so i have a skype interview with a brown alum today… any tips from anyone?
i really don’t know what to expect. i’m sure it will be like a regular interview, but there won’t be that personal connection, you know? i already sent her my resume via e-mail, but…
should i still dress up nicely? should i have a reference sheet of some sort in front of me? how are brown interviews anyways? anything will help! 
I had my Brown interview today, with an alumni that graduated in the 60s, lol. Very informative. He was really nice and told me a lot about Brown during his time. Said that the school was still pretty much the same but that they really cleaned up Providence, which was nice. He didn’t really ask me a lot about myself other than my extracurriculars. He mostly did the talking and he had to leave because his dog was in the car.
I am not sure what to make of it, since I was expecting tougher questions. Or really, I was expecting questions. It was pleasant talking to him, though!
Has any one in Montreal been contacted for an alumni interview for Princeton?
" how I got to know of X college and my reason was abit stupid, but HONEST. i found out about X college because I was such a fan of this one author, and went on a voyeuristic stalk subsequently learning about X college!
Your reason sounds interesting and intelligent to me, not stupid.
Northstarmom, I hope my interviewer thinks so too!
carp… i 'm an international student who cant speak English right…what should I do??? btw i got another question:
I got a phone call that I will have interview with UPenn. I thought if UPenn wants to interview me they should call me directly instead of a random person from MY AREA CODE calling me. Who’s that person anyway… That’s so strange, I live really far from UPenn and I really dont know how does it work. Is that guy UPenn alumni living near my house??
So I had my last (I think) college interview today! I decided I would review all of the interviews I’ve had:
(in order of occurance)
UPenn: The worst interview out of all of them. It started badly right away- the phone conversation was awkward as the interviewer seemed very ignorant. He called on a Friday but I missed the call, so I called back on Saturday and found out I had to do the interview the very next day. Way too last minute. The interviewer was not very polite, was 15 mintues late, could not hold the conversation very well, did not seem very interested, and couldn’t answer my questions about Penn.
Harvard: An alright interview. The interviewer was very interested and could speak very eloquently and hold a conversation pretty well. However, he was 25 mins late and the interview was very short.
Dartmouth: One of my favorite interviews. Lasted for almost an hour. A very easy and comfortable person to talk to.
WashU: One of my favorite interviews. The atmosphere was laid-back, and the people holding the interview were very interested and polite. Very passionate about WashU. This interview wanted me to go to WashU even more.
Yale: One of my favorite interviews. The interview tried talking more about things unrelated to college, academics, and Yale. He seemed very experienced and polite.
Duke: A pretty good experience, and possibly one of my favorites. He seemed to be very knowledgable- but almost in a borderline bad way. Since he was a lawyer, he asked about politics and government. Luckily, I took AP Gov & Politics last semester, but I really wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t taken that course. I probably would have been screwed. He seemed dedicated to Duke.
Brown: Would have been a pretty good interview had the system not been messed up. I had to wait for 2 hours and 15 minutes for my 11:00 interview even though I arrived at 10:15. There were only about 9 interviewers for the many interviewees there. Many of the students’ names were not in the computer system, and there was no sign to tell us where the waiting room was. When I finally decided to ask why I still didn’t get an interview, they said I didn’t sign up on the sheet outside of the door even though I did. The actual interview and conversation was actually pretty good.
All of the interviews basically asked almost the same questions- Why are you interested in this school? Why are you interested in the major/profession? What activities do you do? Tell me an experience that changed you. What is something you would like to tell me that can’t be shown in your application? What are your favorite books? Only Duke asked me about politics- What is one of the most important concerns you think the government has?
So, I just returned from my Dartmouth interview, which was held at Starbucks. My interviewer had an afternoon of back-to-back interviews, and I was the fourth and final one. O.O
As I entered at 4:22 p.m. (8 min early), I slyly glanced around. I flitted my eyes quickly around the tiny yet crowded store, searching. (I realized then that I had forgotten to ask him for any identifying characteristics) Was it that lonesome gentleman sitting outside with his little white dog? Or that guy surrounded by a group of girls? Or-
Spotted! A muscular man in a green short-sleeved polo, clipboard in lap, immersed in conversation with a nervous-looking Asian girl in the corner. Immediately I felt at ease. (this guy looked like an easy-to-talk to person.) Relieved, I quickly leaned against a nearby counter, assuming a what I hoped was a collected, casual pose.
Ten minutes passed in this fashion. The man continued to gesticulate and take notes; the girl continued to fidget and laugh nervously. Finally, I saw (out of the corner of my eye) that they were standing up. Then I turned my head and spotted him looking in my direction, so I strode forward and gave him a handshake, grinning like a maniac. (which I’m apt to do when I’m nervous)
As I headed toward the squishy black couch, I noticed that the previous girl had left her cell phone behind! My interviewer quickly ran out the store and chased her down. When he returned, he grinned and said to me, “She says ‘thank you.’”
He started off by asking me my stats: GPA and SAT scores. I gave them. He mentioned that one of the girls he had interviewed earlier in the afternoon was from my school. The rest I can’t recall in exact detail, but here are some snapshots, not quite verbatim:
Q:So are you taking like a million APs?
A: No…only 3 last year and 4 this year.
