Nail the Chicago Booth Interview with a Former Booth Admissions Fellow
I ran Booth interviews. As an Admissions Fellow in 2020-2021 I read the file before the call, conducted the 60-minute interview, and submitted the written evaluation that went back to the admissions team. This package puts you through that process before you do it for real. Session 1, diagnostic. You walk me through your story, your resume, and your case for Booth. I tell you where a reader loses the thread and what an interviewer will push on. You leave knowing the three or four things your interview has to land. Session 2, full mock. A complete 60-minute Booth-style interview, same structure and question types I used. No coaching in the room, so it feels like the real thing. Session 3, debrief and rebuild. I give you the written evaluation in the same format I submitted to admissions, then we rework the answers that did not land and drill the follow-ups you struggled with. Optional fourth session for a final polish in the week before your actual interview. What you leave with: a written evaluation showing how you came across, a tightened set of core stories, and prepared answers for the questions that trip up most Booth candidates, including the fit questions people underprepare. Best for applicants who already have the invite and want to walk in knowing how they will be scored. Also useful if you interviewed, got waitlisted, and want to understand what happened.
What's included
Live video sessions, scheduled around your interview date. I read whatever you send me ahead of each session, so bring your resume, your application, and your interview invite email. Between sessions you get written notes and specific homework, and I answer questions by message in under 24 hours. I am direct in the debrief. You are paying me to tell you how it actually landed, not to make you feel good about the mock.
- A full 60-minute Booth-style mock interview, including the follow-up questions real interviewers ask
- A written evaluation in the format I submitted to admissions, so you see exactly how you came across
- A tightened set of core stories and rehearsed answers for the Booth fit questions applicants underprepare
Meet your expert
Dean A.
Booth Admissions Fellow who read and evaluated real MBA applications
I read MBA applications from the inside. As a Booth Admissions Fellow in 2020-2021, I sat in the admissions office reading essays and resumes, ran 60-minute interviews, and wrote the evaluation that went to the committee on each candidate. That was the pandemic surge, one of the most competitive cycles Booth has had, so I saw a lot of strong applications and learned fast what separated the ones that moved forward from the ones that stalled. I also applied as a non-traditional candidate. I was a CPA out of KPMG audit, not the consultant or banker profile most people picture, and I was admitted to Booth, Columbia, Cornell Johnson, and NYU Stern. So I have been on both sides of the same file. I work best with applicants who look strong on paper but read as generic, and with career switchers out of accounting, finance, operations, and non-profit backgrounds who are worried their story does not add up to an M7 candidacy. It usually does. It is almost always a framing problem, not a resume problem. What I do with you: pressure test your school list against your real profile, find the through line that makes your career make sense to a reader who has ninety seconds, cut essays that are trying to be impressive down to essays that are trying to be clear, and run mock interviews the way I ran them for Booth, with the same written evaluation afterward so you see exactly how you came across. Outside of this I run a small company and teach cost accounting as adjunct faculty, so most of my week is spent explaining hard things to people learning them for the first time. Same job.