I've just finished the interview at
Judge Business School. The interview is in fact an interview day. We've spent five hours at the school, doing lots of things and meeting lots of people.
As I told you in the previous post, I'm staying in the
Regency Guest House, a bed a breakfast halfway between the bus stop and the school. The place is nice, particular. When I arrived yesterday evening the manager/owner wasn't there, and there were an italian family waiting for him too. The guy called the manager, Roger, and he told us where were our room keys and the code to open the front door.
I spent the evening walking and doing some sightseeing. I located the school, had a coffee, and returned to the house to read about the school and the
MBA programme. I wanted to make sure that I had an answer for the most frequent questions. I finally watched some TV before going to bed.
I didn't sleep much and woke up quite early. I had plenty of time have my shower, shave, dress up, and go downstairs for the breakfast. I was the first to get to the kitchen and dining room, which are in the lower ground floor.
I had a fruit juice and when Roger arrived I ordered tea and toasts. A few minutes later another guy arrived, wearing a suit and speaking English with a clear Spanish accent. I asked him if he was Spanish and he agreed. I asked him if he was coming to the Cambridge interview he agreed too. What a surprise!
We had breakfast together, chatting. It helped us to relax. His name is Eduardo. He is from Salamanca but lives in Paris. He works for Maersk. We walked to the school under a light rain. None of us took an umbrella with us.
We arrived just on time. We were given name badges and introduced ourselves to other candidates who were already waiting in the hall. We were 25, boys and girls, people from all around the world. We, Eduardo and I, knew there were no point in staying together, so we tried to avoid each other. It was time to socialise.
The admissions coordinator greeted us and gave us a folder with our schedule. It was going to be a busy day. We started with an informal meeting with coffee or tea. It was an introduction about the school where we could ask questions to the staff.
I had my interview quite early, at 10:00, with the Admissions Director. He is a nice guy. The first thing he told me was something like "So you are the runner..." He was a runner too. It was a good icebreaker.
The interview went well. Of course he was concerned about my
GMAT score, but he calmed me down saying that they are used to latin people to score lower than average. He was interested in what I do at work and why I wanted to take an MBA. He also wanted to know what I would like to do after the MBA. Finally he told me I had to convice him he had to accept me.
I tried to be completely honest, humble. I recognised my GMAT score was a big handicap, and I commited to re-re-take it if necessary. I also said I would understand him if he couldn't offer me a place. But of course, I also said I was sure I could take the MBA and succeed both from the academic and professional point of view. I left the room quite happy. I said all I wanted to say.
The rest of the day we visited the building, the
Old Addenbrookes Hospital, we assisted to a lecture, we had lunch with current students, and finally we left for a walking tour of the city.
Before leaving the School, we were told that the decision about our admission was going to be taken straight away. The Admissions Committee was going to meet during our tour and they will let us know the decision by email in the evening. The decision could be accepted, not accepted or waitlisted. They also told us about 80% of the candidates interviewed were offered a place.
The walking tour was perfect. Our guide, a lady in her eighties, told us a lot of interesting stories and miths about Cambridge. I'll post some of them if I'm admitted.
Now I have to leave to London. I'm going to stay tonight at Simon and Ali's in Saint Margarets. If I'm admitted or at least waitlisted I'll most probably write another post quite soon.
