<p>Does anyone know the 2013-14 Duke Interview Questions? I am trying to prepare for my interview and besides just preparing the basic information about myself and why I would like to attend Duke, I was also curious if anyone has any insight as to what Duke has been asking its interviewees this year. Thank you very much for your help!</p>
<p>I’m almost positive that they vary by region, but just know your resume, a fair amount about Duke, why you want to go to Duke, etc; however, try your best to avoid completely scripting answers. </p>
<p>Edit: You also might wanna put a thread in the Duke-specific forum instead of this one.</p>
<p>Vctory, don’t give advice that you’re not sure about. Alumni interviewers do not ask questions based on resumes. </p>
<p>jjsbroos3, no need to worry about what may potentially be asked. You’ll never know since alumni interviewers can ask literally anything they want as long as it follows the guidelines given by the AAAC. Just be yourself.</p>
<p>^Jwest they absolutely ask you about your resume (ie what you have done in high school). Chill out. </p>
<p>And don’t cheat the interview…</p>
<p>Spend five minutes searching, in the Duke subform, things like ‘inteview tips’ or ‘interview hints’ or ‘interview help.’ We have one or two alumni interviewers who may not list out the questions for you, but do give copious advice on how to prepare.</p>
<p>I have been a Duke Undergraduate Alumni Interviewer for many years; therefore, please permit me set the record straight:
- There are absolutely NO mandatory interview questions; each interviewer uses his own technique, which may include asking questions. However, many – probably most – alumni opt not to ask pointed or difficult questions, treating the interview as a conversation, never as an inquisition.
- Interviewers simply do NOT have access to the applicant’s “resume” (e.g., GPA, standardized test scores, interests, ECs, recommendation results, and so forth), nor should we ever make specific inquires re grades, SATs/ACTs, other universities to which the applicant has applied, etc.</p>
<p>ALL of this information has repeatedly be discussed, documented and validated in years of CC questions re the Duke undergraduate interview process. One would hope that any student who aspires to attend Duke would thoroughly research before requesting information that is readily available on this website. Further, one would also hope that individuals would not guess or provide erroneous information.</p>
<p>patriotsfan1: Some interviewees MAY ask “resume questions,” while others prefer to allow this information to be accrued naturally and less confrontationally, as a result of a bilateral discussion. Your statement that all interviewers “absolutely ask you about your resume” simply is not universally true.</p>
<p>If you include extra-curriculars as part of a “resume” (which I would as a high school student), then I would say the vast majority of interviewers ask about it. (What do you do outside of school?) If you’re talking about asking about academic stats, then I’d say hardly anybody asks although you may be asked about favorite subjects, academic pursuits, etc. but certainly NOT GPA/SAT. Every interviewer is different and asks different questions. Just be prepared to talk about why you’d be a good fit for Duke (i.e. what would YOU contribute to the Duke community), what is appealing about Duke from your perspective, and what you do with your life outside of school (passions, etc.). Good luck.</p>
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<p>I meant to know your interests. From what I’ve read, I’ve gathered that they’ll try and find out what we’re interested in; I didn’t mean that they would grill you for answers that had to match your resume haha. I was advising the OP to be prepared to discuss his or her interests, which should be represented through his activities (and those activities should be on the resume). I also advised the OP to not come off like he’s reading from a script, a tip I learned before my first interview.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>be honest–after interviewing tons of people, they can spot a faker…truuust me O_O</p></li>
<li><p>be personal–don’t afraid to talk about personal things that may even make you choke up or tear up. try to make it a conversation…don’t make it so scripted and formal. alumni interviews are meant to be fun. make their day. make them remember you. make them laugh!</p></li>
<li><p>be positive–if a story you have to tell is sad or about how you faced tough times, end it positively</p></li>
<li><p>REMEMBER…for alumni interviews…these people love the school they went to SO MUCH that they’re interviewing smelly 17-year olds in cafes…in other words, show your love for the school…try to find weird things about the school that make it unique and cool</p></li>
<li><p>just go with the FLOW, man. hey…if you get in you get in…if you don’t, you don’t! everything happens for a reason. you’re allowed to be upset about rejections, but in my experiences, rejections have made me more of a risk-taker. I’m not afraid to fail. as long as you put all of your effort and hard work into what you do, you’ll have no regrets.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>TopTier</p>
<p>Almost all of the interviews will ask about what you do outside of school, clubs, jobs, etc. While nothing is universally true by far a majority of them ask about “Resume like topics”</p>
<p>Good night.</p>
<p>I would say preparing according to your resume is not necessary for an alumni interview. My advice as an alumni interviewer is that the applicant should pretend I’m a stranger (which I am) that they’ve just met in a social situation and they are telling me a little about themselves, their interests, and where they’d like to go to college and why assuming I know absolutely nothing about any of those topics. No pressure, no fuss, just a friendly get-to-know-you conversation.</p>
