With the interviewing season in full swing, I thought it would be valuable to share some of the questions that are being reported from among the most competitive programs.

Obviously, you have to be well prepared for the standard questions: Why an MBA? Why this school?

What are your short term/long term career goals? How cool is Ben?
(okay, scratch that last one). You get the idea.

Yes, you’ll be asked the questions above. But, there are scores of others you need to be ready for. These can be lumped roughly into five categories.

1. How much do you know about us.
2. “Tell me about a time when.”
3. How thoughtful/mature/self-aware you are.
4. How smart you are.
5. What are you like outside of work.

Here are some actual recent examples of each:

Category 1

·   What clubs would you be interested in joining here?
·   What are you interested being involved in while here?
·   What do you find appealing about our school?

Category 2

·   Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership.
·   Tell me about a team situation that did not work.
·   Tell me about a time you contributed to someone else’s success.
·   Tell me about a time when your expectations were not met.
·   Tell me about a time you failed at something and what you learned from it.

Category 3

·   Describe your leadership style.
·   What do your colleagues most admire about you?
·   What would your peers say about you?
·   How would the people you work for describe you as a manager?
·   What three words would you use to describe yourself?
·   What are your strengths and weaknesses?
·   What will you do if you don’t get into an MBA program?
·   How do you define success?

Category 4

·   If you were CEO of your company, what would you do?
·   How would you develop a marketing strategy for…?
·   Tell me about a challenge your company faces and how you’d address it.

Category 5

·   Tell me about a book you’ve read and what you learned from it.
·   What is something you’re interested in outside of work?
·   What do you do for fun?
·   If money were not an issue, what would you do with your time?

And finally, many interviewers will ask you what other schools you’re applying to. No need for strategizing here, and certainly no benefit in lying. Simply answer the question in a matter of fact way and move on. Just as I’m doing now.

Using my finely honed investigative skills, I’ve been able to obtain the results from Kaplan’s most recent survey of 260 business school admissions officers, including many from the most selective schools.  Of course by “investigative skills” I mean I simply asked for them.

Here’s some of the juicier tidbits:

51% of admissions officers stated that the number of applicants reporting they are unemployed has increased. In the past, being unemployed was commonly considered a blot on an application, but today’s economic reality seems to be changing that.

Among the 76% of schools that currently don’t accept the GRE as a substitute for the GMAT, almost 9 out of 10 reported that they most likely will not consider changing their policy.  So much for the GRE’s plans for world domination.

Slightly more than one quarter of officers surveyed reported an increase in applicants directly from college. That suggests that the outreach efforts of some schools to expand the number of direct from college students is having some impact, but at this point it’s not particularly widespread.

And finally, when asked what one factor would most be considered an application killer, 44% of the officers said a low GMAT score, by far the most common response. By contrast 27% said a low GPA,  and 10% said a lack of work experience.  For all the discussion from admissions officers that they take a holistic approach to every application and that no single factor is more important than any other, it remains wise to approach the GMAT very seriously.  Because evidently, that’s what admissions officers do.

Keep in mind that when reviewing an application, admissions officers first assess whether they believe a candidate can succeed academically.  And while the overall quality of the application can help bolster the board’s confidence in a candidate’s capabilities, the GMAT sticks out like no other data point.  Even your grades can be considered somewhat subjective because admissions officers factor in the reputations of schools, the rigor of coursework, and the possibility of grade inflation.  The GMAT, whatever your feeling about it, remains the purest objective measure in the application.

So there you have the survey feedback from admissions officers.  In my next post, I’ll share what I heard directly from them at the World MBA events I participated in recently around the country.