Tag Archives: Kellogg

Kellogg Interview Questions

Kellogg Interview Questions Preparation MBA Business School NorthwesternKellogg is somewhat unique in that it allows anyone who applies to interview. Kellogg MBA interviews are typically off-campus with an alumnus, although it is also possible to interview with an admissions committee member on campus or over Skype. Interviews with Kellogg tend to vary greatly based on who interviews you. You can expect anywhere from 6 to 14 Kellogg interview questions. Kellogg interviews are on the longer side, sometimes lasting an hour to an hour and a half. If you are interviewed by an alumni, typically they will have already read your resume but not your whole application. Below are the most common Kellogg interview questions, ranked from most to least common. Your chance of being asked each questions is in parenthesis.

Most Common Kellogg Interview Questions

  1. Why Kellogg? (87%)
  2. Why get an MBA? Why now? (87%)
  3. What is your greatest accomplishment or what is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Sometimes when this question is asked, you are limited to an accomplishment at a certain company you worked at. (67%)
  4. Walk me through your resume. (60%)
  5. What will you contribute to the program? What will you get involved with at Kellogg? (60%)
  6. Tell me about a time you faced a challenge. Frequently the interviewer asks specifically about a challenge or failure in a team environment. (53%)
  7. What is your leadership style? (53%)
  8. Tell me about your education. Why did you choose your major? (40%)
  9. Is there anything else you would like me to know? (40%)
  10. Why did you pick your company or industry? (27%)
  11. What are your hobbies outside of work? (27%)
  12. How would your coworkers or peers describe your strengths and weaknesses? (20%)
  13. What role do you take within a team? (13%)
  14. What inspires you? (13%)
  15. What words would your classmates use to describe you? (13%)
  16. Tell me about a time you took an initiative. (13%)
  17. What are your long term goals? (13%)

You may also be asked specific questions about your resume or experiences. At the end you will have time to ask a few questions. For additional interview tips check out my MBA interview preparation guide. The questions for this article were collected from Clear Admit.

MBA Concentration Acceptance Rate Analysis

With the current semester just about over, next years application essay questions will be posted in the coming weeks for many schools. Round one applicants should start figuring out their story and crafting their essays. The most important essay for most schools is the question: Why get an MBA and why is [insert school name here] the right choice for you? In order to answer this question you need to have a plan for how an MBA is going to help you achieve your goals. The vast majority of MBA students are looking to switch careers. Why else pay $120,000 in tuition and give up two years of salary? If you wanted to stay in the same industry, you would probably just go for a promotion or switch companies.

I was curious if the industry an applicant is trying to transition into impacts their MBA acceptance rate. My theory was that there are a lot of people trying to transition into consulting, banking and technology, so there may be oversupply for those concentrations. Perhaps a candidate would stick out if they are pursuing a more unique career. I took the business school admissions data from GMAT Club and looked at the acceptance rate by stated concentration. First I decided to look at the top 20 schools in aggregate, to ensure the results were statistically significant. I was surprised by how much the acceptance rate varied depending on MBA concentration.

MBA Acceptance Rate by Concentration

MBA Concentration Acceptance Rate Business SchoolThe average acceptance rate for top 20 schools is 23%. Many of the concentrations towards the top are fairly small with the exception of Marketing. As you can see, there is a huge range in the acceptance rates based on industry focus. With Social Entrepreneurship applicants 2.5 times more likely to be admitted than applicants interested in Technology or Operations. Most of the results don’t surprise me, business schools seem to be trying to help the world right now, so it is no shock that Social Entrepreneurship, Nonprofit and Sustainability are all in the top half. With the crisis in the Healthcare industry, the high acceptance rate for Healthcare applicants is also logical I am a little surprised that Real Estate is so high and Technology is so low. There is not a lot of focus on Real Estate that I have seen in business school, so I didn’t expect it to be the concentration with the second highest acceptance rate. On the other hand, Technology is very hot right now, so it is shocking the admissions rate is so low.

Since this data does not have gender included, it is possible that the acceptance rates are skewed by gender concentrations. More women tend to focus on Nonprofit, Social Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Healthcare, which could have bumped up the acceptance rate. Many schools are trying to increase their female enrollment, so women tend to have higher acceptance rates. At the other end of the spectrum, industries such as Operations and Technology are more dominated by men, which likely led to the low acceptance rates in those concentrations.

