What did you learn that you will incorporate into your leadership style in the future?

Letters of Recommendation: What to Avoid

Provide Your Recommenders With Specific Examples

The weakest type of letter is one that is too general—that lists your qualities but doesn't show them. The illustrative stories you provide (and you can do this in a bulleted list) should be unique for each recommender and should highlight the qualities you want the recommender to expand upon. These inputs will allow you to subtly influence the recommenders’ output and ensure the recommendation letters include concrete and varied examples that reinforce your existing application content. 

Do Not Write Your Own Recommendation Letter

Your supervisor might say, "I'm too busy; you write it, and I'll sign it." If a potential recommender puts you in a tough spot and only agrees to submit a letter that you’ve written, it is best to move on. It is often obvious to schools when an applicant has crafted the copy because of similarities in voice to other application components. 

Letters of Recommendation: Set Your Recommenders Up for Success

Set Your Recommenders Up for Success

Give your recommenders enough time to meet your request. We suggest at least eight weeks prior to submission. It is also helpful to give each one a short portfolio of information, which should include: 

• School names, recommendation questions, and submission date(s)

• Method for recommendation submission (e.g., online via link)

• Background information (academic, professional) and your future career goals

• Illustrative anecdotes from your work with this recommender, with particular emphasis on the following topics: varied and growing work responsibilities, performance at a high level (as judged by your project managers and peers) in a team environment, personal characteristics you want to highlight (e.g., determination, intelligence, creativity and/or leadership), recognition/awards, accomplishments, and your ability to grow from constructive criticism

• (Optional) Illustrative anecdotes from your extracurricular/personal life that will allow your recommender to show your abilities in community-building, and present you as a well-rounded, caring, approachable, and motivated person who would contribute to the MBA community

Letters of Recommendation: Think Strategically

Take a Strategic Viewpoint

If one of your essays is anchored in a story that shows the reader your critical thinking and problem-solving aptitude on a significant project, one of your recommenders could provide additional insight on this project in their letter. And, if this first letter of recommendation further emphasizes your innovation potential, the second should focus on other qualities, such as your ability to thrive in a collaborative environment. Furthermore, if you see gaps in your application, you may want to speak with one of your recommenders who could address them in his or her letter and share how you’ve grown from specific challenges.  

Letters of Recommendation: Select the Best Recommenders

Recommendation letters are not going to be what makes or breaks your MBA applications. But, if done right, a letter of recommendation can reinforce and expand upon key themes presented in other application components like your resume, essays, and short answers. This week on the blog, we’ll share some actions to take to make sure that happens.

Select the Best Recommenders

Most schools require two letters of recommendation from supervisors who have overseen your work in full-time post-baccalaureate employment. Of course, you will want to choose those you know will sing your praises, but also who can back up their claims on your abilities in the areas such as innovation, leadership, and teamwork with specific examples. The writers of your recommendation letters should know you well. Don’t ask the CEO you’ve seen in the elevator a few times because you think his title will impress admissions committees. Save requests to very senior colleagues with significant influence at a specific school (say, they're donors or members of the board) for letters of support, which they can send separate from your application to the Dean of the business school. 

A To-Do List for Your Personal Statement: See Feelings as Information

This week on the blog we’re providing you with a to-do list for your personal statement and school-specific essays. Check back frequently as we’ll provide one key area of focus each day this week. 

See feelings as information. If you can state or allude to how an experience made you feel, you will paint a dynamic picture for the admissions team. You can include "negative" emotions like fear but also positive ones like joy, camaraderie, and pride.

We don't believe in self-aggrandizing but don't self-deprecate either. We think the "pride"-vibe you're aiming for is best explained by organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant: "Downplaying your achievements is not the antidote to appearing arrogant. Humility is acknowledging your weaknesses, not denying your strengths. Generosity is elevating others, not diminishing yourself. Owning your success doesn't make you a narcissist—it makes you a role model.”

(Bonus!) Understand that you will rewrite most things. Embrace it. Know now that having to write several drafts is not a failure. It is a way to success.