I just got the invitation for a REA Stanford interview yesterday and I’m feeling a bit nervous.
I looked him up on Linkedin, and he is also in his 80s. Does anybody have advice on how to connect with people with a significant age gap to you? Anything I should avoid talking about that may offend him?
As well as general interview tips?
All in all though, I am excited and eager to have the opportunity to talk to someone who is experienced.
I am a long time interviewer for a highly selective school. You should enjoy the meeting and use it to demonstrate your curiosity and learn more about the school. Be friendly and confident and open to hearing about all experiences even if they were long ago. Alumni interviewers are volunteers who love their university, so ask thoughtful questions and show your interest. Also, I never recommend looking up your interviewer prior to the meeting. It’s not about them, and they deserve some privacy.
I also am an interviewer for a highly selective school – not Stanford, and I know little about their specific process, so take with a grain of salt. But this would work for me…
- Read anything on the Stanford page about the process - it probably will give hints on questions and what sorts of things they ask interviewers to look for
- Show off your intellectual curiosity, engagement, and passions (all sorts). Let your personality show!
- Know about the school and why you want to go there and what you would study/join/do there (seems obvious, but believe it or not, I sometimes get applicants who don’t have good answers to “why” the school or use the wrong major names or are unsure of fairly basic facts).
- Do have questions prepared for them - bearing in mind they are alums (and in this case an old one!)
- Use this as a chance to add anything to your app that you didn’t have room to put on your app or activity list if you think is interesting or important- take voice lessons for fun for 16 years but didn’t have it on your activity list? Feel free to mention that you might want to join a singing, etc.) or anything you want to add that just happened?
- Unlike the other poster, I fully expect many candidates google me after I reach out, and I am a pretty open book when they ask me questions
. I wouldn’t expect people to pepper me with questions about what they learned about me (that would be a bit strange), but I would not at all be surprised if they had viewed my LinkedIn,etc.
Stanford alums are Cardinals. They are confident and self-assured and their age doesn’t matter. They typically lead the interview and can express the love they have for their education they received at the school!
They love recalling their time at Stanford and know the history of the school well. The conversation goes well because they’ve been in your shoes and will put you at ease.
I think it’s a great idea to look up the interviewer, and try to figure out what might be an area of common ground. My boys all did this and all had exceptional admission rates including at all schools where they interviewed.
In my oldest’s case, for his H interview, he was feeling concerned because there seemed to be zero common ground - my son is a mathy nerd, not athletic, very feminist, totally not into any kind of exclusive clubs, from MA. The interviewer was a communications major, varsity athlete, member of some kind of fraternity/club that was very important to him in his business profile, from a state far away. But somehow DS figured out that they were both the oldest of three boys, and that led to a lovely conversation.
I think in the modern era you have to assume that anyone you are going to interact with, has googled you and at a minimum looked at your public Linked-In profile or similar.
Cardinal is singular. A minor point, but don’t want OP to mention “Cardinals” in the interview.