QOTD: If a school rep asks you C what other schools they are looking at (in an interview/1-1 type situation), what type of response is appropriate? Should you give your top 3? Should you try to avoid giving a specific answer? What does the rep hope to gain from the answer, or is it just small-talk?
Regarding TKD, what I meant to say is it became too commercialized in US and standards came down quite a bit. After DS started they increased number of belts with testing every two months (i.e. more fees), relaxed sparring and weapons requirements and getting first black belt became too easy (at least in NorCal).
@2muchquan I would respond by answering indirectly. For example, “All of the universities I am applying to have multiple upper level Russian classes each semester. After investigating schools, I found that many schools may say they offer a Russian major, but only offer a limited number of classes per semester. I had to rule out numerous colleges bc of that.”
Either that or I would armed with the name of peer schools even if they were not being applied to.
Does anyone know anything about Turman State? It is a school that wasn’t even on our radar and it would be a shock to the system for my dd who has never lived further north than Richmond,VA (ironic since I spent my early childhood in Canada and my parents were Canadian).
But, it fits our budget and has competitive scholarships. It’s foreign language dept looks pretty good.
QOTD: Tough question! Our plan is to name the 3 highest ranked schools (per USNWR) even though D’s top 3 choices aren’t necessarily the highest ranked of those she’s applying to.
@picklesarenice …similar situation here at our house and D is taking it again WITH writing because a lot of schools on her list only accept your highest ACT at one sitting and they require writing. She is not happy to take the writing again, but she wants a few more points and wants this one to have writing so she can be done.
QOTD: Unless you have a really specific major like a language, you can say the list is still being formed and as of now, nothing is set. Or be vague and say a wide variety of schools. I agree that if you do mention schools mention peer institutions. You don’t want a match or safety school to think you won’t choose them if you get that “better” offer from a higher ranked school.
^generally true but I don’t think that comes into play for merit scholarships, which is the only reason D would interview at this point. For scholarships, schools want kids that would otherwise go to a higher ranked school.
QOTD… Channeling my interview technique after having to interview 3 people for work last week, I would not name any specific schools, but point out the common thread, e.g good engineering program. Then bring the discussion back to how their school is the top of my consideration because of excellent merit aid(wink, wink), an unique aspect, etc, and further express my interest in their school.
Oh, that is a really good QOTD-definitely food for thought.
I don’t think I would counsel my daughter to avoid the question, because the interviewer on some level is going to pick up on the deception or avoidance, and it could color the interview. I think you can go in two directions-mention the ones that everyone expects to be competitors and not have it be the high point of the interview, or mention one similar one to the interviewer’s school and one outlier as a way to demonstrate the kid’s breadth of character. That could potentially go horribly wrong if the interviewer decides you’re a a better match for the other school, though.
@SincererLove @itsgettingreal17 @mtrosemom All good suggestions. And, maybe your answer is a little different base on match/safety/etc.
Maybe say something to the effect: "I’d really like to be able to avoid loans, for both myself and my parents. " (you get the idea…that was kinda awkward.)
Really good QOTD.
Something I think that bears consideration as we get more serious about schools. It has come up on each tour so it is a question kids should be prepared for and one we had not put any thought into. One our first set it was reasonable I think to say we were touring schools in the area and more specifically, certain kinds of programs, which was the natural organic answer given by my child. He was also able to keep it vague at an LAC simply as it was early in the process so no harm there. It was a vague answer as the child was vague, it was his first LAC tour and all he had seen at that point was state universities so to say that, without mentioning any of those schools, was fine I think and honest, as simple as he was just starting to tour LAC’s and this was his first one, he was able to leave it at that without stating which other ones he wanted to tour. Interestingly, his tour mate rattled off many in the area that he had already seen and then appeared bored/disengaged much of the time so I can definitely see where it would head south!
However as we head into more selective, smaller match and reach schools, the answers given could carry weight and I think we do need to discuss a general approach.
I agree it needs to be natural though, they will spot it a mile away if not and dodging and avoiding is pretty obvious.
Fwiw, every dept my dd has contacted has asked her why she is interested in their dept. They haven’t asked what other depts she is considering, though. So she has gotten good practice answering why them.
Thinking in those terms, they should probably always respond to the QOTD by incorporating a why them over the others by including, “but (your institution) is my top choice bc of…”
We’re still figuring it out, to be honest.
(And I figure that’s permanently true, in a sense at least, until all application deadlines have passed, so I’m good.)
QOTD: S will need to interview with several of the more reachy schools on his list. I expect that he will say that he’s applying to universities that have a strong STEM focus, lots of physics undergrad research, and where he can also take CS classes even if he is not in an engineering major. I suppose he could name a couple peer (rival) schools, but it’s pretty much the expected group. I would guess that most of the local alumni will be somehow associated with our local UC, so I guess its physics department will be mentioned.
I think they all will be alumni interviews, not adcom interviews. (Oops, I just found one that wants kids to interview on campus before the application deadline if possible–3 hours away. I hadn’t thought to look before. Thanks for the QOTD, which made me check!)
There are some UC merit scholarships that involve an interview trip to the campus in spring. But, other than that possibility, I think most of his interviews will be in the fall.
I recall at least a couple of DS14’s college applications asked students to list other colleges they are applying. Albeit they were optional questions, the students felt obligated to answer them. DS14 felt very uneasy about giving his answers.
QOTD:
Fortunately, none of the school’s on my son’s list have an intervew required, several don’t even offer them.
I would tell him to answer the question with " I’m also considering our local flagship school that has an excellent business program at about 1/2 the cost of your school" Simple, right to point.
Sorry I’m very behind, but there were a lot of Case Western posts upthread. I’m guessing that is because it is a match level school for high stats kids with good merit. So, how good is the merit? at least half tuition?
To me, interview recommended is the same thing as required. Even if it says optional it would seem to lessen you chances or indicate less of an interest if you opt out. It does remind me to go through the list and see which ones have this, I know several do but haven’t tracked that yet for the full list.
We have found that question comes up on tours, not in the interview phase and certainly in departmental meetings you will get the why xxx question so they need to be prepared for that.
Totally unrelated but the fractured wrist and arm sling did not impact S17’s job interview today. He will be gainfully employed all summer and beyond, full time if he wants it and working around his other commitments. Yay!
Developing pet peeve: Colleges that state that they “prefer” on-campus interviews, or that hold competitive on-campus weekend interview events for big scholarships or honors college admission or somesuch.
I mean, unless you’re going to pay everybody’s way to campus, plus figure out a way to let students from other time zones recover from jet lag before you interview them, could we remember that not everybody lives within a 2-hour driving (or even flying!) radius of your campus? Please?