Smeal (Pennsylvania State University)

"Interviewed with Joy, 25 minutes 1. tell me about your professional background 2. Why Smeal? 3. Target companies after graduation? 4. What schools did you apply? 5. Do you have any questions for me?"

"My interview was approximately 40 minutes. During the interview I was asked the following questions: 1. What is your short-term goal? What do you want to accomplish exactly? 2. What's plan B if your short-term goals don't work out? 3. Why an MBA? Why is getting it now the right time? 4. What will be your biggest challenges coming here? 5. What is the biggest piece of professional criticism you have received? 6. What is a common misconception about you? 7. Tell me about a time you made a decision with imperfect data and what you did? 8. Describe a situation you were having trouble motivating your team. What did you do? 9. What are your strengths and weaknesses in regards to networking? 10. Tell me about an ethical dilemma you faced and what you did. 11. What other schools are you applying at? I hope this helps anyone who reads this, and I wish you good luck!"

"I thought my interview was loooooong and intense! Lol. So many questions, unlike the others who had about 5 questions. It lasted for about 40 minutes. I made sure I memorised the school site and was reeling out numbers and stats from the school site, almost as if my life depended on it. With the benefit of hindsight, I think my life literally depended on it. I knew that I had to get the fellowship! I did not have the greatest GRE score either, but knew I checked every other box. I had to nail this interview to eliminate any chances of doubt due to my score. The interviewer seemed impressed and even commented that I had obviously done my research! Word of advice, apply round 1, especially for internationals seeking funding! I cannot overemphasise this. I am talking out of experience. I had applied to other schools last year in round 2, mostly because I was so sure that I was gonna get accepted in round 1 of MSU – Eli Broad. Got dinged after the interview. I was devastated! Applied round 2 for others, and had delays because I had to write TOEFL. I think I might have even started competing with round 3 applicants at some point! Eventually I did not get significant funding from most of the schools I applied to. Right now, I've got full ride and an assistantship from one, a 45% tuition waiver from another and a fellowship from Smeal! Smeal truly looks at the candidate holistically, unlike other schools. You need to familiarise yourself with the school site. Smeal is all about fit, so best to know why you are applying to Smeal and not any other school. Questions asked: • Walk me through your current role as a manager. • Why Smeal? • What is your long term goal? • Tell me how your work experience fits into your long term goal. • Tell me about a challenging situation where you succeeded. • Tell me of the most challenging engagement you worked with and why. • What is the greatest misconception about you? How do you prove them wrong? • Most constructive feedback that you have been given and what did you do? • Know Smeal is obviously number 1 in Supply Chain, so what other reasons? • What other schools have you applied to and status? • What is your greatest concern about joining the Smeal MBA class? • What do you look out for in a team and what will you look out for in your MBA team? • Tell me of a time where you faced an ethical dilemma. • What qualities do you possess that you think will make you stand out in front of potential employers during interviews? Questions from me. I just got my decision and I received a fellowship!"

"Of all the schools that I interviewed with this season, the one with Smeal was by far the most intense. The interview lasted for around 45 minutes, and I was asked a lot of questions. I do not remember most of them, but two questions caught me off guard. I managed to improvise, and I consider myself lucky for that. 1. What is networking for you? How do you approach networking? 2. Have you ever had to deal with incorrect data? How did you respond to the situation? Apart from these two questions, I was also asked multiple behavioral questions such as the following 1. Walk me through your resume? 2. Why MBA? 3. Why Smeal? Here, I would like to emphasize that Smeal has a very small class size and hence it cares a lot about the fit. My advice would be to research their website, speak with current students/alum, adcoms, professors, and come up with points unique to Smeal, experiences that you want to have in your MBA. It was my approach to this question. 4. I was also asked questions regarding my short term and long term goals 5. I was asked questions regarding my resume. So again one more advice would be to know your resume thoroughly. Be prepared with anecdotes and stories for each part of the resume. Finally, I must emphasize that Smeal actually evaluates all the candidates holistically. So someone with a low GMAT score has an equal opportunity to get an admit as someone with a high score. Hope this helps, and all the best!!"

"My interview laster for a little over 45 minutes. That was completely unexpected from the previous interview experiences I had read about on the GMAT forums for Smeal. There weren't any questions out of the usual set. Walk me through your resume Why MBA why now WHY SMEAL - be sure you know the college inside out and you have a compelling reason for joining smeal. They really really care about fit! Ethical Dilemma. What did you do and what did you learn What are your expectations from the career services Tell me about your leadership style How will you contribute to smeal in the classroom Tell me about a challenging situation where you succeeded and one where you failed. What do you do for fun. Now these questions would probably be done in 30 minutes. But the thing is, because they care so much about fit, you can expect a follow up question on almost everything you say. Know your resume inside out. You should know why you put in what you have on your resume and what you learnt from the accomplishments you have listed. It was a very friendly and conversational interview where i could really tell that the interviewer was interested in knowing more about me. Hope this helps. Good luck!"

