Any idea what Wharton will ask in the interview?

[econdreamer]

I will have an interview on Tuesday with Wharton's applied economics program. It will be a phone interview and will last for about 15 minutes. Any idea on what they will ask and what i should say? Anyone who has got interviewed at Wharton are very welcome to share his/her experience.

[desimba]

I had an interview with Wharton's Management program two Fridays ago. I spoke with 2 members of the admissions committee for ~ 15 minutes and I asked them questions regarding the program for 15 minutes at the end of it. Questions that they asked were on expected lines:
Why PhD; Why Wharton; Why in the Management area (my SOP had references from scholars in Economics and Pol. Science and they wanted me to explain why I was applying to a management department as compared to an econ/ Pol. Science department); Describe an interesting project that I have worked on during my present job as a management consultant. I would say very much on expected lines. The Applied Economics program might have a different set of questions but would be surprised if it differed hugely from this set.

[econdreamer]

Thank you very much for your sharing! May I ask that does it mean that the whole phone conversation last for 30 minutes (they asked you questions during the first 15mins and you asked them during the second 15mins)??

Is there any advices that you could give? and, have you heard their decisions yet?

What questions did you ask them?

[guan]

I, too, would like some suggestions on questions to ask. At the moment I can only come up with the obvious things such as time-to-completion, placement record (to the extent it's not available online), etc.

[jaw17]

As I posted over on the econ board, I was up at Wharton last week for interviews with the health systems department. While the process is likely very, very different for the AE folks, I suspect that they will focus on:

1) Why applied economics (as opposed to "regular" econ)?

2) How does AE fit with your career aspirations (e.g. placement in biz and policy schools rather than econ departments?

3) Which department will you concentrate in (b-pub, real estate, or risk/insurance)?

Apparently they are still working out some kinks with this new umbrella program, and it may have raised some tension b/w Wharton and the UPenn econ department, so you should be aware of potential sensitivities on that front.

It looks like it will be a fantastic program, though - I very nearly applied myself.

[econdreamer]

Jaw17,

Thank you very much for your reply! And, would you mind elaborating a little more on what you mean by "you should be aware of potential sensitivities on that front"??? There seems to be something interesting here.

And, would you suggest some good questions that I can ask during the interview?

Thank you very much,
Econdreamer

[jaw17]

Sorry - that wasn't meant to be a veiled comment. My understanding is that the new applied econ program was driven by the Business and Public Policy department, which had been having trouble either attracting or placing students in recent years (not sure which). They thought that an AE degree would be more marketable, and so persuaded the insurance/risk department and real estate department to jointly offer the umbrella PhD program. [Note: They had asked the health systems folks to join as well, but due to the terms of their existing government health training grants they opted against it for purely financial reasons.] It's not clear to me whether the curriculum itself varies substantially from the prior requirements of those separate departments, but it does mean that there's more consolidated "purchasing power" over the core econ courses, which are currently offered by the UPenn econ department. I've heard some students hypothesize that this will eventually lead Wharton to offer some of those core courses separately, to add a more applied bent to what are allegedly very theoretical classes; as Wharton apparently "owns" some of the related TA-funding, they should have more than enough power to do so.

Again, my understanding is that the econ department was not heavily involved or consulted during this process, though, so I can only imagine that there may be some competitive tension as the program is falling into place (which I equally imagine will eventually work out to everybody's benefit). That is what I meant when I cautioned you about sensitivities. But all of this is based on about 60% casual conversation and 40% conjecture, so take it with a rather large block of salt.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by econdreamer

Thank you very much for your sharing! May I ask that does it mean that the whole phone conversation last for 30 minutes (they asked you questions during the first 15mins and you asked them during the second 15mins)??

Is there any advices that you could give? and, have you heard their decisions yet?

What questions did you ask them?

I asked them questions on when do people start getting involved in reearch; how do people identify their advisors and also around the overall process of when I would get to hear back from them as it wasn't necessarily very clear to me at the outset. Remember that the PhD is all about the research and while there can be few questions that are administrative in nature (i.e which courses to take; when do you hear back, etc.), you also need to have questions on research.

I did hear back saying that I was in at Wharton on Friday. Took them about a week between the date of my interview and when I got to hear back from the program coordinator.