Help!! Upcoming Interview at Darden

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Help!! Upcoming Interview at Darden

by LizardFace » Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:05 pm
Maybe its anxiety. Maybe its fear. Or maybe its just not wanting to look back years from now and think "Dam I should've done ____ and ____ then I would've been admitted". I, fortunately, have an interview coming up for the full time MBA program at University of Virginia's Darden School of Business on March 11.

And I need help !! (or reassurance)

I know the format is "tell me your life story in 20 minutes". I plan to outline 5 different short stories that will cover my life from the end of college through the 4 years of my career covering: mistakes, successes, lessons learned, people I've met, and the accomplishments I've made - all of which would point to my short term post MBA goal: a rotational development program at a consumer products good/tech company

My stats
25 years old, Male
GMAT = 710
GPA = 3.38/4.00
Major = Biomedical Engineering + Minor Materials Science Engineering from the University of California, Irvine
Current Location = Los Angeles, CA
Work Experience = Loss Prevention Consulting at a Commercial Property Insurance Company for 4 years (our clients make up 1/3 of the Fortune 1000 companies). I basically go to factories, plants, distribution centers to make sure the managers and staff aren't doing stuff to cause fires or explosions.

I'm a Round 2 Consortium Applicant. I actually applied to 5 schools in Round 1 for Fall 2012 admission through the Consortium plus Round 1 at Kellogg, Stanford, and Wharton and got NOWHERE (well I did get waitlisted at Yale and Cornell but still didn't get in).

Anyways I figured I'd be a little wiser now, after going through a bunch of class visits, writing 27+ pages of essays between the 2 years I've applied, visiting campuses, connecting with student ambassadors, playing the follow up game through the waitlist process last year.....

So here's where I'm at (and why I'm so concerned)

Cornell - Interviewed on Campus - Waitlisted
Michigan - Interviewed on Campus - Awaiting Decision
Yale - Interviewed on Campus - Rejected
USC - Interviewed on Campus - Awaiting Decision
Virginia - Interviewed Scheduled for March 11 on Campus

I HAVEN'T GOTTEN IN ANYWHERE!!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

So now I'm turning to all you BeattheGmat experts, what are your thoughts? I felt like I had my story straight for the past 4 interviews, I knew why I wanted to be at each school, I wasn't intimidated or clamped up in any interview, I kept the conversation flowing smoothly (I consider myself a people person :D). I actually had Q&A sessions/class tours before every interview (except for USC, but I've been there a bunch of times already). Should I do something different for Darden? Am I missing something??

Or am I just letting the lack of any admits get to me??

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by Jon@Admissionado » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:46 am
You ask a lot of good and tough questions. In order to give you an answer that would be worth anything though, I'd need to see your application and the details of your profile. You know, just because you got an interview and then didn't get in, doesn't necessarily mean you interview poorly (although it COULD mean that). It might just have been that you applied during a very tough round, or that your profile was on the weaker side of those who interviewed...
But otherwise, most important: Don't give up hope!! You seem to have a very good profile, and if you believe in yourself it counts for a lot, especially at the interview stage.
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