Queens Interview

I had my Queens telephonic interview today morning (8am MST).
It was with the associate director of the program, Ms Shannon Goodspeed

Since the hopes of making it to ISB are almost over (the WL saga continues) and I have paid the acceptance money for CMU I had a strange feeling before the meeting that I had nothing to loose. I was neither desperate nor tensed. I got up in the morning, tuned into the FM station and was pretty relaxed. The feeling was very different from the ISB interview that was held on a Friday evening (10pm) and I was scared as a rat. It was at 10 pm on a Friday. I am traveling to Pittsburgh on 22nd to check out the CMU campus, meet the faculty, admissions director. So, I was in a pretty comfortable mood.

Anyway, for the interview portion, Shannon called me up from Canada on my cell and informed that the interview would go on for 30 mins. I had kept an hour free and the meeting end up being a 40-minute conversation.

The whole interview was very professional.

There were no stress questions and no why low GMAT stuff. She did not put me in the defensive mode. The interview was very much unlike the ISB one. She said that the basis of the interview was to find out if I could fit into the teamwork style at Queens.


Here are the questions that I can recollect.

- Howz the weather there at ur place.
(I said itz the Ground hogs day today and there was a short discussion about it.)

- Tell me something about ur background, where and how you were you brought up and how much of a change has this brought in you.


-How do you find the United States? What was your first reaction when you landed here in the United States
( I said that I exclaimed to myself that said “This is just like how I saw it in the Hollywood movies.!”)


-Whatz the difference in the working style in US and in India.

- Do you miss home ? If yes, how do you cope up with it.
(I said I missed Diwali the most. It seems Queens celebrate Chinese New Year and Diwali in Kingston)

- Do you get to play cricket in the US.?


- What other activities do you like. What have you liked in the US
( I said I had never seen snow before...was in Florida earlier. so I seem to enjoy the snow and the outdoor adventure activities here in Colorado)

- Tell me the challenges you faced during your engineering project.
(I had rated that as my biggest achievement in essay coz it had given me a lot of confidence in life)

- Some questions on teamwork on that project.

- Was there anyone whom u had to remove from the team.

- If your teammates had to mention a few characteristics/qualities of you, what would that be.

- What have you heard about Kingston? Will you like it.
(Did not have much idea. did not want to bluff. so said
something obscure. She went on to explain more about Kingston)

- Why didn't you apply to US schools.?
( I was expecting this.)

- Where would you want to work after graduation..(Indirect question) –US, India or Canada


- Will you move to India? ( from my long term goal in essay)


- Tell me how you joined Toastmasters.(http://www.toastmasters.org/)
What have you learnt. What is it all about.
( I spoke for 4 mins only to realize that Shannon herself is a Toastmaster)

- She said that she wanted to start one club at Queens and asked if I would play a significant role for that. I said yes. She said " Iam going to write this down". :)


She then stressed that the strength of the program is in its team work model. Everybody gets a chance to lead and follow. Students are split into teams and stay with the team for a year.

It was my turn to ask questions.

- Shannon graduated in 1983 from the same program (Researched this at Bweek). How much of it had the program changed since then.
(It was a 16 month program with no specialization in Science and technology)


- Who decides the team composition? Let us say, who decides which 5 will form the team.
(Shannon decides. That is why she herself interviews all the applicants)

- The students at Queens have an option of completing the PMP certification. Asked her some details about it.

- Asked about the faculty. How approachable they were outside class.

- How many Indian students do they admit?

- How is the diversity decided then for Indian applicants?
(Explained and then asked me to check out the resumes of current students on the Queen's website)

- Are there any chances that I get scholarship.
(She said there were folks with scores > 700 and excellent acads.S o the chances are not good based on my score and acads background. I liked her honesty.)

She said that I would be informed about my result in 2 weeks.
So, keeping my fingers crossed. An admit or a ding should be the result.
Am not accepting another waitlist!

I couldn't talk to the Queens students much as they had their exams.
Thanks guyz (that includes Raja) who helped me with the interview prep.