The Thread for College Interviews

[lolcats4]

My Harvard interview was 2.5 hours long. rofl....

[AKDigger]

I got asked the weirdest question in history (literally). . ."Do you read the Quran?"

[swang]

Apparently I don't have very long interviews.....In any case, does anyone else think that Georgetown interviews are like really good, there seems to be no variation between the interviewers...Most of them sound like they went really well.

...Anyway, my Georgetown one went much much much better than my Chicago one. Even though they were the same length.

[Poseur]

Cross-posted from Brown thread (wow, I wrote a lot):

Originally Posted by Poseur

My interview was ummm... interesting.

My interviewer challenged everything I said... I had to try really hard not to be on the defensive for the whole thing.

It was a good experience.

First of all, I wanna say that it was a really constructive interview. It wasn't BS.

Here are some notable things that happened:
-- He grilled me on cognitive science vs. neuroscience, & the details of my cognitive science research project, for five minutes... before telling me that he was a cognitive science major.
-- He asked what I do outside of school. I was like, "Well, as for school organizations, I--" & he was like "No, I mean outside of school. Completely separate from school." Mmm soooo I never told him about my extracurriculars.
-- When I told him that I liked (creating) art, he asked me what my favorite time period & artists were. I had to think about it for a while, & he was like "...OR ARE YOU NOT ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN ART?" hahaha.
-- When I was talking about music & how talented metal musicians are, I mentioned how all of the members of Dream Theater graduated from Berklee School of Music. & he was like, "Why didn't you apply to Berkeley?" & I was like, "...UC Berkeley?" & explained that I was talking about Berklee the... music school. & he was like, "Yeah, why didn't you apply to Berkeley?" lol. It was a good question, & I was like "Well that's funny because someone once asked me what my favorite school that I didn't apply to was, & I said Berkeley! I didn't apply because it's so far away! It sounds like a really good school because it's laid back but--" "No. It's very competitive." "Well I mean, it's academically rigorous, but... uhh... well... so uh, did you go there for undergrad or grad? :]" (His brother had gone there.)
-- He asked me what my motto was. I was like, "Well I really like this quote by--" & he was like "Not a quote. A motto. That you live by."
-- So I was like, "Well, you know the anti-procrastination thing? 'Never put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today'? Yeah. The opposite of that." & he was like "Ooh so you're a procrastinator. Why is that?" & I was like "Fear of failure... perfectionism... you know how perfectionism & procrastination are correlated? Yeahhh..." I mean, I could have portrayed myself in a better light, but that was honest & the only thing I could think of.
-- Sooo when he was done asking the questions that he's required to ask, he closed his laptop (he'd been taking notes on it) & said, "So, if you work well under pressure, what makes you think that the freedom at Brown would be good for you?" & he told me that he, too, was a big procrastinator, & that he wonders if he would have done better academically (& be making more money, etc.) if he had gone somewhere with more structure. So the last ten minutes of the interview consisted of him implying that I'd underperform at Brown, lol. (I mean, to be fair, it wasn't really like that, even though that's how it felt at the time... it was just him telling me to keep this in mind, which was helpful & constructive.) I told him honestly that I had thought about this in the past & decided that part of what I'm looking at in a college is that it will provide me with the opportunity to learn to manage my time better & improve my skills & stuff. I was like, "'Cause in the real world I won't have structure -- I'll have to know how to manage myself & my time." (To which he replied, "No, that's not true. There'll always be structured environments if you look hard enough." He didn't like to agree with me, lol.)
-- So then we talked about the open curriculum & he told me that it wasn't really a big deal -- that at other schools, you have lots of freedom your junior & senior years, whereas at Brown, the freedom is in the first two years, & it's just a matter of "whether you want to eat your cake in the morning or the evening." So I was like, "That's true, but I feel like the open curriculum is representative of Brown's educational policy... how they encourage people to explore their interests." & he tells me that I'm suffering from an attributional bias ("look it up") because I went to Summer@Brown & that I was just thinking of it as "Brown == open curriculum == happiness" because of my positive experience there.

So yeah, that was about it.

In retrospect, it was a good interview -- we got past the BS & talked about stuff straight up. But at the time, it just felt like he hated all of my answers, lol. I didn't have a bad feeling coming out, though; I was just like, "...hahaha what just happened?!"

