Stern (NYU)

"The interview was casual, conversational and the AdCom was very friendly. She had reviewed my application and started with an introduction of herself. Here were the questions: 1. A question about my pick six. 2. Why MBA, why now? 3. Tell me about the team you lead, what are the characteristics of the team that make it successful? 4. What is the biggest challenge do you anticipate during MBA? 5. How do you network in your field? 6. In a hypothetical situation, 10 years from now, you have to give a speech at a conference. What topic would you talk about and what would you say about Stern? 7. Do you have coding experience?"

"Like most have said, my interview was very casual and started off with a quick ice breaker about my Pick 6. A lot of my questions were specific to my application and my non-traditional background (PR & Psychology major), so I wont go into specifics there. Relevant questions I had were: 1. How would your team describe you (both things you're good at and where you could improve)? 2. Why Stern? Why an MBA? Why now? 3. Greatest accomplishment? 4. How do you prioritize deadlines? 5. Do you have coding experience? 6. What would you do in NYC for a day? 7. Anything you'd like to add? 8. Questions for me? Tips: Know how to talk about your short term career goal, your plan B if you don't immediately get into your desired role, and how you'll leverage Stern's resources to get there. Also, just be yourself because this is an EQ interview. The AdCom member kept emphasizing that the team really prioritizes EQ in the people they choose. Answers that make you seem like you're overly competitive and don't thrive working in group environments might not land because the AdCom member noted that their current class is strong in these particular soft skills."

"Conversational, friendly interview with a member of the AdCom who had reviewed my profile thoroughly. Skipped introduction. Questions were as follows - 1. How would your team describe you? 2. What exactly does your business offer and would you be working there while at school? 3. Short term goal - companies in mind and their locations? flexible in location or NYC? 4. Transferable skills? 5.If you had a free Saturday in New York, how would you spend it? 6. A gap in your resume for your future recruiter and how would you combat it? 7. Why the need for an MBA and why now? 8. Anything you would like to touch upon? 9. Questions for me"

"Interview was very conversational and was conducted by a member of the admissions committee. Based on the interview reports I had read, I was expecting to be challenged on my short-term goals and recruiting strategy, but that part of the interview felt tougher than expected. So my number 1 tip would be to make sure you can defend your short-term goal and make a case for how Stern will help you get there, especially if you intend on recruiting for traditional industries like IB or consulting. 1. Question from Pick 6 2. Summary of your career post graduation? 3. What does a typical day at work look like for you? 4. Short-term goals? 5. Companies you will be targeting in IB? 6. Recruiting Plan for IB? 7. What do you think is the toughest part of recruiting in IB? 8. What will give you an edge in IB recruiting? 9. What will you do if you don’t get an internship/job in your target industry? 10. How will you get to your long-term goal given it is niche? (The long-term goal I wrote about was very niche, so I had to explain how my short-term goal and resources as Stern will help me get there) 11. Clubs you want to be a part of at Stern? 12. A time you demonstrated EQ? 13. Anything else you want the admissions committee to know? 14. Any questions for me?"

"He started with Six pics then delved into Why MBA?Why Stern? Recruitment Plan? Goals? Any feedback from your mentor you learnt? What can I take back to Admissions Committee? How can you contribute to Stern? Highest achievement? Two strengths and weakness as a leader. What would you like to improve as a leader. Any time when you included suggestions of your teammate"

"Had my interview with Benjamin Austin - Adcom member, yesterday. We connected on a lot of aspects, be it sports, travel or our motivations to pursue an MBA. The interview was very conversational and focused on EQ aspect. There were a lot of follow-up questions based on my answers which I really liked. My conversations with current students and coffee chat before my interview really helped me with a lot of insights which I was able to utilize during my interview and I think even Ben sort of acknowledged a lot of these aspects. Listing down a few typical questions which I can remember from my conversation with Ben: 1. Brief introduction 2. Choice of undergrad degree and how it helped me in my career 3. Questions related to professional certifications like CA, CFA etc. 4. Most tricky project that I worked on and what were the learnings. 5. Leadership - What is my leadership style, what are my strength and the areas where I can make improvements 6. Experience of managing a team, resolving conflicts and situations where I relied on inputs/ideas of my team members 7. Why NYU? What would be my recruitment strategy for internship and a job later on? 8. My preferred choice of industry sectors to work for after 3-4 years of my MBA. I was told that they will revert with a decision on my application within 2-3 weeks."

