<p>Even though I’ve only been interviewing kids for three years, I feel like there’s a few common themes that pop up often:</p>
<p>1) Me: “What do you want to study at Yale?” Student: “I want to major in Business.”
2) Me: “Tell about a time in which you’ve made a mistake and what you’ve learned from it.” Student: [pauses for two minutes] “Uh… I don’t really make mistakes.”
3) Me: “Tell me about what you consider your biggest weakness.” Student: “I can’t think of any.” Me: “I’ll give you a few minutes.” [few minutes later] Student: “Nope, still nothing.”
4) Me: “Why do you want to go to Yale?” Student: “It’s a great school.” Me: “Anything else?” Student: “Nope.”
5) Me: “Why do you want to go to Yale?” Student: “It’s really well-known… and I want to get away from my parents.”</p>
<p>Beyond these gems, advice I would give to applicants:</p>
<p>1) Show up ON TIME. You would be surprised at how many times I’ve had kids show up ten to fifteen minutes late, or not show up at all.
2) Even though interviews typically last 30-45 minutes, I can usually tell within 15 minutes how I’m going to rate the student. First impressions last.
3) Look me in the eye. Speak confidently, but not arrogantly. If you have talked for more than three minutes, ask me whether I want to hear more or if we should move on to another question.
4) Ask me questions at the end of the interview – and not questions that you can ask Wikipedia anytime. They don’t have to be complicated. My favorite question to answer is always, “Why did you choose Yale?”
5) I’m looking for reasons to say good things about you. Make this your opportunity to shine. I always ask, “Is there anything I haven’t covered that you want the admissions committee to know?” Good candidates always use this opportunity to talk about a compelling story that makes them a more interesting person. But often the answer I get is, “No, you’ve covered everything.” (If I’ve really covered everything about you in a 30-minute interview, that says a lot.)</p>
<p>Meaning no disrespect, but having one kid at Harvard and one at Yale, I actually think the questions you are asking are lacking. For some students, like mine, who have no idea what they want to study, nor have experienced any great failures or mistakes in life, the questions would elicit similar pauses. You might get to know the candidates better and have them be more engaged, if you asked them something more relevant, such as:</p>
<ol>
<li>What have you enjoyed most out of your high school experience? And why?</li>
<li>If you could change one thing about your high school, what would it be?</li>
<li>What is your favorite course? And why? </li>
<li>What teacher do you like the least? And why?</li>
<li>What is your most important contribution you’ve made to your school?</li>
<li>What will your teachers remember about you after you graduate?</li>
<li>What accomplishment has made you most proud? And why?</li>
<li>Describe your family (siblings, etc.).</li>
<li>What do your friends value most about you?</li>
<li>Tell me about something you have read recently that was not required reading for a class.</li>
<li>Who do you most look up to as a hero or role model? Why?</li>
</ol>
<p>I agree with gibby. The Yale interviewer questions were total cliche and completely lame and virtually designed either to elicit a teen shrug or a oompletely pre-packaged answer. I wonder if anyone has ever asked this interviewer if he comes up with lame questions, or whether it is Yale that gives him such a bland script.</p>
<p>Why XXXXXXX is a standard question asked by pretty much every college interviewer. If a student does not know the answer, it goes down hill from there.</p>
<p>I think my kid was asked that question pretty much at every interview. Several of the supplements ask the same. So if a kid applied and it is on the supplement but has no clue, should the adcom look at the response on supplement and what the interviewer wrote down and go, so who filled out the supplement?</p>
<p>Gibby,
I like your questions but I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the basic questions the OP posed. I think an applicant should be able to answer why they chose that school. That isn’t a “gotcha” question out of left field. I also believe that a prospective student should be able to answer a question about a mistake they have made. It doesnt’ have to be a life changing mistake or failure they have made but anyone who can’t point to something for an answer must not have tried too hard in life. There is always something they can point to.
