SuperSaturday is coming soon and I think its a good time to share my SuperSaturday experience as it happened in January 2013. After spending several weeks/months on my essays and other admissions materials, I was just happy to submit them and was looking forward to the SuperSaturday interview. If you are like me who prefers to talk rather than write then you'll enjoy the interview process. Its around 25-30 minutes long and conducted by current students and alumni. My interview was on Saturday at 1pm and I decided to fly in from San Jose in the morning. On Friday night, when I was getting ready with my resume printouts and reviewing my notes I realized that I could not find my tie. I blame Silicon Valley for the casual dress code! I called a friend and drove to his home at midnight to borrow a tie. TIP – Plan what you are going to wear and make sure its ready a day in advance to avoid running around like I did.
The actual interview day was fun. I arrived an hour early at the Anderson campus, checked in with the friendly volunteers and chatted with other interviewees. Fast forward 30 minutes and the interviewers came one by one and called the candidate names. It was a short walk from the waiting area to the actual interview room. My interviewer was an alumnus of the class of 2007 and very friendly. She made sure I was comfortable and we then went through the usual questions talking about my professional background and my short term and long term goals. Time just flies so make sure you talk relevant stuff and don't drag too long. She asked a few questions from my resume and it felt more like a conversation than a Q&A session. Towards the end of the interview, I asked a couple of questions about life as a student at Anderson and a few student clubs I was interested to join. And we were done! She escorted me back to the waiting area and that was really nice of her.
I still had a few hours left for my return flight from LAX. Thankfully, SuperSaturday was not only about interview sessions. They had campus tours, forums and other networking events arranged as well. A few interviewees had signed up for class visits as well. I headed down towards the courtyard area and met a few people from the admissions team. Current students were also volunteering and willing to share their experiences with everyone. We were then taken on a quick campus tour by one of the current students. You might already know this – the campus is really impressive and it also made it to one of those top 10 beautiful B-school campus ranking list. It was fun to chat with everyone there and learn how they balance school, work and personal life on a daily basis. I believe you will have similar or even more number of networking opportunities during the upcoming SuperSaturday.
After returning the rental car at LAX and the flight back to San Jose, I reached home in the evening. I was tired but extremely relaxed to have completed the admissions process. I deserved a high calorie scrumptious Indian lunch buffet on Sunday!
Good luck everyone with your interviews and enjoy the admissions process!