In the end, I wouldn’t recommend outright gaming the system. Don’t say you want to pursue Social Entrepreneurship rather than Technology if Tech is really what you are passionate about. It will likely show in your application. However if you are unsure of what you want to focus on, it would make sense to chose the concentration you are interested in that has the highest acceptance rate. There was a lot of variance by school. The chart below shows some of the highest and lowest acceptance rate concentrations by school. Take these findings with a grain of salt because the sample size is pretty small.

School Increase Acceptance Rate Lower Acceptance Rate
Stanford Social Entrepreneurship Finance, Entrepreneurship
Harvard Entrepreneurship Finance*
Wharton Healthcare* Finance, Entrepreneurship, Marketing
Booth Healthcare*, Marketing* Entrepreneurship, Finance, Operations*
Sloan Marketing, Social Entrepreneurship* Technology*, Operations*
Kellogg Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Entrepreneurship Operations*, Technology*
Haas Entrepreneurship, Healthcare Operations*, Technology*
Columbia Social Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Healthcare
Tuck Healthcare, Marketing Finance, Technology*
Darden Marketing Entrepreneurship, Finance
NYU Entrepreneurship, Finance, Marketing*
Ross Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Healthcare*, Social Entrepreneurship* Finance, Operations*, Technology*
Duke Healthcare, Marketing, Social Entrepreneurship* Finance, Operations*, Technology*
Yale Marketing*, Social Entrepreneurship* Entrepreneurship
Anderson Finance, Marketing Entrepreneurship, Technology
Cornell Finance Entrepreneurship, Operations
McCombs Entrepreneurship, Marketing Finance
Kenan-Flagler Finance, Healthcare*, Marketing*
Tepper Entrepreneurship, Operations, Marketing* Finance
Emory Marketing Finance

*This concentration had a very large increase or decrease.

MBA Waitlist Acceptance Rate Rank

A more up-to-date analysis of MBA waitlist acceptance rate has been completed which include admissions data for the class of 2019.

At this point in the year many applicants have been placed on the waitlist for the school of their dreams. It is a frustrating experience that I personally have experienced. This articles shows the MBA waitlist acceptance rates for the top US MBA programs. The data for this analysis comes from GMATClub. These acceptance rates are meant to give a rough idea of the waitlist acceptance rate and should be taken with a grain of salt. The sample sizes vary by school; Olin, Emory and Stanford have the lowest sample sizes.

MBA Waitlist Acceptance Rate by School Rank

US News Rank School Waitlist Acceptance Rate
1 Stanford 9%
2 Harvard 2%
3 Wharton 6%
4 Booth 15%
5 Sloan 8%
6 Kellogg 6%
7 Haas 4%
8 Columbia 6%
9 Tuck 10%
10 Darden 16%
11 NYU 3%
11 Ross 11%
13 Duke 4%
13 Yale 3%
15 Anderson 18%
16 Cornell 11%
17 McCombs 8%
18 Kenan-Flagler 46%
19 Olin 30%
20 Tepper 13%
21 Emory 4%

MBA waitlist acceptance rates ranges widely from 46% to 2% depending on the school. It tends to vary quite a bit from year to year, so these acceptance rates should only be used as a guide. For example Dartmouth’s average waitlist acceptance rate is 10%, however for the class of 2016 it was only 2%. The top ten schools on average have a slightly lower waitlist acceptance rate coming in at 8% while the next ten schools average a noticeably higher acceptance rate of 14%.

MBA Waitlist Acceptance Rate Rank

Acceptance Rank School Waitlist Acceptance Rate
1 Kenan-Flagler 46%
2 Olin 30%
3 Anderson 18%
4 Darden 16%
5 Booth 15%
6 Tepper 13%
7 Ross 11%
8 Cornell 11%
9 Tuck 10%
10 Stanford 9%
11 Sloan 8%
12 McCombs 8%
13 Kellogg 6%
14 Wharton 6%
15 Columbia 6%
16 Emory 4%
17 Duke 4%
18 Haas 4%
19 Yale 3%
20 NYU 3%
21 Harvard 2%

The schools with the highest MBA waitlist acceptance rates are Kenan-Flagler, Olin, and Anderson. At the other end are Harvard, NYU and Yale with the lowest waitlist acceptance rates. Although NYU has the highest interview acceptance rate, it rarely accepts anyone off the waitlist.

MBA Acceptance Rate by Application Round

An updated MBA acceptance rate by round analysis article can be found here which includes application data from the class 2017 and 2018.

