Guest Post: Journey to Kellogg

As mentioned previously in Motown's updates...MktgBadger...a future Kellogg Student is going to recap her journey into Kellogg below.  Enjoy!
 

Thanks Motown for such a heartfelt shout out! I cannot express to all of you how ecstatic I am to be attending Kellogg in the fall and hope that some of you will be joining me!
Since many readers are Rd 2 applicants, I’m going to focus more on the interview, but please as a disclaimer: feel free to reach out to me if/when you have questions about post-admit process which I am fully submersed in now!

As you know, Kellogg attempts to interview 100% of its applicants. In my opinion, this says a lot about who they are as a school. It means to me that they recognize we are more than just what we can cram into 4 essays and that we deserve a chance to show that. Kudos to Kellogg for this policy – I am a huge fan of it.

My interview was on campus with an admissions director and lasted ~40 minutes. It was nice that I had actually (briefly) met him before so I was able to start the interview with some small talk (where I was from, what I have done since I last saw him, etc). He then briefly told me the format of the interview and got started.

1. Resume walkthrough: I would say we spent the most time here … this was a guided by questions conversation about everything on my resume. Starting with college, going through internships, my current job, and even my extracurriculars. Extremely thorough, with a few curveball questions (i.e. what’s a common misconception about you?). HUGE focus on leadership here. Make sure you explain with stories you are a LEADER in whatever you did.

2. Goals: This was about a 4 minute conversation…briefly asked me short/long term goals and since I was a career switcher, why … I had a pretty solid answer here, so no follow up questions – but I would definitely BE ready for the why questions. Kellogg is very keen on knowing your career aspirations.


3. Why Kellogg: Another large portion of the time was spent on why Kellogg. Questions spanning from how I will interact w/ classmates to what groups I wanted to join. Lesson here: KNOW YOUR FACTS about Kellogg. I cannot stress enough that it’s a good idea to research. The last thing you want is not to know even one name of a club you want to join.

4. Add’l information: we had about 10 minutes to spare so he asked me if he had missed anything. I focused this part of the conversation to tell him what had happened since I applied (I had just gotten nominated to a new board position of an extracurricular) so we talked a bit about that. Whatever you use this time for … make sure you’ve thought about it.

As we walked out, we had a bit more small talk about the Chicago area social atmosphere. Remember that the interview begins from the minute you enter the building to the minute you leave. Have a mature and professional presence … and make sure to SMILE!!

Good luck to all the Round 2 applicants and beyond out there. I’m currently prepping to tell my employer the news that I will leaving (EEK!) and my trip out to Kellogg for their admitted student weekend. Happy that the application portion of the journey is over, wishing you all nothing but good luck with your paths to b-school!!

-MktgBadger