"Just finished my interview yesterday. For starters, I expected a Skype invite half an hour before the interview (similar to another interview). It was a little surprising to directly get a call at the scheduled time. So just be ready in advance to accept the call :) As the others have stated, it was a very conversational interview with just 1 interviewer. The interview started with him talking about Penn state and the opportunities it holds as well as the general lifestyle. The broad smile and acknowledgement to whatever I said was very encouraging. It was a comparatively fast paced interview where we ran through a lot of questions in a span of half hour. I've put down whatever I can recollect right now. - Career progression, professional experience - Why MBA? Why now? - Biggest failure so far in college / work life, what I learned from it - Ethical Dilemma - Creative criticism - What I expect to learn through the 2 years of study - Post MBA goals - Instances of managerial experience / leadership - What kind of a leader I am / aspire to be? - One common misconception that people have about me, how I prove them wrong - The other programs that I'm applying for and how Smeal compares to them - The things that I do for fun / hobbies - In the process of getting down 6000 applications to 60 admits, why should Smeal choose me? - Questions from my end I was told that the results would reach me pretty soon and may take a maximum of two weeks in any case. Hope this helps all those who have their interviews coming up!"

"As stated before, very conversational interview. Here are some of the questions I was asked. -Walk me through your resume -What do you want to do post-MBA -Why do you need an MBA -Why Smeal -What kind of leader are you -Something you regret -What do you like to do for fun"

"I hope you are doing well. If you're getting ready for an interview with Smeal, I recommend that you be prepared with a ton of questions to ask. The interview I had was very conversational, and during the interview I had ample time to chime in and ask about questions I had, whatever they were. When it comes to questions they ask, I wouldn't say they really pulled any surprises. I was caught off guard by the question "What do you like to do for fun?" in a prior interview, so I had already prepared something a little more thoughtful than "watch football and drink beer with my friends." I would also recommend being able to speak to all aspects of the application, from work history to goals to other things that may make you a special candidate. Think about successes and failures that you have had in the past as well as difficult or trying situations (for whatever reason: ethics, environment, etc.)."

"Interviewed today with Stacey, and she was very nice! It was a little hard to tell if the interview went well or not (so maybe that's a bad sign!), but we'll see soon enough. It was a pretty conversational interview, but be prepared to go into the specific of your short term goals (e.g. what companies you're specifically interested in post-MBA). There were the basic MBA questions (why now? why Smeal? walk me through your resume) and a few less-common questions: * Tell me about a team you were involved with where you failed, and what you learned * What is a common misconception about you, and how do you overcome it * What do you look for in building a team * Tell me about your leadership style My interview did actually last about 50 minutes, longer than any other MBA interview I've done. She told me they will be rolling out decisions on or before April 1st, but I can contact them for an exception if I have other B-Schools that I need to give my decision to sooner. Hope this helps anyone else interviewing with Smeal! :-D"

"Congratulations on getting an interview call. Some things that you can expect: Standard questions: 1) Tell me about yourself - Don't read out your resume. Balance it with both professional experience and other interests (non-profit, sports, hobbies etc.) 2) Why MBA? Why Smeal? - Connect your pre-MBA work, your MBA and your post MBA goals. Why Smeal? - Talk about why you want to attend Smeal (again, make it personal, why YOU want) 3) Talk about your school identification research and how Smeal came up in that (part of Why Smeal) 4) Expect few additional questions if you are an international student - How about post MBA employment? There could be few other topics based on your individual profiles. Most important thing is be yourself. It will be a discussion and not an interview. Good luck with the interview."

"I was interviewed on 18 Feb. The typical questions that I was asked were: 1- Walk me through your career progression till date. Why Smeal and not any other B School, why now, why you? 2- Give an example of team work where you made an impact? What are your core strengths. 3- What are the qualities that you look for in a team member? What would a team member say about you? 4- What makes you stand out in your group? 5- Explain your job role to me? 6- Give an example of ethical dilemma that you faced. Then the interview became quite conversational and we went on to talk about a few alums and current students. Stacey was very friendly and even referred me to a current alum. That was nail in the coffin moment i guess. Hope this helps. :)"