Preparing for the Wharton Team-Based Discussion

Congratulations on receiving an invitation to the Wharton interview! But it’s not exactly an interview in the traditional sense. It is a process designed to see how you present yourself and contribute in a group setting that Wharton refers to as the Team-Based Discussion (TBD). Well-known Wharton Professor Adam Grant has written extensively about groupthink, non-conformity, and givers and takers, and the TBD gives observers the opportunity to see these concepts in action.

FORMAT

Imagine a short, urgent working meeting with brand new colleagues. You’ll be provided a prompt with your interview invitation and grouped with four to five additional applicants for the TBD, which is conducted virtually. During the TBD, your group will need to make quick decisions and prepare a short presentation, as a team, for the observers from the admissions committee or second year students - all within 35 minutes. Each applicant gives a one-minute pitch, so that portion runs five or six minutes depending on your group size. That is followed by 25 minutes of discussion and planning, and the last five minutes are for the presentation. The prompt will be explicit about the elements of the plan that need to be covered in the presentation (e.g., budget, guest speakers, learning outcomes, etc.).

After the TBD, you’ll have a 15 minute one-on-one interview with one of the observers. This block is a bit more traditional. This interview will include your reflections on the TBD as well as questions such as “why an MBA?”, “why Wharton?”, “what is your intended major?” and a few behavioral questions, with an opportunity to ask one or two questions of your own.

PROMPTS FROM RECENT YEARS

The exact prompt is released with your interview invitation and changes each year, but it always asks your group to design a program or initiative for the Wharton community. A few prior years are shown below to give you an idea of what to expect.

2025-2026
Propose a new Leadership Intensive (LI) for Wharton MBA students within a $25,000 pilot budget (covering partner fees, facilitators, site/equipment, and materials). Structure it around a central theme that reinforces fundamental leadership principles, and define the learning outcomes and how progress toward them will be assessed.

2024-2025
Propose a new Wharton Impact Community focused on an emerging global issue: define the issue, identify potential partner organizations, identify Wharton and Penn resources that could support it, and outline the key learning outcomes for members.

2023-2024
Design a new course on a cutting-edge business topic for Wharton’s Pre-Baccalaureate Program (part of the Global Youth Program, for high-school students): name the course, outline the topic and themes, identify faculty to lead it, and decide on learning outcomes and assessment methods.

PREPARATION

Accordingly, top notch preparation for last year’s TBD would have included reading about Wharton’s current or past LI programs, brainstorming leadership principles and learning outcomes, researching potential partners, speakers, or facilitators, drafting a detailed daily agenda (a Wharton LI is a one- or two-day experience), creating a budget, and deciding on the most effective assessment tool. Finally, you would have prepared a one-minute pitch for the group. Even if your idea doesn’t get much traction during the TBD, preparing in depth will allow you to ask better questions about the other applicants’ ideas. And if your idea does get traction, you want to be able to answer any probing questions from other applicants as the group fleshes out the idea for the presentation.

DOS & DON’TS

While not exhaustive, the dos and don’ts below are reflective of the best showings and most common mistakes we’ve seen in mock Wharton TBDs.

Do: Rehearse and personalize your 60 second pitch. The program or initiative you are proposing should genuinely resonate with you, and your fellow applicants should understand why.

Don’t: Try to “win.” Collaboration is the whole point. Pushing others toward your idea is not leadership.

Do: Approach the task with curiosity and ask questions about the other applicants’ ideas.

Don’t: Spend so much time on Q&A that you forget to move the team forward. Keep an eye on the clock and remind the group at select intervals how much time remains.

Do: Pair any criticism of another applicant’s idea with a suggested change or path forward (e.g., “In response to Molly’s idea, I think self-assessments won’t work in this case, because of [x reason]. Does anyone have thoughts about how peer reviews might work in this situation?”)

So, congratulations again on your invitation to Wharton’s interview, and remember to enjoy the process.