<p>Hello everyone
Recently I have started to research about interviews. I heard that only the extreme interviews will impact the outcome of the admission decision, which left me wondering, how would you define a glowing or a horrible interview? For example, would a 4 hour interview be considered as a glowing one?</p>
<p>I think you’re only half right; while a bad interview can hurt you, alumni interviews are of such little consequence that whether a good interview is “good”, “great”, or “best I’ve seen in my interviewing career” won’t matter.</p>
<p>Agreed. The interview for most places is just to check that you are actually a human who can communicate. And to talk a bit about the school. Once they know that, then they are happy and will accept/reject you based on other criteria.</p>
<p>Next time try lacing your interviewer’s drink with Radium.</p>
<p>Yeah, interview is basically to make sure you don’t have psychological problems (like cutting or something) and have decent hygiene (i.e. you shower and brush your teeth) and aren’t gonna go all Virginia Tech or something.</p>
<p>1) I would consider a 4 hour interview to be extremely weird. Sorry but my “parent” radar would say: “What are you talking to my kid for four hours about, stranger?” </p>
<p>2) What’s a glowing interview? From whose perspective? My alma mater would consider any interview great that could glean more information about the student – positive or negative. Remember, the interview serves the college, not the applicant. If YOU are a poor candidate, the college wants to know it. If YOU are a solid candidate and can express that in an interview, the college wants to know it.</p>
<p>I don’t want anyone to be paranoid but the fact is, not everyone presents themselves as super impressive. So far this season, I’ve interviewed six students for my alma mater, a Princeton peer school. Two were unimpressive (got rejected already), three were average (average for the general applicant pool – not average compared to the normal HS student) and one was really memorable. However, he withdrew b/c of a ED decision at another college. But I spoke w/my regional rep and she concurred that this guy was very impressive. I think he would have gotten in.</p>
<p>As for a “horrible” interview, I would say that the two rejected students left me feeling the interview had gone well. Indeed they did – but the fact was I judged them as below average – because that’s how they presented themselves – not because they were poor interviewees.</p>
<p>But, ALL six interviews went according to plan, in my opinion.</p>
<p>^ T26E4: What would you consider a poor candidate? And the unimpressive students were not impressive in terms of grades/extracurrics, ect? Please elaborate more because I am very curious. I feel I’m a solid candidate but when it comes to interviews, nerves often get the best of me and I feel it could have went better. One more thing, the “unimpressive” students were formally rejected or you’re just speculating that its highly unlikely for an acceptance? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>^^ Does it follow then that someone who is too modest about his/her accomplishments, or someone who does not highlight the strengths of his candidacy in the interview may stand to suffer from the interview?</p>
<p>chemistry: you have a legitimate question. When I mean unimpressive, I mean not being able to expand upon open ended queries about their academic interests or accomplishments , their thoughts on their community or world around them, whatever. I’m looking for sparkle, maturity, people who have accomplished a bit and expect to accomplish more, people who are ravenous learners, * people who are interesting!* </p>
<p>I have no idea about their grades/scores or laundry list of ECs. </p>
<p>As for my two “unimpressive” interviewees, they applied Early and were rejected.</p>
<p>debarghya: As long as it’s woven into a conversation about yourself, I think it’s fine to present your best attributes. Don’t go on and on about it to the point that your listener is rolling eyes – but you get the picture.</p>
<p>which schools have early admit programs? Can one apply early to a SCEA/REA school and to another ED school ?? Just wondering. Of the top ten schools, the following is the early admission program for each school.</p>
<p>(N/A) 1 Harvard University Cambridge, MA </p>
<p>(N/A) 2 Princeton University Princeton, NJ </p>
<p>(SCEA) 3 Yale University New Haven, CT </p>
<p>(ED) 4 Columbia University New York, NY </p>
<p>(REA) 5 Stanford University Stanford, CA </p>
<p>(ED) 5 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA </p>
<p>(EA) 7 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA </p>
<p>(EA) 7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA </p>
<p>(ED) 9 Dartmouth College Hanover, NH </p>
<p>(ED) 9 Duke University Durham, NC </p>
<p>(EA) 9 University of Chicago Chicago, IL</p>
<p>^^ Yeah I get what you’re saying. I’ve been interviewed by only one school till now. After the interview, I thought it went fine but it didn’t really reach the heights of intimacy that so many interviews reported here on CC do. It lasted half an hour. My interviewer asked me about my academic plans and why I wanted to go to the university he was interviewing for. He didn’t really try to gauge my intellect save for asking “what books do you read?”. Then I asked him some questions about his experiences there and he was very forthright and straight about everything. I thought it was good. Good, but not good enough to create a lasting impression of me as a person in the interviewer’s mind, I suppose.</p>