"I was interviewed by a member of the admissions committee. Here are a few questions I was asked: 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Professional achievement you are most proud of 3. A question on something from my pick 6 4. Why MBA? 5. Why Stern? 6. How will you contribute to the Stern community? 7. Plan B. What if I don't get an internship in the industry I would like to? 8. How I plan to get an internship or job in the industry I want. The interviewer started with a brief introduction about himself and overall made me feel comfortable during the interview."

"I had my interview with Stern today. The Adcom member had read my profile beforehand and was friendly. Most of the questions catered to my specific experiences so I don’t think those would add much value to this post. However, some general behavioral questions were: 1. Your leadership style and What do you bring to a team? 2. How will you reach your long-term goals? 3. How are you planning to improve your leadership style? 4. Tell me about a time you have incorporated another team member’s idea to change your course of action? 5. Tell me about a time you used your problem-solving skills. 6. Tell me about a time your creative hobbies have helped with your professional life? 7. How are you planning to contribute to Stern community? 8. Anything we missed? 9. Any questions? I think the adcom member was just trying to assess if I am a good fit for Stern. I Will find out in 3 weeks! Good luck to everyone else applying!"

"I was interviewed by an AdCom member. He was really friendly to begin with, and put me at ease right at the start of the interview. - I was first asked to introduce myself, which led to a few questions around my work experience as a consultant - most formative professional experience, leadership examples, etc. - I was then asked about my motivation behind an MBA and why an MBA now specifically. - The AdCom also dug deep into my short and long term goals, and how Stern aligns with them. - Towards the end I was asked if I had any questions for the AdCom. The interview lasted for 30~35 minutes and overall had a very conversational, friendly vibe. The school just wants to know the person behind the application and wishes to assess your fit with Stern."

"Interview with AdCom Director, quick and interviewer had already reviewed my application. -"Tell me about this interest you listed on your resume" -Why MBA now? -What are some companies you want to work with? Why? -What kind of person are you on a team? Behavioral follow-up question -Any questions for me?"

"It was a short and quick interview. Interviewer already knew about my application, and profile. She was very empathetic and lively. Questions asked. 1. Current Job 2. Which courses in MBA I will chose. 3. Post MBA Targated companies. 4. What will I do in new york and which companies I will work with."

"The interview was very pleasant. Interview was with an adcom over Zoom. She was an alum that also pivoted career (I'm looking to move to FinTech/Asset Mgmt from programming). Started off with talking about pick six and remarking that there seemed to be a big focus on family. No real question like what I've read but gave me a chance to quickly talk about how I liked the Pick Six essay and how my mom was super excited to send in one of my baby pictures. Questions Asked Included: - Summarize your work experience - What are you doing currently? (my last position on my resume ended in June 2020) - Why Stern? - What do you plan to do in-between now and starting at Stern? Overall with 5 min for introductions and 5 min left at the end for questions, the interview goes by very quickly."

"Very conversational as mentioned by many below. Here is a pretty accurate breakdown of the questions asked -Two questions related to pick six -Why is x person a role model for you? -What are your strengths -What is your leadership style? -What would your colleagues say about you -Walk me through your career journey -Tell me about your day to day job -Highlight in your career -What is another short term goal you have other than ones listed in your essay -What is dream job/company -What is your Plan B -MBA is both tech and business, which of the two would your prioritize -How did you get coding exposure -Any questions for me?"

"I also had my interview today! Agree with everything said above. It was very conversational and since she had read my whole application beforehand, i didn’t really have to repeat anything already on my application. She said we should hear back in 3-4 weeks. Good luck to everybody else with upcoming interviews!"

