Comments from Student 1:
In January 2003 I applied for an MBA program at the SDA Bocconi in Milan, Italy. About one month later their Admission Officer invited me for an interview. My application got through the first round so I got myself into a small circle of candidates, whom they would like to take a closer look at.

SDA Bocconi offers to applicants from abroad the possibility of having an interview in their country of residence. I live near by Frankfurt on Main, Germany, and I had to contact a German alumnus in Munich. We made an appointment a week later for a drink.

The first big question was: what should I wear? This is a usual agonising question for every woman, but in this case I just could not decide what would be the appropriate style. On one hand it was an interview, and usually I would wear a suit for such meetings. On the other hand we were meeting on a Saturday and not in an office, so it could be something a bit more casual (but not too casual). At the end I decided to wear some dark-grey trousers and a wine-red shirt. They looked serious enough, but were less formal than a suit, and of course they were comfortable.

We met at 12 o'clock at a cafe in Munich. Neither of us knew what the other looked like, and we hadn't set-up an exact meeting point. However when both of us pulled out our mobile phones to call each other, we recognised each other immediately.

Over the phone this guy had quite a young voice and I expected to see someone who just recently graduated. But in fact, he was in his mid-forties and graduated from SDA Bocconi a long time ago. He briefly introduced himself, so did I, then the questioning began. He had a consulting background and looked like a "real" manager. We had a nice chat, but somehow it felt like a real job interview. "What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Why an MBA? Why Bocconi? Why now? What is the Dollar rate? How much does a barrel of oil cost?" No idea, I don't follow the commodity markets - obviously this sincere answer didn't do me much harm. I told him in detail about my education, my job, and my personal development. Although I applied for an international group where they teach in English, at a certain point he suddenly switched to Italian in order to check my knowledge of the language (I listed Italian on my resume). We also talked a lot about my relationship and my family "What does your fiancé think about your plans? Do you realise that you'll put your relationship to a hard test? In which way does he support your goals? What are you going to do afterwards? What does your family say to all this?" He also told me in a very straightforward way that in his group many couples did not make it through this hard year and fell apart. At the end it was my turn to ask him about the MBA program, his reasons for choosing this Business School and his working experience after he's got an MBA degree.

As I said, all in all we had a very nice chat. The atmosphere was relaxed and I could ask many questions. Nevertheless, afterwards I was rather anxious because I could not really say how it went. This guy told me that he would fill out the interview form and send it to the Business School, however he did not give me any hint on WHAT he was going to tell them. He didn't express in any way his impressions from the interview, whether he was going to recommend me for admission, whether he thought I had good chances, nothing. On top of all this I felt like I blew it by leaving too much of a tip (I was just too nervous and did not pay attention to it at the moment).

At the end, I was very relieved that this part of the admission process was over. I just had to lay back and wait. The interviewer said I would get a notice from the Business School within five weeks, it actually took about two months. One day I finally found the long-awaited message in my mail box: I was admitted to the program! This was when I knew that the interview had worked out well. I wrote the interviewer an e-mail and thanked him once again for the interview and for his recommendation. He returned by congratulating me on the admission and said I could contact him anytime if should I need any additional information about the school.

Summarising it all I would say:
- Be true to yourself, don't pretend to be someone else.
- If you don't know the answer admit it but do give a reason for not knowing it.
- Prepare yourself as thoroughly as you would for a job interview -- think over typical questions: your resume, your motivation, etc.
- Think through the "accompanying" details: dress, how to get there, etc.
- Keep cool, don't panic, and just BELIEVE in yourself.

Good luck to your interview!