{"id":1382,"date":"2010-04-20T08:18:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T14:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=1382"},"modified":"2025-01-17T10:07:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T15:07:50","slug":"admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hysteria sells.<\/p>\n

Last week, an admissions consulting firm<\/a> gained a fair amount of press for its piece on \u201cweird interview questions that the admissions officers will use to trip you up.\u201d The questions that they showcased were indeed incomprehensibly absurd, including this one: \u201cIf you could go back in time and steal Hitler\u2019s wallet without fear of punishment, would you?\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with their piece was that they passed off these questions as if admissions officers were eagerly waiting to \u201cuse (them) to trip you up,\u201d stoking anxiety among applicants. \u00a0Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the top admissions officers whom we have spoken with in recent months have said quite the opposite (as you will see below). They will not<\/em><\/span> use such questions.<\/p>\n

We feel that our responsibility as an admissions consulting firm is to calm MBA candidates and keep them focused on what is\u00a0truly important within the application process. Interviews are not easy, but overwhelmingly the questions are straightforward and will be about you. So, you should be able to rely on your experiences to answer the questions. By entering your interview calmly and staying in your\u00a0everyday\u00a0frame of mind, you will be able to thoughtfully address the questions that you are asked. If you can do that, you should perform to the best of your abilities and you may even enjoy your interview.<\/p>\n

We are always prepared to work with candidates by conducting mock interviews and during our sessions we will use questions that you can actually expect to be asked during an interview.<\/p>\n

The following excerpts from our interviews with top admissions officers speak for themselves:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s really, I would say, a fairly standard behavioral interview. The purpose is not to trick you or throw curveballs, but really get a sense of the applicant, get a sense of their background, their interests, why they want to get an MBA, what they want to do with their degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bruce DelMonico, Admissions Director, Yale SOM<\/p>\n

\u201cOurs (interviews) are, intentionally, fairly informal. We have interviews that are conducted by our staff as well as alumni and current students, and typically, when someone comes in for an interview, a few minutes are spent just making the person feel at ease. We try to ease people into it. They\u2019re definitely not intended to put someone on a hot seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dawna Clarke, Admissions Director, Dartmouth-Tuck<\/p>\n

\u201cI advise people to put together the absolute best application you can, and I think a big part of that, as clich\u00e9d as this is going to sound, is really just being who you are. Not trying to be who you think we want to read about or who we want to hear in an interview. Just be you.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beth Flye, Admissions Director, Northwestern-Kellogg<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say the overall perspective, and this is true for the interview, but it\u2019s true, I think, for the whole process, is a positive perspective. So, we\u2019re not looking for reasons to deny someone, we\u2019re looking for reasons to admit someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 JJ Cutler, Admissions Director, UPenn Wharton<\/p>\n

\u201cHere’s the hard part\u00a0 — once you’ve practiced and prepared, you need to set aside all that preparation so that you can focus on having a conversation with your interviewer.\u00a0 Remember, the interviewer knows Booth well, but not you.\u00a0 So feel free to allow the conversation to be two way.\u00a0 Getting to know the person sitting across the table will help you to relax and relate your stories more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Excerpt from the blog of Rose Martinelli, Admissions Director, Chicago Booth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hysteria sells. Last week, an admissions consulting firm gained a fair amount of press for its piece on \u201cweird interview questions that the admissions officers will use to trip you up.\u201d The questions that they showcased were indeed incomprehensibly absurd, including this one: \u201cIf you could go back in time and steal Hitler\u2019s wallet without … Read More  <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,23,28,32,35,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed","category-dartmouth-tuck","category-northwestern-kellogg","category-chicago-booth","category-upenn-wharton","category-yale-som"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won\u2019t-be-absurd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hysteria sells. Last week, an admissions consulting firm gained a fair amount of press for its piece on \u201cweird interview questions that the admissions officers will use to trip you up.\u201d The questions that they showcased were indeed incomprehensibly absurd, including this one: \u201cIf you could go back in time and steal Hitler\u2019s wallet without … Read More  \" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won\u2019t-be-absurd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-20T14:18:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-17T15:07:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won\u2019t-be-absurd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"Hysteria sells. Last week, an admissions consulting firm gained a fair amount of press for its piece on \u201cweird interview questions that the admissions officers will use to trip you up.\u201d The questions that they showcased were indeed incomprehensibly absurd, including this one: \u201cIf you could go back in time and steal Hitler\u2019s wallet without … Read More  ","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won\u2019t-be-absurd\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2010-04-20T14:18:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-17T15:07:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd","datePublished":"2010-04-20T14:18:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-17T15:07:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/"},"wordCount":619,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Admissions Myths Destroyed","Dartmouth College (Tuck)","Northwestern University (Kellogg)","University of Chicago (Booth)","University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)","Yale University (School of Management)"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/","name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-20T14:18:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-17T15:07:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-your-mba-interview-won%e2%80%99t-be-absurd\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Interview Won\u2019t Be Absurd"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World's Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience and a background as a professional speechwriter, he combines deep industry insight and exceptional storytelling skills to help applicants create powerful, distinctive MBA applications.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/jeremy-shinewald\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeremyshinewald\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/jeremy\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}