Trying to figure out how to support the kid as he prepares for interviews w/ admissions officers. When I was doing b-school admissions advising, I learned that different schools have different styles of interviewing (e.g. some like MIT are wedded to the behavioral interview questions, e.g. “Tell me about a time when you…” while others are more relaxed, get-to-know-you sorts of affairs, often conducted by alumni). I was able to use interview reports to help prep clients (and we typically did mock interviews so that they could practice talking about themselves out loud). I haven’t seen many interview reports around here.
I’d love to know what people’s first-hand interview experiences are like. What sorts of questions are typical (for a given school especially, but also in general)? Aside from the obvious stuff (e.g. why do you want to come here, and what do you hope to do with your life?), what sorts of things should he have ready answers for? and – more basic – what should he wear? Assuming he should follow up with thank-you note (or email)–or is there some reason why he shouldn’t?
Hit me with your best tips. Thanks!
(FWIW, schools on his interview list include Macalester, St. Olaf, Rochester, Brandeis, Carleton, Kenyon, Lafayette, Lehigh, Oberlin, and Occidental, which is an alumni interview.)
Learn a system like STAR - Situation, Task, Action, Result for the behavioral.
You can come up with 3-4 scenarios and pivot one of them to most any question asked.
For other straight forward type questions - breathe - repeat the question back to make sure you understand it - what are 3 areas of opportunity ? Then say them.
Patience. Make sure the question is answered.
Ps most are informal, have little if no weight on admissions, and the student should come in with questions - - serious or fun such as what was your favorite off campus restaurant to eat ? Or favorite library to study in and why ?
Inform the interviewer but glean info too. It’s really a chat. Mine had alums, students, as coms - so could be anyone.
The only overlap school my D had was at Lehigh. She interviewed there with an ad com. They asked her how she would describe engineering to a five year old. She loved that question!
Mostly though they wanted to know why them; why her major; what questions did she have.
I did interviewing for two decades for my alma mater. Why us. Why your major. Favorite high school class. Favorite EC. And what questions did they have for me.
General interview prep tips that I can share (from my MBA admissions consulting days):
STAR format is classic and particularly relevant for behavioral-style interview questions (tell me about a time when you failed to meet your own expectations, or someone else’s. what happened? how did you handle it? etc.) Thanks @tsbna44
Having a set of core stories to tell about yourself, things that collectively paint a comprehensive picture of who you are. Map these stories against the various disclosure opportunities in any given application (including short and long essay questions, resume, potential interview questions, etc.) Share these also with your recommender in the format of “here are some key experiences that have shaped me into the person I am today.” (N.B. this last is a best practice from MBA admissions prep; not sure it’s applicable to teacher recommendations or not.)
Have succinct answers to the questions “why do you want to attend our school?” “where do you see yourself in x years?” and “what do you want to do with your life?”
Prepare for a strengths/weaknesses/growth areas question. Have examples handy.
Have at least one good question for the interviewer, ideally something that can’t readily be gleaned from the school website.
Be prepared for wildcard questions about what you’ve been reading/where you get your news, or even something like “what do you wish I’d asked you/what did you not get to talk about?”
I guess I’m curious about how much of this kind of prep is relevant for undergrad admissions interviews. We’re obviously dealing with a different set of interviewees – kids who aren’t as self-aware, professionally experienced, or clued into various career pathways and how educational opportunities connect to those pathways.
It sounds like at least for some schools, the interview is a bit more relaxed.
That said…that “how to describe engineering to a five-year-old” question is something he’s gonna need to practice (especially given his current level of understanding of engineering. He might only be able to explain it to a five-year-old! “it’s…um…like Legos and Magna-Tiles? except you build real electronics and houses and roads and things?”)
Are you sure about this? even when it’s admissions officers who are doing the interviewing? I did alumni interviewing for Princeton for a long time and became incredibly cynical about it – it was clearly an alumni engagement tool that had very low impact on admissions outcomes. But at least in the MBA world, admissions interviews with actual AdCom members were something to take quite seriously.
You’re correct. In the CDS it will say whether the interviews are considered, important or not important. There are some schools where the interviews carry weight.
I think at some schools that have many more applicants than they can possibly consider (like Princeton), the interview can be a reason to say “no”. For those schools, the cynic in me thinks that an alumni interview can only hurt you - nobody ever gets in on the strength of their alumni interview. But for schools that care about yield and interest, the interview is another way for them to gauge that and is an important way to get in.
My S25 has had only one interview so far this year, at a LAC not on your list, that stated on their website that most successful applicants will interview with an AO. Kids are told that all interviewers would ask the same questions, and I was surprised that they were hypothetical type questions “what would you do in this situation?”. But I think over-prepping for that would be bad. I really think they want kids to take a minute, think, and respond.
My D23 had multiple interviews that were much more in line with what I am familiar with - what classes are you taking? which is your favorite? tell me about your activities, etc. Really just friendly conversations.
As for clothing - clean clothes without offensive graphics. I really do not think they judge on clothes - so many factors play into how a teen may dress. But if your kid is willing to put on a collared shirt or nice sweater, that never looks bad.
Good luck!
Edited to add: my favorite question from my years of interviewing for a different Ivy: what is the one class everyone should take before graduating? Every school has that famous prof, and it isn’t on the website!
For my kids undergrad - guessing little to know impact. My kid had a typo in her thank you to W&M. Was waitlisted. Didn’t stay on. It was a student as was Rice. W&L an adcom. WUSTL an alum for my son.
Was that why my kid was WL at W&M ? I don’t know. Tip - get off the phone and on the PC to type thank you letters!!
I applied to Northwestern, IU, UT, and others for MBA. Didn’t get into Northwestern. Got into the rest - 7 or 8 others but there were no interviews. But that was 25+ years ago.
UIUC did fly me in though - that was for them to sell me. I had zero interest in going but the Dean called after I turned it down. We had spoken at an MBA conference so he asked me to come and said I could leave early, rent a car and check out IU if I didn’t like UIUC. I didn’t - and I did visit IU which I loved - at the time was #6 or 7 in the rankings.
My daughter interviewed with Oberlin, Macalester, St. Olaf, and Kenyon (that was an alum interview), as well as a couple of other colleges not on your list. That was back in 2019. She didn’t prepare for any of them in advance, but she’s a naturally good speaker and is very extraverted; she joked that it was easy for her because she loves talking about herself :). They were all pretty relaxed. The most challenging one was with Grinnell where she was asked questions like “if you were a part of a bike, what would it be and why?” :). She got in all her colleges with merit, but we have no idea if the interviews played a role. It’s definitely recommended to be ready to explain what specifically attracts you to this school and to have questions for them (as other people have already suggested).
My S25 has interviewed with several LACs, including St. Olaf. He says the questions have mostly been why us, tell us about your interests/ECs, favorite class, etc. St. Olaf asked what was surprising about him. He has mostly enjoyed them & said they all felt like casual conversations. He wears a collared shirt.
I did prep him by having him practice talking about Why us, what do you like about this activity—he was very very general at first (I like theater because it’s really fun & I’ve made good friends, etc), so it was helpful to explain that he needed SPECIFICS in his responses.