My D did nine interviews. Some went better than others, but she surprised herself overall. She is shy and quiet and was very worried before her first one. She developed a kind of “routine” for lack of a better word. She always made sure she had a couple of questions that weren’t easily found on the website, and that pertained to something she was particularly interested in. She asked the interviewer about him or herself, often something like “why did YOU choose this college? What has changed since you were there?” She tried to find natural opportunties to bring up these questions, rather than just pull out a list of questions at the end.
She thought being entushiatic about classes she might want to take at college would be a good way of talking about classes she was currently doing well in. For example, she was surprised at how much her appreciation of French grew throughout high school. She would do some research to find out what opportunties, classes, etc…were available at the college to be involved with French. Or psychology, or whatever she saw that reflected her interests.
She also thought it was important to be normal. She had to read a book over the summer that she really didn’t like, and there was usually an opportunity to bring up the book. She discovered many people seemed to feel the same about the book, and it lead to more discussion. She didn’t want to sound “perfect” and she felt that this book was a good foil for that.
She was accepted to a bunch of colleges, though not the tippy top ones she applied to. In her opinion, her best interviews were always the ones that were just conversations. A lot of it has to do with how skillful the interviewer is at putting people at ease.