I do suspect that with your questions you will get a significant number of blank looks and no answers. I don’t know that every student can point to anything they can point to as a contribution to their school.<br>
What annoys me is the stupid questions like, “If you were a (fruit, superhero, etc.), which one would you be and why?”. That tells me that the interviewer can’t come up with an intelligent question that might actually have relevance and serves no purpose than find out how an applicant reacts to being asked stupid questions.</p>
<p>^^ I totally agree that a student should know the reason they are applying to any college. But, if a student is prepared for the interview, why XXXX will elicit a pre-packaged response. </p>
<p>BTW: Last year, at my son’s interview for Yale, the interview asked my son what other schools he applied to. When my son said “Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Georgetown, etc” the Yale interviewer then said “Those are great schools. Let me tell you why you should choose Yale instead!” That kind of interviewer and approach sold my son on Yale – and it’s the reason he’s there and not somewhere else.</p>
<p>My brother used to interview kids applying to Harvard, and he said whenever he asked “why do you want to go to Harvard” he’d get some variation on this response: “it’s really prestigious” or “it’s got a good name.” Not “I’d really love the chance to learn from Professor (so-and-so) who’s doing research on this (cutting edge) phenomenon.” He heard very few specifics – it was like this big target that they knew they should shoot for, but they weren’t sure why.</p>
<p>It was asked because they want the kids to start doing research. </p>
<p>A curious kid needs to go beyond “this is a great school”. They need to find out how the school teaches in the areas and topics they are interested in, not necessarily a major. For example, general physics is a common general education course. Going to the open courses, you can find that Yale’s Prof Shanker teaches completely differently from Prof Levin of MIT. Watching one video session from the internet, I don’t think anyone would like both (though you may not like either).</p>
<p>Research what the school has to offer beyond its name and reputation, seems to be the most neglected area of most kids, and in fact many high stat students get rejected because of it.</p>
<p>Considering that Yale is one of the premier universities in the land and that you are dealing with 17,18 and 19 year old students (most of whom even if they have perfect SAT’s will not be admitted to your institution) while their responses are inane, they are no worse than your apparent arrogance in ripping them. Perhaps as an interviewer you should consider it your obligation to draw the responses out of the applicants. After all Yale is raking in $2.3 million annually in application fees from the “idiots” that you belittle in your email! Just a thought.</p>
<p>gibby,
That’s great! I think it’s silly that a student should hesitate telling an interviewer what other schools they are applying to. That’s exactly what the interviewer should do-explain why their school is better.<br>
When S was in HS and we visited schools, a premed advisor at a smaller private college was trying to explain why his school was better kept explaining the differences but kept being the devils advocate and my son asked me when we left if he was trying to convince S to go to the other school. Not a good impression to leave a potential applicant with.</p>
<p>Gibby the problem with the answer to question No. 1 is that there is no Business Major at Yale. At issue is not whether or not a student has an intended major (I never hold it against anyone if they don’t) but that the student clearly did not even do basic research into Yale’s offerings – such as a potential major.</p>
<p>In the post, I would agree that in the 20+ years I’ve been interviewing, I’ve had similar replies to softball questions. Like he/she said: we’ve set out 1-2 hours of our time away from family and friends to meet this potential Yalie. We are looking to report good things. Give us something.</p>
<p>^^^ Yeah, I got that, but I was more irked at the interviewer’s questions about biggest mistakes/weaknesses. I just think it’s a bad question. If a student truly has the stats for Yale, chances are they haven’t fallen down much in the last four years.</p>
<p>You know what? If a kid can’t identify a single weakness he has, or a mistake he’s made that he has learned from, I think that’s almost a disqualification for Yale. Maybe not for Harvard.</p>
<p>Yes, the questions are cliches – but I bet the OP is asking them because he or she gets asked those questions in interviews all the time. And the problem with cliched questions are that they ought to yield cliched answers. A failure to produce even the wisp of an appropriate answer is a total failure.</p>