"I had my interview today it was really friendly and conversational. Interviewer had detailed knowledge of my application and asked questions based on that. I also got asked why stern and why mba? There wasn’t a high level tell me about yourself question as the interviewer had the application. Best of luck to everyone. Be yourself and know your application is the best advice I can give."

"I interviewed with an Adcom member via Zoom. The interview was very conversational and structured at the same time. Questions asked were as follows: - Question about one hobby I highlighted in Pick 6. - What is my work like in my current role? - Why MBA? - What if Plan A doesn't work out? - Recruitment strategy - Leadership style - What roles do you generally take in a team? - How would your colleagues describe you: Your Strengths and Weaknesses? - Why Stern? - Any question for the interviewer Other tips apart from interview questions: - Goes without saying, try to reach out to as many Stern alum / current students as you can to refine your answers for questions like Recruitment Strategy, Why Stern. This, I believe, was most instrumental in my prep. Sternies are amazing people! - Sort your technology well in advance. (I didn't realize that video calls drain my laptop's battery pretty quickly. Was left with 5% when the call ended. Got lucky!) - Sort your background and lighting conditions. Ideally, do a test video call with a friend before finalizing your seating spot. Sometimes, the virtual image comes out to be quite different than what you would imagine."

"I had the interview via Skype with an adcom member. It was much more informal than I expected. Yet, the questions were centered around my career goals and recruitment strategy. 1)Initial question about my pick six 2)Two key highlights from my resume 3)One example showing that I could derive insights from data 4)How do you plan to benefit from Stern's office of career development 5)What would be your recruitment strategy 6)Why do you want to pursue that specific post MBA career (social impact) 7)Why do you want to switch careers now? 8)Target companies 9)Plan B if career goal doesn't work 10)What would be the challenging part of pursuing your post MBA goal 11)Where do you see yourself 10-20 years from now 12)Follow up question on my career goal 13)Anything else you want to mention to admissions committee 5 minutes were left for my questions and I asked two questions. Overall I had a positive experience but my advice would be to be prepared for recruitment related questions."

"If you interview on Diversity Days or Women’s Day, you may interview with an Alum and your experience may be different. With the regular scheduled Adcom interviews, the important thing to note is that this is not a blind interview. They know everything about you. They read your resume, your essays, looked at your Pick Six, everything. It’s very conversational and comfortable but it is structured. They started off with an icebreaker question picked off from one of the interesting fun facts from my application. I sectioned off the questions I remembered into two groups: Why MBA/Why Stern: -Why did you choose your career path over others that may be similar? -What skills from your background will help you in your chosen career path, and what would you like to learn at Stern to supplement this? -What aspects of the MBA program at Stern excite you the most? -How are you going to use the career development and recruiting tools that Stern has to offer? Behavioral questions: -Describe your daily work routine in 30 seconds. -What would your boss or colleagues say is the best part and most challenging part about working with you? -What is the most exciting part about your job? Can you give an example of that? -What is the role you would typically take on in a 4-6 person team? -What are your hobbies outside of work? (don’t just list the hobbies, tell them what the challenge is, what you learn from them) Bottom line, know your behavioral stories like the back of your hand. STAR-L (Situation, Task, Action, Result, what I Learned) format always. It helps to write them down in bullet form so you have the details down without sounding memorized. View the rest of the interview reports and prepare answers for those too. Good luck!"

"Interviewed on campus with an admissions committee member. True to other debriefs here, the interview was very much a conversation, the interviewer was extremely open and receptive and it felt like I was talking to a friend. Started out with a general conversation about my travel into NYC (I'm an international student) and how I was finding my time in the city. We then progressed to a more focused conversation about my interest in the program. She mentioned that the interview was more of an informal avenue for her to figure out my personal motivations and how I would fit into the class rather than a conversation about my resume and achievements, which really put me at ease. Some questions asked were: Why MBA? Why Stern? What is your leadership style? How would your managers describe you? (I had earlier spoken about my admiration for one of my recommenders, which eventually led to this question) What are 3 strengths of yours, and one weakness? How do you build relationships within your team, outside of work? Why your specific career path? How would you like your friends to describe you one year from now? She ended with some time for questions from me. The entire interview lasted 35 minutes or so, but it honestly breezed by thanks to how comfortable I was. Best of luck to all of you who read this!"

