A Chat with Michigan's Admissions Director
An excerpt from the Q&A:

Q: Is it more of a conversational interview or professional interview?
A: It's a professional interview, but obviously you want to have a dialogue. Part of what we're trying to do is gain abetter understanding of the candidate and also allow the person an opportunity to learn more about us.

We're a "behavioral-event" interview, if you want to call it that. "Tell us about a time when you've been in a situation...." But we also are very interested in understanding how applicants view their MBA experience and what theirobjective for the MBA is. Not just their career objective, but how they're going to view co-creating their MBA experiencewith us.

Michigan isn't a cookie-cutter program. Students have an opportunity to customize their experience. We want to know thatyou've thought through things you want to take advantage of, and what you're going to bring to the community -- and thatyou recognize some of the differences about our program compared with others.

Q: So you're also evaluating how the applicant will fit in?
A: Definitely. I call it the personal impact. We look at how applicants conduct themselves, their demeanor andprofessionalism. Then through the entire conversation, you're learning about what they're looking for.

There are certain types of things that we're about, and if you're not interested in them, Michigan might not be the bestmatch. So there's a particular kind of person we're looking for.

For the full version of this Q&A

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Comments from Student 1:
Scheduling the Interview: I called to arrange a time with the Admissions office.

Location of Interview: On campus in the Admissions Office

Preparedness of Interviewer: The interview was based on my resume, not on the entire application package. Michigan interviews can be conducted before applications are submitted

Interviewer University affiliation: second year MBA student

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was comfortable but not completed relaxed. We interviewed in a small room. My interviewer wore a suit and was a bit methodical about the interview.

Questions asked: The questions were typical MBA admissions questions. Talk about your previous work experience. Why is now the right time to go to b-school. What do you want to do after b-school? My interviewer picked up on a piece of my resume and dug deep on a project I worked on five years ago.

Length of interview: 30-40 minutes

Any additional comments: I showed up five minutes late for my interview because my taxi never arrived to take me to the interview. I apologized profusely. The interviewer was generous enough to extend the interview, but never set me at ease about the problem. My advice: although doing an interview at the beginning of the day is great because the interviewer is still fresh, it may be better to do it later in the day so you do not run into any transportation problems.

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Comments from Student 2:
I interviewed with the University of Michigan in the fall of 2003. I scheduled the interview online – I was able to choose a date, time and location (on or off campus) from a long list of options. This was really convenient as I was able to pick a time that worked well in my schedule. My interview was on campus in the Admissions office with Mengdan Chu, Associate Director of Admissions and Career Development. Michigan encourages 100% of applicants to interview, and interviews must be scheduled before the application deadline date, which I think is different from many other schools. The upside to that is that everyone who wants a chance to interview can do so, and for some people a great interview can really help boost their chances of admission. The potential downside is that when you are interviewed, all that the interviewer knows about you ahead of time is what appears on your résumé (which they require you submit at least one week before the interview). The interview atmosphere was more comfortable than I expected it to be; Mengdan was warm and gracious and clearly wanted to make me comfortable, which helped because I was really nervous! She first asked me to walk her through my resume. She specifically wanted me to explain my thought process behind the career move I made between two organizations. It's also well-known that Michigan places a lot of weight on diversity – not just racial/ethnic/gender diversity, like many people assume, but also diversity of professional backgrounds and functional experience. It felt important in our discussion that I find ways to explain how I would contribute to the school's diversity. Another big theme at Michigan is that of co-creation, and I remember being specifically asked how I planned to co-create my learning experience in the Business School. These questions were no big surprise since they are heavily emphasized in Michigan's MBA information sessions and essay questions, so by the time the interview came I had already given them a great deal of thought. The other questions were pretty standard – Why an MBA? Why now? Why Michigan? The interview was short – I believe every on-campus Michigan interview is scheduled for 30 minutes. My experience was that the 30 minutes went by very quickly, and it was important that my thoughts were well-organized ahead of time so that I was able to both answer questions succinctly and also have enough time to get across the messages I thought were important. The best advice I could give anyone going through the Michigan interview process is to complete as much of your application as you can before you have the interview. The themes running through the application and the interview questions are quite similar and it's important that you have strong, thoughtful answers to the questions you might not hear in interviews with other schools (e.g., about diversity and co-creating your learning experience.)

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