I'm really not sure if he wanted me to defend my answers, or if I should have done less of the "Yeah, but..." thing & more of the "You're right; I will think about that." Oh well, too late to do anything about it.

[Emp]

Poseur, your Brown interview sounds nearly identical to mine. Scary! Everything I said was being challenged and I had to say "thats not what I mean..." and try to re-explain myself like 345435 times lol.

[Poseur]

Hahaha that's crazy!

It was definitely an interesting experience. Provocative.

[monroylobo]

I've done three of mine so far with varying interviewers. My first with Duke went pretty well. The guy was telling me about campus life and seemed impressed with my ECs. He was trying to push ROTC on me because of my JROTC participation in high school and seemed to think Duke was a backup for me though I really do like it.
My second was for Harvard with two alumni and we talked a bunch about what Harvard was like and they seemed impressed by my resume so it was a bit reassuring. They seemed like more business types than the Duke interviewer who freely shared his experiences in debauchery at Duke.
My last interview was for Princeton. My interviewer was an African-American which gave me some insight into what it's like being a minority at an ivy(being hispanic myself). We talked about my stuff for a bit, but then we had a serious conversation about Mexico's political situation and the inauguration(which he attended thanks to his Princeton connections). Overall I connected more with this interviewer though all three were pretty good experiences.

[xoxo_pr0ud]

My Smith interview went really well. We met at Starbucks and she asked questions like Why Smith?, what activities do you do? and asked if I had questions. It was about 45 minutes. During the interview this guy that knew her from high school came up and started talking to her. He talked to me also about college and it was interesting! He looked like Jason Sudeikis =) Then another man who was the first man's father talked to her for a few minutes. It was a great interview.

[CharlieBrown08]

The alumni who is supposed to interview me for Princeton has requested that I come to his house. I've only done one other interview so far, and it was in a public place (a public library), as I thought all interviews were. Is it normal for interviewers to hold it at their own house? I'm asking because my mom is sort of weirded out and doesn't want to let me do it, I guess because she is overprotective, and the guy graduated in '75, and I'm a girl. I told her she could drop me off and wait in the car outside the whole time (it's only supposed to last 30 min), but she is still uneasy.

So is it acceptable for me to request that we meet in a public place? Does anyone have any advice about this?

[youj3an]

I think I will be doing an interview for the USC merit scholarships.
Does anyone have any tips/interview questions?

Thanks =)

(Am I even posting on the right thread? Sorry, I'm kind of new here.)

[klaz413]

I recently had an interviewer in which I was asked what other schools I was applying to. I felt a little awkward, so I gave three schools that were similar in type and selectivity to the college I had an interview for. She then asked "Oh, so you're only applying to three?" and I said "No, I'm applying to more, but I figured you didn't want the whole list," to which she replied "Yes, that would be nice." For some reason I only gave six out of the eleven schools I was applying to, until she asked if I applied earlier anywhere and I revealed that I applied EA to a seventh. The other four I didn't mention are all safeties except one huge reach....I don't know why I didn't just give the whole list! Should I tell my interviewer in my thank you note that I forgot those four schools, or just leave it be? I think she may have gotten the impression that the school she was interviewing me for was a safety for me, but it's actually a bit of a reach. I don't really know what to do now....

[monroylobo]

Yeah, it does get awkward. My Duke interviewer asked me where I was applying. If you are straightforward and say like HYP they think it's a backup. Luckily I told him I wanted to stay in the south and Duke was the best, but it's hard to make it seem natural. Be prepared with something unique about the college you're interviewing for so you can say that is why you want to go there over even a school like Harvard.

[wodahs]

Leave it be. She won't know about the other schools unless you tell her - and if you do, she may feel you were deceptive during your interview.

[wodahs]

I think the interviewer should be astute enough to figure out who you are - not vs /vs. Just look like you are comfortably waiting to meet someone - they'll approach you. If they can't do this, they shouldn't be conducting interviews.

[monroylobo]

I definitely agree. When my interviewer arrived, he was like, "you seem like you're here for an interview." They should definitely be able to pick out nervous, nicely dressed, high schoolers.