Some business schools have roughly the same acceptance rate during all rounds while others see a significant drop off in later rounds. With applications for round 3 due in the next month or two, this analysis may help you decide which schools to focus on and which to avoid. Here is a list of the top 20 schools’ MBA acceptance rates by application round. The data for this analysis came from GMAT Club, which may be a biased sample. People on GMAT Club tend to have higher GMAT scores than the general applicant pool, so the acceptance rate can be significantly higher for some schools. The acceptance rates are meant to give you an idea of the relationship between rounds, not the absolute acceptance rate. These numbers are raw and not adjusted for other variables such as GMAT and GPA.

MBA Acceptance Rate by Round

The first table is MBA acceptance rates by round ordered by school ranking. The acceptance rates that have a star next to them means that the sample size is very small and might not be very accurate.

US News Rank School Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
1 Stanford 8% 5% 2% –
1 Wharton 19% 16% 0%* –
1 Harvard 12% 6% 4% –
4 Booth 29% 25% 15% –
5 MIT 16% 11% – –
6 Kellogg 26% 23% 20%* –
7 Haas 17% 17% 6%
8 Columbia 23% 20% – –
9 Tuck 28% 29% 22% 9%
10 NYU 29% 27% 21%
11 Ross 41% 42% 38%* –
11 Darden 32% 33% 16% –
13 Yale 24% 27% 9% –
14 Duke 31% 33% 21% –
15 McCombs 38% 36% 28% –
16 Anderson 26% 34% 9% –
17 Johnson 39% 36% 37% –
18 Tepper 24% 38% 43% –
19 Kenan-Flagler 36% 40% 60% –
20 Emory 26% 40% 37% –

Schools with Significantly Lower Round 3 Acceptance Rate

Many of the top 20 MBA programs have significantly lower acceptance rates in round 3 to the point where it is better to wait until next year to apply. Harvard, Stanford and Wharton, the number one ranked schools, have a large decrease in acceptance rate for round 3. Only 2% to 3% of applications for these schools are in round 3 because everyone knows that acceptance rates are so low. Haas, Yale, Duke, UVA and UCLA also see a significant drops in round 3 admissions compared to earlier rounds. Dartmouth has a respectable round 3 acceptance rate of 22%, but a very low 9% chance of admission for round 4.

Schools with Similar or Higher Round 3 Acceptance Rate

While many schools have a lower acceptance rate for round 3, there are several schools that don’t have a drop off in response. Ross, Cornell, and Emory all have similar admission odds for the third round, while Tepper and UNC actually have a higher acceptance rate for round 3.

Round 3 MBA Acceptance Rate Ranking

This is the the same table as the first one but ranked by round 3 acceptance rate from highest to lowest. Some schools have a round 4 that I did not include, because the sample size was too small. I combined round 4 applications with round 3 except for Tuck because Dartmouth actually had a large number of round 4 applicants.

Round 3 Rank School Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
1 Kenan-Flagler 36% 40% 60% –
2 Tepper 24% 38% 43% –
3 Ross 41% 42% 38%* –
4 Johnson 39% 36% 37% –
4 Emory 26% 40% 37% –
6 McCombs 38% 36% 28% –
7 Tuck 28% 29% 22% 9%
8 NYU 29% 27% 21%
8 Duke 31% 33% 21% –
10 Kellogg 26% 23% 20%* –
11 Darden 32% 33% 16% –
12 Booth 29% 25% 15% –
13 Yale 24% 27% 9% –
13 Anderson 26% 34% 9% –
15 Haas 17% 17% 6%
16 Harvard 12% 6% 4% –
17 Stanford 8% 5% 2% –
18 Wharton 19% 16% 0%* –
19 MIT 16% 11% – –
19 Columbia 23% 20% – –

The most surprising number is  UNC Kenan-Flagler’s round 3 acceptance rate of 60%, which is significantly higher than that of round 1 and 2. I looked at the GMAT and GPA for each round to see if they would explain the high admissions in round 3, however they were both slightly lower than other rounds. I can’t explain why UNC round 3 acceptance rate is so high, but it is a great school to apply to in the third round.

Kenan-Flagler UNC MBA Acceptance Rate by Round GMAT GPA Admissions Statistics

By request, below is the GMAT, GPA and age for Harvard and Booth by round. Round 3 data does not have a ton of data, so take this with a grain of salt.

School Variable R1 R2 R3
Booth GMAT 735 739 728
Booth GPA 3.61 3.62 3.58
Booth Age 27 28 29
Harvard GMAT 735 728 720
Harvard GPA 3.61 3.57 3.54
Harvard Age 27 27 27

* Sample size is 30 or fewer applications.

