Kellogg Visit and Interview

I decided to rent a car and drive from Chicago O’Hare airport to Evanston, even against recommendation of hiring a cab. Traffic delays due to construction on I-294 resulted in not making it to Kellogg by 8.30 am. (Recommend not to use I-294 till 2010 to visit Kellogg). I had to miss the first class. I could not attend 2nd class at 10.30 as well. I had my interview at 11.00 am. So used the time to go around the Northwestern campus, find a good parking spot and try-out few ties that would go well with my suite. Before the interview I had to fill up a form with details of Degree with major intended to do at Kellogg, short term and long term career goals. Be ready with details to fill these up. To write the correct names of the majors, I had to look at the Kellogg fact sheets available at the reception.

The interview started right on time. The interviewer was Nancy Sims, the assistant director of admissions and career management services. I had attended an admission panel she participated in New York City. I acknowledge that fact. Then she gave me an overview about the interview process - 30 minutes time, the interviewer will not read the application, first read by two 2nd year student, then by someone from admissions, then by Beth Flye, director of admissions and financial aid and finally by Dipak Jain, the dean. The dean reading applications was a big surprise to me. Here are the questions asked
1. Give a one paragraph summary of yourself.
2. Why MBA
3. Consulting experience
4. Why did I sell my company
5. Experience at start-up in San Francisco
6. Why Kellogg and how did you learn about Kellogg
7. Any challenges in undergrad or grad school
8. Any challenging project at current company
9. Leadership experiences
10. Working in teams with peers
11. What kind of person do you have difficulty to work with?
By this time 20 minutes was over. I was expecting probes in my answer. So I kept my responses at a high level and did not go into details. But I did not find many follow-up questions. Within 20 minutes she was done with most of her questions. This is when I got the unexpected.
12. What else do you want to convey about yourself? My immediate reaction was “We have covered everything on my resume”. Then I talked about one of my non-profit initiatives.
13. Then she let me ask her questions. I asked about KWEST and resources for soft-skill development. I felt stupid asking such question. Then I told her the fact that I was prepared for a 2nd year student interviewer.

Then she walked me out of her office to the reception.
After coming out I realized how I could have managed the last 10 minutes of the interview better. I could have talked about lots of things – my first job, extra-curricular activities, my recent non-profit initiative, etc. I felt worse when I heard from another interviewer that his interview went on for 45 minutes. I could have done lot better. But I was satisfied that it was better than my last year Wharton interview and did not screw it up. Now my application has to make wonders to get admitted.


Thursday no official lunch with current students, so went to the cafeteria and tried talking to students. But all I got were few Hellos and few smiles. Most of them had preplanned things – case preparation, checking e-mails, discussing with other students, etc. After lunch I went around the Jacobs center and took few pictures. At 1.30 pm I attended the “Competitive Strategy and Industrial Structure” by Peter Klibanoff. It was a case study about consolidation in used car industry. The class started with videos from “Fargo” movie and litigation on dealers. I learned some details about used cars industry such as dealer reserve. The first year students participated well in the discussion and provided some useful ways to gain out of consolidation. The final conclusion was about the market conditions necessary for consolidation, when it would work and when it would not work with few more examples.


At 3.15 pm I went on a tour of Kellogg facilities. It was just 3 of us, another guy from New York and a guy from Bangladesh apart from our tour guide. The 45 minutes tour gave me opportunity to talk with the 2nd student and her experience at Kellogg. Everything at Kellogg happens at one place - Donald Jacobs center, named after the dean previous who made Kellogg very popular. The facilities at Jacobs center were impressive though old. It had a large auditorium, many study rooms with flat large panel monitors, quite study area and loud study area, print facilities, old and new model classrooms etc. Kellogg students does not interact much with other schools in NW University. The joint degree programs are exceptions.

After the tour I left Jacobs center with a good feel for Kellogg except for the cold winters. The Jacobs center is close to Lake Michigan and the winds make life hard during winter. After another delay in traffic I reached the airport and flew back home, thinking how I could have interviewed better.