<p>Not that I don’t think gibby’s questions aren’t good (if also complete cliches), and likely to elicit some decent response even from the dullest high school senior. But they don’t necessarily reach the level of self-awareness and self-examination that the OP’s questions require. And if a kid can’t even muster a response when asked about that . . . fuggedaboudim. (And if a parent thinks that “if a student truly has the stats for Yale, chances are they haven’t fallen down much in the last four years,” that is a pretty shallow parent as far as I am concerned.)</p>
<p>As someone who conducts interviews from time to time for my company, I would like to add that even after four years at some elite and moderately elite universities, some job applicants do not do much better when interviewing for their first career position. </p>
<p>Yalie2008: Welcome to College Confidential!</p>
<p>The “what is your biggest failure or weakness” question must be a suggestion from the Yale Alumni Association, because my daughter was asked that question several years back during her Yale interview. Her response (and I’m paraphrasing): I’ve had a few disappointments in life, such as not being cast in a certain role for a play, but I haven’t had any failures – that’s why I’ve got a 98.9 average and ranked #1 out of 950 students in my high school." And yes, my daughter is now at Harvard.</p>
<p>Right. At least in my generation, Harvard was the college of choice for people who thought that having a 98.9 average and a high class rank meant that you had never failed at anything, and had no mistakes to learn from. Congratulations.</p>
<p>^^^ You can always tell a Harvard man (or woman) . . . but you can’t tell them much! Thank you. But, I also have a kid at Yale, so I get to see in “real time” the true differences between the schools – but that’s a topic for another thread.</p>
<p>I think the problem with questions asking about failures and weaknesses is that they are being asked to nervous 17 year olds who may never have had an interview before and are now being interviewed to get into a school they really want to go to and that, like it or not, has a reputation for elitism and only taking candidates who are the best of the best. </p>
<p>They may have plenty of self-awareness and know very well what mistakes they have made and what their weaknesses are, but are they savvy enough about the interview process to know that admitting to them is OK, that it’s not some kind of trick to catch them out and find a reason to reject them? </p>
<p>I think these kinds of questions about failures and weaknesses can set a very negative tone for the interview, particularly if you make them sit and squirm for 2 minutes trying to think of an answer. While these interviews are for the interviewer to assess the candidate, they are also for the interviewer to ‘sell’ the school. If the candidate comes away just from the interview feeling embarrassed or ashamed of their life experiences, will they really want to attend your school?</p>
<p>My first college interview was with my top choice school. I was asked a few questions that seemed negative and, frankly, arrogant to me. I cried in the street on the way home because I was sure I must have seemed so stupid and so wrong and had destroyed all my chances. I hadn’t and was accepted. But I had been having concerns about how I would fit into the school, and while the interview was not a deciding factor, it didn’t help the impression I had, and in the end, I turned them down. I chose a school where although I didn’t really like some of the questions, at least I didn’t come away from the interview feeling quite so worthless - Yale. Funnily enough, I turned that original top choice school down a second time when I was considering where to go for my PhD. I guess I still don’t care for it much!</p>
<p>I do think it is very helpful of Yalie2008 to share this insight though. I’m sure it will be very useful for future applicants.</p>
<p>If you get interviewed more than a couple of times in your life, chances are you will be asked questions very much like the OP’s list. There might be better questions, but these are OK, and quite common. A really great applicant will give a thoughtful answer even if he doesn’t have one prepared. But I have to agree that saying you haven’t had any failures is not a good answer at all–unless, perhaps, you want to say that you’ve been very fortunate.
As for a greatest weakness, you can always fall back on being too much of a perfectionist.</p>
<p>I once asked a kid how his friends would describe him if I asked them and he said “perfect”. I just quoted that verbatim in my report. I guess the rest of the package did not prove that out since he was not admitted.</p>
<p>I typically ask a variant of the greatest weakness question by asking about a particular challenge or difficulty they encountered and what they did to meet that challenge. If you can’t respond to questions like this it certainly suggests a lack of introspection.</p>