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate Rankings

So you have just been invited to interview at the MBA school of your dreams. Obviously this raises your chance of getting in, but by how much? In general, top ten schools have lower MBA interview acceptance rates while schools ranked 11 to 20 have a higher acceptance rate for applicants who were interviewed.

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate by Rank

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate by Rank

Interview acceptance rate for Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Hass, Columbia, Dartmouth, NYU, Ross, Darden, Yale, Duke, McCombs, Anderson, Cornell, Tepper, Kenan-Flagler, Emory

The acceptance rate ranges from 34% to 75% for schools in the top 20. The average MBA interview acceptance rate for the top 10 is 50% and it is 62% for schools ranked 11 to 20.

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate Rankings from Highest to Lowest

MBA Interview Acceptance Rate from Highest to LowestNYU jumps out as the highest acceptance rate by a wide margin. If you have been selected to interview at Stern then you can prepare to open a bottle of champagne because you are probably going to business school. No other school in the top 10 has an interview acceptance rate above 60%.

On the other end of the spectrum is Kellogg and Tuck with the lowest acceptance rates. These two schools will allow anyone who visits campus to interview, so it is not surprising that they admit significantly fewer applicants who are interviewed. Most of the top 10 schools have an acceptance rate clustered between 46% and 51%.

Duke has the lowest acceptance rate for a school not in the top 10 at 52%. The rest of the schools range from 57% to 68%,

Good luck and don’t forget to prepare for your MBA interviews!

Kellogg Acceptance Rate Analysis

Kellogg’s acceptance rate is on the higher side for a top 10 MBA program at over 20%. But don’t be fooled, getting into Kellogg is still very difficult. In addition to high expectations for GMAT and GPA, Kellogg allows all applicants to interview. This allows Kellogg to find candidates with the best interpersonal skills even if they don’t have high scores. Since I don’t have information on candidates’ interpersonal skills, I’ll stick to GMAT and GPA. I built a model that can estimate an applicants chance of admissions to Kellogg based on a few key pieces of data . I am posting the insights I found in the model here until I am able to build the admissions calculator over winter break.

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by GMAT

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by GMAT MBA Admissions Business School

The average GMAT score for Kellogg’s 2 year MBA program is 717, however the average GMAT for applicants is lower, coming in at 709. The graph above shows the relationship between GMAT and Kellogg acceptance rate for the average applicant, who has a GPA of 3.38. You can see there is a strong relationship between GMAT and Kellogg acceptance rate. An applicant to Northwestern has twice the chance of getting in with a 750 compared to a 650.

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by GPA

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by GPA MBA Business School Admissions

Similar to GMAT, having a higher GPA increases your chance of admission at Kellogg. Even with a low GPA of 3.0, the admission rate is still over 20%. The graph above shows Kellogg acceptance rate by GPA for the average candidate, who has a GMAT of 709 (yes I know that it is not a possible score).

Kellogg prefers GMAT over GPA

Kellogg Acceptance Rate GMAT vs GPA MBA Admission Business School

By comparing admissions for candidates with a high GMAT score vs high GPA, I found that Kellogg prefers a high GMAT over a high GPA.* This is good news for candidates who are willing to put in the hard work to get a high GMAT score. Having a high GPA only increases your chance of admission by 2% to 25%. On the other hand, having a high GMAT increases the Kellogg acceptance rate to 29%. On the flip side, if you have a low GMAT then it will harm your chance of admission more than a low GPA.

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by Round

Kellogg Acceptance Rate by Round MBA Admissions

Round 1 applicants had the highest acceptance rate, with round 3 acceptance rate the lowest. These numbers are a little misleading because they don’t take into account difference in the average candidate quality for the different rounds.

Kellogg MBA Applicant Statistics by Round AdmissionsThe lower acceptance rate for Kellogg applicants in later rounds is explained by lower GMAT and GPA. This is why application round is not a factor in my admission model. Applying in a later round does not appear to harm your chance of admission at Kellogg significantly, especially if you can use that time to raise your GMAT or improve your essay.

Other Admissions Factors

The last two factors that had an impact on admission rate were country and industry. Applicants who were living in India had a roughly 6% chance of admission. Candidates who worked in computer software while applying had a 5% chance of admission. Both of these factors were statistically significant, meaning that there was enough data to verify the effect.

Good luck with your applications! Let me know if you have any questions.

*A high score on GMAT or GPA is defined by one standard deviation above average.