Fuqua - Duke visit and interview

Last week I scheduled the interview with another Applicant initiated interview with Fuqua school of business, Duke University in I reached Raleigh - Durham Airport on 16th night. Picked up my rental car and checked into a hotel near Duke University. I was supposed to register with the admissions at 7.30am and attend my scheduled class at 8.00am. But I could reach admissions only at 8.00am –delayed because of taking the wrong exit on I-85 and searching for a parking. On top of this, it was raining. Missed my scheduled class visit and registered for 10.30am class. Luckily, the on-line scheduling system did not show me the 10.30 class. If it did, I would have planned for 10.30 am and probably missed it, going by my past records.
I freshen quickly and waited at the admissions waiting area. It is part of the newly constructed, 91,400-square-foot Breeden Hall, opened on Aug. 1, 2008. It holds classrooms and auditoriums, team rooms, meeting space, the Ford Library, the Center for Excellence in Business Education, and MBA admissions and operations offices. The building also features a rooftop terrace.
Many first year admission ambassadors take turns, one hour each, in meeting the prospective students in the waiting area and answers questions. Unfortunately the first year students have spend only 2 ½ months at Fuqua and do not know much about electives courses and consulting projects. The adcom should include few second year students in the team meeting the prospective students. In 2 hours, I met around 5 first years and 10 prospective students. I learned about Fuqua Friday, Fuqua Vision, GATE (Global Academic Travel Experience), Clubs, Fellows, Student Government, Housing options etc.
Then it for time for my class visit. For the first year Managerial Economic Class, I was the only visitor. I was guided by a first year Student. He told me about the class and the Prof. Giuseppe Lopomo, popularly know as Pino. It was their last class for the term. Here is some background about Fuqua’s academic calendar. The academic year is divided into four six-week terms plus an optional two-week winter term called FleX Term. Most classes meet twice a week, either on Monday and Thursday or on Tuesday and Friday. Each class session is two hours and fifteen minutes with a 15 minute break. Visitors attend only the first half of the class. Pino was an expert on Game theory and Competitive Analysis. It was mostly a lecture and I learned about Nash equilibrium in Game Theory. The class room looked modern than the ones at Kellogg.
At noon we had a tour of the facilities guided by a first year student and followed by a free lunch. The building, with 3 levels, is large and very spacious with modern equipments. To save paper, each club is provided with a LCD panel to display details about news and events. The building is next to the Law school and has lots of trees around it. Sometimes you get the feel of being in the woods. The Duke University has a very large campus and is located close to University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University and the Research Triangle Park.
After the tour I spend some time with few more first years and prospective students. Learned about the events for the evening - speech by distinguished speaker Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase (Grapevine: Jamie Dimon’s daughter is attending Duke University), Fuqua Friday, and debut of term’s Fuqua Vision (search for FuquaVision on YouTube). I felt bad for not staying back in Durham for all the events.
My interview started at 3.00pm. It was by a 2nd year student. She had a printout of questions and a notepad to write down my answers. Here are some of the questions she asked
1. How would you explain your job to a 5 year old?
2. Walk me through your resume
3. Tell me about your community activities
4. Why MBA?
5. Why Fuqua? And how did you choose Fuqua?
6. Apart from Team work and friendly students, what else is important to you (May be I did not explain Why Fuqua well)
7. What do you plan to do when you are at Fuqua?
8. How can you contribute to Fuqua?
9. What will you do if MBA does not exist?
10. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
11. Have you quit anytime?
12. Have you regretted your decision anytime?
13. What is the biggest risk you have taken so far?
14. Have you faced an ethical dilemma in your career?
15. If you have to explain yourself in one word what will be the one word?
16. If you can choose a team of 5, who will you choose?
17. If your story is written as a book, what will be title?
18. How do you resolve conflict?
19. What will you do if you have nothing to do for a whole day?
20. Have you felt sometime that it is better to be led than lead?
21. What is the difference between Leader and Manager?
22. How do you define a leader of Consequences?
23. How do you define diversity?
24. How do you prove feedback?
25. Do you have anything to add?
50 min was already over by now and hence she let me ask questions
I asked about her background, internship and what she plan to do post MBA.
After the interview I left her the message that I am a very compassionate person.

The interview was over by 4.00pm. We walked out of the room can continued the conversation about how to prepare for the MBA experience and how I am going to miss the events for the evening. After taking her e-mail id, I went around the campus and took few pictures and left the Duke campus by 5.30 pm. When I was stuck at the traffic, I appreciated my decision to leave early and miss the speech by Jamie Dimon. I was also able to appreciate the fall colors around Durham.

Tips for interviewees:
1. When I interviewed at Kellogg and Tuck, I had researched about the school well and had already written the essays. With Fuqua I did not prepare well nor written the essays. Scheduling the interview in the evening helped me to collect information about Fuqua. But it was not enough to talk about Why Fuqua. I recommend researching the school well before interviewing.
2. Make sure you pronounce Fuqua (few-kwa) correctly. When I said Fuqua for the first time, my interviewer wrote it down.
3. Be prepared to answer hypothetical questions such as who you will select as your team-mates. I took my time to think and answer these questions.
4. Do not get distracted when the interviewer is not looking at you and taking notes when you speak. In fact, more notes she takes more details to present your case to adcom.