The Wharton MBA interview is distinctive for its virtual Team-Based Discussion. This dynamic, relational experience is about much more than delivering a strong pitch. Wharton’s admission committee wants to observe how you approach a challenge, present yourself, cohesively work towards solutions in a small group context and think on your feet. 

This year’s TBD prompt spotlights Wharton’s McNulty Leadership Program and its focus on experiential learning through Leadership Intensives: immersive, group-based experiences designed to push participants beyond their comfort zones and foster self-discovery, teamwork, and leadership growth. Your task is to work with a small group of fellow applicants to propose a new Leadership Intensive that fits within a pilot budget of $25,000.

While you won’t know how the discussion will play out until you get into the virtual interview room, you can do a lot to prepare for a successful Wharton TBD starting now.

I spent a decade at the helm of Wharton’s MBA admissions and another decade running my Fortuna Admissions clients through their paces to prepare for these sessions. I am experienced at guiding candidates to bring their best to the table. Here, I’m offering our team’s top tips for delivering your standout pitch, along with what success looks like.

How Does Wharton’s Team Based Discussion Work?

The Wharton TBD simulates the Learning Teams model at the heart of the Wharton experience. It aims for a real-world approach that hinges on “persuasive rather than positional leadership.” Think of this as your opportunity to showcase your professional presence and what you would bring to your future study group at Wharton.

Conducted virtually via Zoom, these sessions include five or six candidates (similar to Wharton’s Learning Teams). Your discussion will have a prompt and an end goal (see below). Each team member will have up to 60 seconds to share his or her idea about how to address the assignment before moving into the group discussion. 

After this round of brief introductions, your team has 25 minutes to settle on an idea and flesh out your solution to the prompt. Then, you will have five minutes to present your idea to the admissions committee members moderating and observing the session.

Everyone receives the same question and will participate via video from remote locations. No one is at an advantage; the prompt is designed to exhibit team building and is not about demonstrating specific knowledge of a subject area.

Following the TBD, you’ll exit the group discussion to a separate Zoom room for a one-on-one interview with an admission representative, lasting 10 minutes. In this portion, expect the Wharton interview questions to focus on why you are pursuing an MBA and why you want to attend Wharton.

Be aware that in the interview these 10 minutes go by very quickly; be ready to make the most of it. Prepare by checking out our guide to preparing for MBA admissions interviews, and signing up for Fortuna’s Wharton Group Interview Prep. 

The Wharton TBD Prompt For 2025-26

This year’s prompt is as follows:

“Leadership development at Wharton integrates scholarship, relationships, and experiences that connect knowledge with action. The McNulty Leadership Program serves as the hub for this work, offering an expansive portfolio of experiential learning opportunities, including MBA Leadership Ventures. Ventures facilitate self-discovery, leadership, and character development. Participants are able to step out of their comfort zone, exceed personal limitations, and experience leadership firsthand. One key offering within the Venture Portfolio is Leadership Intensives (LI). Each LI is a consolidated, immersive, group-based experience lasting one to two days.

Wharton invites your team to propose a new Leadership Intensive (LI) to address increasing student interest. The LI proposed should be designed for Wharton MBA students and operate within a pilot budget of $25,000. All costs – including partner fees, facilitator payments, site or equipment rentals, and materials – must stay within this total amount. Transportation logistics will be arranged by Wharton and are outside the scope of your team’s planning and budget.

The program should be structured around a central theme that articulates and reinforces fundamental leadership principles. These principles will inform the program’s design and delivery, with the goal of producing specific, demonstrable learning outcomes. Consider how progress toward these learning outcomes will be assessed to determine whether participants have internalized and applied the intended skills and insights.”

Deconstructing the Wharton TBD Prompt

This prompt asks candidates to design a Leadership Intensive that brings Wharton’s philosophy of learning through action to life. Implicit in this exercise is the expectation that you can think expansively about leadership development — not just in theory, but in practice. It calls for forward-looking, experiential design: how do you create an environment where people stretch beyond their comfort zones and grow as leaders?

This is a clever and revealing test of leadership potential. The challenge isn’t only to come up with a compelling idea — it’s to collaborate in real time with a diverse group of peers, structure your thinking under pressure, and build consensus around a shared vision. Successful participants will demonstrate creativity, empathy, and practicality while keeping their proposal within the real-world constraints of a fixed budget.

What stands out about this year’s prompt is that its very premise is not about individual achievement. Instead, it’s about designing an experience that cultivates leadership in others. Wharton has long used the Team-Based Discussion to assess emotional intelligence, listening skills, and the ability to influence within a group. This year, the focus on Leadership Intensives underscores that ethos — Wharton is looking for candidates who understand that leadership is relational: it’s about connection, reflection, and community impact, not just personal success.

Tackling the Wharton TBD Prompt

Your team’s first move is to align on a central leadership theme. The prompt leaves “what change looks like” up to you, but asks you to translate leadership principles into experiential learning. Look to the McNulty Leadership Program’s portfolio (e.g., Ventures/Intensives) as inspiration for how Wharton connects knowledge with action as you define your Leadership Intensive’s focus and the resources it will deploy.

The two big questions are where to start and where to end.

• Start with the leadership capability you want participants to develop (e.g., leading through uncertainty, inclusive decision-making, crisis communication, values-based leadership). Avoid vague, catch-all topics; pick a sharp theme and a real context.
• End with a clear program design: a one to two day sequence of activities, within the $25,000 pilot budget, that advances your theme and produces measurable learning outcomes.

