Comments from Student 1:
My MBS interview was held in Manchester (they do interview overseas as well) and took place in two parts (both on same day). Scheduling the interview at MBS was surprisingly easy – this was perhaps helped by the fact that, living a mere 20 miles from the school, I could be very flexible in terms of date. In the end we opted for a Friday mid-afternoon interview (held onsite at MBS) in order to make taking time out from work a little earlier. From submitting the application to being interviewed took only a few weeks (although I was one of the first to apply) but I believe it may take a little longer to arrange if you're being interviewed elsewhere. The first half of my interview was with an admissions administrator, in the form of an informal discussion over coffee. No difficult questions at this stage! At first I was a little surprised that the interviewer hadn't read through all the admissions questions fully – this however wasn't a problem as the interview wasn't as formal as expected. I don't know if this is the norm or was due to the way they'd fitted me in to the interview timetable (I needed an early decision in order to comply with the lengthy notice period in my employment contract).
That interview was followed by an "official" interview with the Director of Alumni Relations and the following questions were asked:
• Tell me a little about yourself…
• Why do you want to do an MBA?(A lack of exposure to a particular business function is an acceptable answer!
• Why have you applied to Manchester Business School?
• What, in your opinion, is the main challenge facing business today?
Having answered corporate responsibility, we moved onto a general discussion of: The value of customer perceptions, loyalty, implications on the brand, are the high level boardroom salaries justified?
• Career wise, how far do you want to go?

The interview ended with a more informal discussion with both interviewers. I got a verbal offer within a couple of weeks.

The applications procedure at MBS seems very much geared up to get to know the individual. Remember to be yourself. They will of course filter based on academic and business experience (but don't forget that you're there to learn, so you will have some gaps to fill in!), but they're keen to ensure that the individuals in the class will "gel". Some people might perhaps find this approach unusual but, face it, would you want to spend 18 months with 100+ people you don't get on with?

It's perhaps worth mentioning that as the admissions process requires the submission of rather brief answers to a series of questions (approx 12 questions, around half page for for each) rather than the "full blown" essays required by the US schools, these responses could probably only be used for initial filtering and as a "jumping off point" for the interview process.