{"id":29711,"date":"2026-02-10T10:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=29711"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:38:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:38:58","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Botched the Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png\" alt=\" style=\"width:371px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe you are one of the unlucky applicants on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head and struggling to understand why you were not accepted to your target MBA program. As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews. After all, you were invited to interview but were rejected thereafter, so there must be a cause-and-effect relationship, right? Your rejection must mean that everything was at stake during those 30 to 60 minutes and that your interviewer just did not feel that you are of the caliber preferred by your target school, right? Not at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bruce DelMonico, the Yale School of Management (SOM) assistant dean for admissions, explained to mbaMission that the school uses a \u201cconsensus decision-making model [in which] we all need to agree on an outcome for an applicant [to be accepted].\u201d Each file is read multiple times. We can safely conclude that with the need for a consensus, the committee is not waiting on the interview as&nbsp;<em>the<\/em>&nbsp;determinant. Admissions officers do not make any post-interview snap judgments but rather dedicate serious thought and reflection to their decision making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although we have discussed this topic before, we should repeat that no simple formula exists for MBA admissions and that the evaluation process is thorough and not instinctive or reactive. Yes, a disastrous interview can certainly hurt you\u2014but if you felt positively about your experience, you should not worry that you botched it and that this was the sole deciding factor for the admissions committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>mbaMission offers even more interview advice in our free<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/shop.mbamission.com\/collections\/interview-guides\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Interview Guides<\/em><\/strong><\/a><em>, which are available for 17 top-ranked business schools. You can also prepare for your interview by booking a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/shop.mbamission.com\/products\/mock-interview-sessions\">mock interview session<\/a><\/strong> with an mbaMission consultant\u2014our interview preparation services include application\/resume review, a debriefing session, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you are one of the unlucky applicants on the outside looking in this year, shaking your head and struggling to understand why you were not accepted to your target MBA program. As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews. After &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":37056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,121],"tags":[331,109,271],"class_list":["post-29711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed","category-mba-interviews","tag-interview-guide","tag-interview-tips","tag-mock-interviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MBA Interviews: Did You Botch It?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews.\" \/>\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\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MBA Interviews: Did You Botch It?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T15:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T15:38:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Interviews: Did You Botch It?","description":"As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews.","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\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Interviews: Did You Botch It?","og_description":"As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2026-02-10T15:36:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-10T15:38:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/"},"author":{"name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6"},"headline":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Botched the Interview","datePublished":"2026-02-10T15:36:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-10T15:38:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/"},"wordCount":10,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","keywords":["interview guide","interview tips","mock interviews"],"articleSection":["Admissions Myths Destroyed","MBA Interviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/","name":"MBA Interviews: Did You Botch It?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","datePublished":"2026-02-10T15:36:44+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-10T15:38:58+00:00","description":"As you look back and assess where things might have gone wrong, you could end up focusing unduly on your MBA interviews.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","width":640,"height":360},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-must-have-botched-the-interview\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Botched the Interview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;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\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6","name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","description":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen has been mbaMission\u2019s Writer\/Researcher since 2015. She is in charge of updating and revamping most of our publication materials, ranging from the extensive Insider\u2019s Guides series, the Interview Guides, and the International Program Guides to our shorter publications, including the HBS 2+2 and Deferred Admissions Guide and numerous blog posts.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/erika-vaatainen\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/erikavaatainen\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/erika\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-I-Must-Have-Botched-the-Interview.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41809,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29711\/revisions\/41809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}