Wharton MBA student wins $100,000 on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'

Alan Isenberg wanted to be a millionaire.

After appearing on ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" Isenberg, an MBA student at Wharton, became $100,000 closer to his goal.

"I am pretty humbled by this experience," said Isenberg. "My winnings have paid for a year of business school and a vacation to Mexico for spring break."

The trivia-based game show, hosted by Meredith Vieira for the seventh season, aired last Thursday and Friday.

As he sat in the hot seat, Isenberg's wife, mother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and aunt supported him from the audience.

However, it took two tries before Isenberg managed to get to the hot seat.

The process to become a contestant on the show can be lengthy. Every summer, the show travels to a variety of cities where applicants can audition. Auditions are also held in New York City beginning in the spring and running through the end of the production season, which is usually in November.

In the audition, an applicant must take an in-person, 30-multiple-choice-question test of trivia on a variety of topics.

"You must pass the written test to make it to the next round," said Trisha Miller, the show's publicist.

Next the applicant must pass an interview.

Assuming the applicant passes, anywhere from a week to a year can go by before he or she actually makes it to the hot seat.

"Ten years ago, I tried out for a phone audition but did not make it," Isenberg said. After auditioning again at the end of the last school year and being selected, he finally taped the show that aired last week on Sept. 26, 2008.

In the show's waiting room, Isenberg said, he was joined by seven other contestants.

"We were not allowed to have any reading material," he said. "We taught each other everything that we knew about our fields of expertise because we wanted each other to do well."

On Thursday's show, Isenberg made it to the $2,000 question with all of his lifelines - ask the expert, ask the audience, double dip and phone a friend - still intact.

When Isenberg hit the $250,000 question on the next night's show, he was out of lifelines and chose to walk away with $100,000, rather than answer the question incorrectly and walk away with only $25,000.

From the category "Check Your Mailbox," the game-ending question asked which method - from the choices subway, submarine, mule and hovercraft - is not one of the 11 by which the U.S. Postal Service currently delivers mail. The answer was submarine.

While Isenberg did not know that fact, he has a trove of what he thought was completely-useless information, according to Wharton 2010 alumnus David Gilboa, who wrote in an e-mail that he is glad to see Isenberg's knowledge came in handy for the show.

"I'm very happy that Alan will now have the extra disposable income to pay for his [three-hour] lunches at Rouge, his pied-a-terre in Manhattan and his expensive Italian loafers," Wharton graduate student Jeffrey Groeber joked over e-mail.

In Philadelphia, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" can be seen weekdays at 12:30 p.m. on ABC.

Mar. 3, 11:20 a.m. This article was changed to reflect that auditions for the show are held in a variety of cities throughout the country.

Mar. 5, 12:00 a.m. This article was changed to reflect that Isenberg was accompanied at the taping by his wife, mother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and aunt.

Mar. 5, 12:00 a.m. This article was changed to reflect that Jeffrey Groeber is a current Wharton graduate student.

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