<p>@patriotsfan1:</p>
<p>1) How do you know “almost all” ask? Some of us don’t proactively inquire; rather, we elicit the information as a normal part of a bilateral conversation, which is far less confrontational in, what for most seniors, is a very stressful situation. As you’re aware, these interviews are every bit as much about creating positive attitudes concerning Duke as they are about providing Undergraduate Admissions with our impressions and, perhaps, a little heretofore unknown information. </p>
<p>2) With that said, my comments (in post #7), concerning your post #4, focused on the absolute and universal nature of your assertion. There’s a significant difference between what you’ve now indicated in #11 ("Almost all of the interviews will ask about what you do outside of school, clubs, jobs, etc.’) and what you emphasized in #4 (“they (Duke alumni interviewers) absolutely ask you about your resume”).</p>
<p>TopTier, I don’t know why these kids think they know more about the actual professionals doing the work.</p>
<p>patriotsfan, while the alumni interview isn’t a huge part of a candidate’s application, it is enough to keep an applicant out. We don’t need you spreading bad information.</p>
<p>panickingsomuch, excellent advice!</p>
<p>I am also an alumni interviewer for Duke and I wanted to throw in my two cents, although a bit late in the discussion. Duke’s Alumni Association sends out a powerpoint to alums who have volunteered to help with interviews - there is no formal training required or even available. The powerpoint includes a number of “rules” for the interviewers, but no quality control is performed to ensure adherence to these rules. Certainly, if an applicant complained to Admissions about something egregious it would be addressed, but there is no formal review process of interviewers.</p>
<p>Some of these rules for interviewers include: meet in a public, non-threatening location; make your initial contact by phone; don’t ask about GPA or test scores; don’t offer opinions about admissions chances; don’t interview applicants whom you know personally; etc.</p>
<p>I have two children who were interviewed by Duke alums, so I know that not all the rules are observed by all interviewers. Every interviewer will be different in their approach.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised to hear about the lack of training and oversight many university’s have with alumni interviews.
If I were an admission counselor for a region and had 500 well qualified students with similar profiles and only 100 spots to give out I would want help with my decision making process. I would:
*meet with all my interviewers
*make sure they knew how I wanted these interviews conducted
*make sure they were following the rules
*develop a good working relationship with them
*seek out strong recruiters who have the ability to connect with 18 yr old students
*value their opinion, observations, and recommendations
The admission process is too important to students and universities to offer anything other than the best evaluation process possible.</p>
<p>rmldad: As a long term AAAC interviewer (as you are), I view our annual PowerPoint/PDF – as I recall, it’s 50+ pages – as formal training (actually, I believe it’s quite good and rather thorough).</p>
<p>bud123: For Duke, and for many other colleges and universities, the goal is to get good geographic coverage, enabling interviews for many undergraduate applicants. Were the school to require more-extensive training, alumni volunteers – generally very busy, very accomplished, and very dedicated individuals, with extensive family and professional commitments – would be far less likely to participate. Therefore, we seek an optimized balance, some training through a thorough, annually updated “guidance outline,” but nothing so onerous that alumni will decline to participate.</p>
<p>Further, your “bulletized” outline is great, but how many hours is the typical attorney, physician, business executive, etc. able to devote to applicant interviewing, especially in a rather condensed period (i.e., RD applications are due by 1 January, and interviews must be completed with reports submitted by 15 February)?</p>
<p>To illustrate utilizing your 500 applicant hypothetical and assuming 50 alumni interviewers – and, believe me, maintaining 50 volunteer alumni interviewers in a metropolitan area is a challenge – that’s ten potential interviews for each volunteer. Including transportation times, the actual interview, and the written report, I spend three (sometimes four) hours on each candidate. Accordingly, that’s an approximate 35 hour commitment in about perhaps five weeks. Your bullets suggest additional time devoted for Regional Admissions Officer meetings and for “education” of alumni interviewers. I’m skeptical that the college or university will develop or retain an adequate number of volunteer alumni interviewers if such additional time is required.</p>
<p>Moreover, the first time an Regional Admissions Officer told an older, more experienced, better educated, and far longer university-tenured alum “how he wanted the interview conducted,” he would likely learn: (a) that alumni volunteers will do things as they see fit, as they have been demonstrated to work successfully for years, or not at all and (b) that alumni who devote great time, talent, and treasury to institutions have the ability to communicate directly with Deans of Undergraduate Admissions, Vice Presidents for Development, and University Presidents.</p>