As you shape the proposal, identify Wharton-specific assets (faculty, centers, alumni/industry ties, Action Learning, student clubs) that make the experience credible and distinctive. Spell out how you will assess progress (rubrics, peer feedback, pre/post reflections, observed simulations) to show that participants have internalized and can apply the intended skills.

Think like a professor designing a rigorous learning experience – and like an operator responsible for feasibility, partnerships, logistics, and results.

Top Tips for the Wharton Virtual TBD

Present with precision, then facilitate.
Use your one-minute opener to state a crisp theme, 1–2 key activities, budget realism, and 2–3 learning outcomes. After that, listen actively, build on others’ ideas, and help the group converge.

Tip 1: Draw on Your Experiences
There are countless ways to teach leadership, but you must land on one quickly. Mine your own experiences for what actually drove growth – psychological safety, role rotation, real-time feedback, time-boxed decision making – and cite them briefly as elements to include. Concrete examples are persuasive.

Tip 2: Design for Desired Outcomes
Stay laser-focused on what participants should think, feel, decide, and do differently after the Leadership Intensive. Outcomes drive everything: the partners you choose, the Wharton resources you tap, the activities you design, and the assessment plan you propose. Make outcomes specific and measurable (e.g., lead a time-pressured team decision and communicate a clear action plan within ten minutes, assessed through facilitator and peer feedback).

Tip 3: Think Beyond the Bubble
Your Leadership Intensive may run locally, but it should engage broader, real-world contexts and diverse perspectives. Show global awareness – stakeholders, constraints, or scenarios that extend beyond campus – and design an experience that prepares leaders to operate across cultures, sectors, and settings.

Honing Your Team-Based Discussion Performance

We’ve covered some of the areas you’ll want to think about for the substance of the TBD assignment, but what about your participation? How do you handle a group discussion over video and make sure you present your best self and your winning ideas?

In this video, Caroline Diarte Edwards (former Admissions Director at INSEAD) sits down with fellow Fortuna Director and former Wharton Admissions Associate Director Michel Belden to unpack Wharton’s Team-Based Discussion — how it works, what actually happens in the room, and what the adcom is really evaluating. Michel explains the format step by step (including the one-minute pitch, the 30-minute group exercise, and the 10-minute one-on-one that follows), the kinds of prompts Wharton uses, and the roles you can play to stand out for the right reasons. She also shares practical prep advice and common pitfalls we see in mock TBDs with Fortuna clients.

How To Ace The Wharton Team-Based Discussion

Wharton TBD: What Success Looks Like

Anxious TBD participants often ask me, “How much does it matter if my idea is chosen?” While it can have advantages if the team runs with your idea, it’s far more important to showcase your collaborative leadership. Demonstrating your ability to help facilitate a discussion among people who have never met, collectively work toward a greater end goal and advance an idea in a compelling way within a limited timeframe will make a big impression.

Reflect on the following tactics as you prepare for the Wharton virtual TBD:

• After each team member has introduced themselves and offered a quick pitch, how might you help facilitate discussion to arrive at a consensus?
• How can you support your teammates and collaborate — even if you have to abandon your own idea — versus solely promoting your own ideas?
• What leadership behaviors will draw out your other team members? How are you able to enhance the discussion by encouraging others to voice their opinions?
• How might you reflect on the discussion while helping advance the deliverables to support the group’s final presentation to the adcom in the room?

Remember To Be Yourself

Remember that Wharton’s virtual Team-Based Discussion is an opportunity to bring your unique candidacy to life from a place of authenticity.

This means embracing your own style, whether you’re a quiet consensus-builder, extroverted idea person, or on-the-spot synthesizer. (Check out this illuminating related article by Fortuna’s Michael Malone and Brittany Maschal on the 7 Typical Personalities in a Wharton TBD.) Wharton isn’t looking to fill its cohort with one kind of personality type, so don’t try to be someone you’re not. Self and situational awareness can be expressed across the continuum of passionate thinkers and doers, so stay curious and enjoy yourself.

Zoom Setup Tips To Shine During The Wharton TBD Interview

Flawless internet connectivity is a must, so be sure to test your connection in advance. Like preparations for any virtual MBA interview, make sure the space behind your camera is clear and uncluttered, that your lighting is positioned on your face, and that your sound quality is excellent.

Eye contact is very important. While it is tempting to look at yourself on your screen, be mindful to engage the interviewer by looking up at the camera instead. Use a wireless headset (such as AirPods) which will likely pick up your voice more clearly than your computer microphone.

As Wharton suggests, enter the waiting room 10 minutes early. You may have the opportunity to chat and connect with other participants before go time. Zoom will also give you the benefit of seeing everyone’s names; you may wish to jot them down along with the basics of their plan. If you end up being the “note-taker” for your group throughout the sessions, don’t forget to verbally contribute just as much, if not more, than you are taking the time to annotate the proceedings. 

Prepare Thoughtful Questions For Your One-On-One Interview

After completing your TBD, the facilitator will announce the order of one-on-one interviews and then move all group members to the waiting room. The facilitator will invite participants back into the meeting one by one for your Wharton MBA interview. You will have about 10 minutes to address the interview questions.

Be prepared with your answer to “Why Wharton;” this is almost always asked. This is also your opportunity to highlight specific aspects of your candidacy you want to convey and to ask thoughtful questions that demonstrate your knowledge of and genuine motivation for the program. Once you have completed the one-on-one interview, you can leave the Zoom meeting.

Let’s Get You Into Wharton.

Your preparation for the Wharton TBD can make all the difference, and Fortuna can help. Every year, around 90% of Fortuna clients who participate in our Wharton Interview Prep sessions get admitted. We run mock TBD sessions with former Wharton Admissions gatekeepers for each round. Spaces are limited, so sign up today to secure your place.