"I interviewed virtually with a member of the Adcom via Zoom. It was easy-going and very friendly. To the extent that I remember the questions, here they are: 1) Walk me through your resume. 2) How and why did you choose the role you have now? 3) Tell me about a formative professional experience. 4) Why an MBA, why now? 5) Why NYU? 6) What is something work-related that you find difficult, draining, or exhausting? 7) What sort of support do you expect to get from the Office of Career Development? 8) What's your post-MBA plan, and why have you chosen that? 9) What clubs or organizations will you participate in at NYU? 10) What questions do you have for me? Altogether, it was a pleasant experience."

"Q1) about current role- what do I do, why I recently shifted- I kind of did not answer the why I shifted, just went off the flow Q2) leadership style Q3) which role do I regret doing Q4) which role I enjoyed doing the most Q5) a time when I had a problematic colleague Q6) what in leadership you want to achieve from stern Q7) post MBA goal Q8) backup plan Q9) why stern Q10) any questions for me Interview lasted 30 minutes. Some questions were on the spot that I really wasnt ready for. The interviewer asked me where all I am going after my trip to NY. Pretty relaxed otherwise. It was conducted by adcoms."

"This interview was 100% not relaxing haha. I did it in China, and basically, it was very free-flow. The AO knew all of my details and was willing to challenge me on almost everything and basically did. I finished the interview, thinking I had bombed all my chances for Stern. My advice---know yourself, know the school and curriculum very well, be ready for tough questions."

"Interviewed in London with a member of the AdCom. It was fairly chill though she tried to stick pretty closely to the allotted time, restricting her period asking questions to around 25 ish mins. She asked: 1. Why now 2. Why NYU 3. What firms are you looking at (for consulting roles - being my stated post-graduation goal) 4. How do you think you'll manage the recruiting process 5. What's your role on a team 6. Are you directly responsible for anyone / do you have any direct reports 7. What's your managerial style I was pretty worried before-hand as I'd only managed about 2.5 hours sleep the night before due to a manic period at work but thankfully there was a really good vibe. I got the admit decision just under two weeks after the interview."

"My interview was with a trained admissions professional. It was a pretty smooth conversation with no curveballs at all. They're honestly just trying to gauge what kind of person you are, whether you know what you want out of business school, and what you will bring to the table at Stern.The questions I got (off the top of my head) were: 1. Tell me about your current job? 2. Why MBA? 3. Why Stern? 4. Why now? 5. What would your clients say about you (I am in consulting, so this was catered to my profile)? 6. What would you do for fun in NYC? There were some more questions, but they were just follow-up questions based on my responses/profile. I wouldn't go head over heels to prepare, since these are questions you ideally should have thought about while writing your application. The one major piece of feedback I have is to really make a a clear transition from your current experience to where you want to go ideally. This will require some thought for people making complete career switches. For me, I am a career switcher and alluded to soft skills and passions that made me a viable candidate for my post-mba goals. I was admitted under 2 weeks after my interview."

"I interviewed during Stern Perspectives Weekend. On the actual day of the interview, I was greeted with a folder with information on the groups I had mentioned in my application, and at the end of the day, I received the t-shirt. They interview a lot of applicants that weekend, so my interview was with an alumna, on campus. I had a great experience, no curveballs, she seemed genuinely interested in learning more about me, my goals and how Stern fit in my plans. The whole conversation lasted about 30 minutes, but it flew by! I really enjoyed Stern Perspectives Weekend, and highly recommend to everyone invited to interview that weekend to attend, it was a lot of fun and it made the whole experience a lot easier! I was admitted a little less than 2 weeks later"