<p>A boy who happens to be a friend of my friend was interviewed by the same interviewer and they talked almost like two hours. I know that kid is a brilliant conversationalist (something which I’m not). I was wondering if there was something I didn’t do right in my interview. We talked very briefly about my EC’s and I really didn’t try to (or get to) force my “best attributes” upon the natural flow of the conversation. I wonder if this means that the other boy is getting a “glowing” report, while I am not.</p>
<p>toughyear: you’re hijacking this thread. Also, if you look up the definitions SCEA and ED, you’ll find your answers. The search function at the Colleges Admissions forum will yield what you need</p>
<p>^T26, sorry. I thought that SCEA does not allow any other Early admission app. Thanks for the clarification. And I am not ‘hijacking’ this thread, was merely clarifying an item in your posts. AFter I received warning from CC because of a post in which I mentioned your name, T26, and which entire thread was deleted, I am much more careful now. I hope this thread is not deleted because much useful info is being presented here. On a side note, I am expecting a much larger number of acceptances by yale of the science/math whiz types, which may lead to a reduced number of acceptances for all rounded kids. In spite of the relative popularity of yale due to its residential colleges, etc., still the science/math-oriented applicants seem to like Princeton (at least at the graduate level - probably at the undergraduate level too). So, Yale’s move this year may be a longer term movement to make Yale more competitive with Princeton and Harvard in science/math. I’d love to hear your comment on this, T26.</p>
<p>I know that usually good interviews don’t really help, but I just had a really good interview with one of Princeton’s peers. We talked for an hour and a half, and the interviewer (who had a lot of experience) basically told me that I am probably one of the top 5 applicants in my area and that she would “push for me” in admissions… I’m not trying to get my hopes up too much and I know that it probably won’t have a big impact on my decision, but has anyone else had an interviewer say something like that? At any rate, it was really nice to hear the vote of confidence :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree. My Princeton interviewer stated over the phone, via email, and in person that the Princeton interview wasn’t so much for the school to find out more about the applicant but for the applicant to have a “dialog and personal connection” with Princeton. Obviously he could just be paying lip service and using a bunch of buzzwords, but I really got the impression that -as cheesy as it sounds- it really was a dialog between us instead of a one-way street of communication.</p>
<p>Found this on a regional Alumni website</p>
<p>“In the stressful world of college admission, our goal is to give applicants a positive impression of Princeton, in what may be their only human contact with a representative of the university. The hope is that applicants come away with the feeling that they have
been listened to with interest and respect.”</p>
<p>So yes, it does appear that the interview is more for the applicant than the University.</p>
<p>I normally judge how an interview goes by what the interviewer tells me…most of mine have told me they are recommending me highly so Im hoping that means I did/said something right!</p>
<p>I define the interview partially by how the applicant feels about the college after the interviewer. </p>
<p>For Princeton, my interviewer was extremely late (while I got to wait in literally freezing rain, at one point starting to fear for my safety). Once the interviewer arrived, it turned out that this person had scheduled the interviews back to back and had only ten minutes before needing to go to the next interview. The interviewer then spent some time talking about Princeton vaguely AND THEN TALKED ABOUT HOW GREAT ANOTHER PEER COLLEGE WAS. My mouth nearly fell open in surprise. Two minutes of talking about my extracurriculars (which need intense explanation) and then I got cut off, the interviewer saying that he/she would give me a great review and that he/she had to go to the next interview. </p>
<p>I qualify this as a disastrous interview because after speaking with this interviewer, I am no longer interested in Princeton. Leaving a single female high school student in the freezing dark rain and then only giving me ten minutes was exceedingly arrogant and rude.</p>
<p>My Harvard interview, on the other hand, was incredible. It lasted far longer than the 10 minutes I got with Princeton (an hour and 20 minutes, to be precise) and gave me an on-cloud-nine feeling for like, a week. I was on the fence with both Harvard and Princeton, and now Harvard is my first choice and Princeton has plummeted on my list.</p>
<p>I didn’t know how my interview went. I’m an international with English as my second language, so during the interview I pronounced several words wrong. Spoken English has always been my downside, but I had never considered it to be a major disadvantage for me until yesterday. </p>
<p>Thank God the SAT doesn’t have speaking section.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I find this statement arrogant. It sounds like, remember it is YOU who need us, it is not us who need you. If this is the way every college approaches the interview process it will soon become a PR disaster. They should be selling the college to the applicants as much as they are gethering information about the applicant for their college.</p>
<p>Also, FOLKS, REMEMBER THE ABOVE QUOTE WAS NOT MADE BY A PRINCETON INTERVIEWER.</p>