Q: Name them
A: <em>obliges</em>
Q: So what’s your fave subject?
A: English and Japanese. I like languages. <em>smiles</em>
Q: Ok…why?
A: <em>explains–something about teaching English because my dad wasn’t very good at it which affected him in job search/communicating with others</em>
Q: What do you want to study in college?
A: <em>tell him and he seems surprised I want to be a teacher when my own mom was one too…his parents were teachers and that influenced him NOT to become one. He pursued the sciences–chem/engineering–instead</em>
Q: <em>something about the weather</em>
A: <em>I mistakenly assume that today’s windy/cloudy CA weather is similar to Hanover’s. He corrects me. XD</em>
Other Q’s:
what are activities are you involved in?
what are you PASSIONATE about?
Anything else you think I should know?
My Answers:
School newspaper (I love writing articles about interesting students at my school, I want to continue this in college), Cross Country (my sob story about how I couldn’t join soph year and decided to in senior year), teaching piano (he was impressed when I told him I’ve only learned piano for five years before starting teaching)
etc etc. I also asked him why he decided to become an alumni interviewer (his answer: he LOVES Dartmouth and wants to stay connected), if he was involved in DOC (no, not really), and if there were any professors who really stood out to him and influenced him into becoming who he is today (he had trouble with this one, since no one prof really stood out to him. He said usually humanities teachers are more inspiring; science-y ones, not so much).
Oh. He also asked me, “What other colleges did you apply to?” o__o I told him a few. >.< He also asked me why I applied to those other schools…(but did NOT ask me “Why Dartmouth?” How curious…)
Somehow, I felt that I couldn’t convey what I knew and loved about Dartmouth in the interview. A lot of the things he told me, I already knew, but he would explain them to me first, so I felt it would be rude to say “Oh I already know that! I’ve done my research!” -.-
All in all, it went rather smoothly and he was rather easy to talk to. I think I smiled and laughed too much because my cheeks throbbed afterward. At the end we had a handshake and headed out the door. As he strolled toward his car behind me, he asked casually, “Going home to study?” Haha, how did he guess? I replied, “Yup! Stats!” After a few more words we said our goodbyes and then went our separate ways.
he cant ask you what colleges you applied to right? isnt that against university policy?
^yeah, I thought so too. >.< But I didn’t know how else to respond.
Why can’t they ask this? my previous interviewer asked me about the other colleges I was applying to as well, and i contemplated for a nanosecond lest she thought the other reach school’s my top choice or something.
sweet.mochi, your post was an entertaining one - felt like I was watching Gossipgirl lol!
Some colleges request interviewers specifically not ask this question because it puts the student on the spot: “OK who are you comparing us to, eh?” Whereas some schools specifically WANT to know this info because they DO want to know what other schools are in contention – in order to guage the likelihood of the student matriculating if offered admission. My alma mater is one of those that requests we NOT ask "what other schools have you applied "
how should you dress to an alumni interview? is it formal, business casual, or casual?
If you are going to be in business major and pre-law then you will never over dressed.
DABEAR, I dressed formally, but my interviewer turned up in mini shorts and a tank top :S
uhm my point is…dress neatly.
DABEAR, it depends on where you are meeting and whether the interviewer tells you how to dress. At a business office, you would dress with more polish than at someone’s house or at Starbucks, but coat and tie are never expected of a high school student. I tell applicants in advance of their coming to my house or meeting me at Starbucks to wear whatever will make them feel comfortable. However, I must say that I am astonished that some show up in jeans and hoodies. That’s a tad too casual. I think you shouldn’t wear jeans for an interview.
Did anybody else get called by Columbia to set up an interview? They called me and asked me to set up a meet and greet with an alumni.
hello,
i know this is not place to post but i m new here and dont know whr to post..
i am confused for FDU or NJIT , both i hve applied for pharmaceutical chemistry..
which school is better??
i will appriciate any help.
thank you
I’ve been interviewing for my alma mater (an Ivy League school) for the past 4-5 years and I would like to share general tips that I think will help everyone here no matter who you’ll be interviewing for.
I realize this is late for the HS class of 2010, but for the class of 2011 and beyond..it’s never too early to think about the college interview:
Starting off, these links give extremely good advice:
[Interview</a> Tips for College Admissions ~ GoCollege.com](<a href=“http://www.gocollege.com/admissions/interviews/]Interview”>Interview Tips for College Admissions ~ GoCollege.com) -> to sum up…be honest and yourself
[college</a> interview questions list](<a href=“http://www.actingforbusiness.com/interview/JobInterviewtips/college/collegeinterviewtips.htm]college”>College Interview Skills – Acting for Business) -> good common sense tips that’ll go a long way
My personal input:
You should aim for two goals during the interview:
These tips should help you with getting these goals:
<ol>
<li>Please do a bit of research about the school you are interviewing for. Academic program that you are interested in? Extracurriculars that you may be interested in? Remember a few off hand.</li>
<li>Don’t give a generic canned responses. Don’t sound forced. Interviewers hear them all the time. You want to flesh out your answers. Tie your answers with the research that you’ve done and with personal experiences. </li>
<li>When talking about extracurricular activities, make sure to tie your leadership experiences. Be introspective about what you’ve learned from being a leader and how it helped you moving forward. Introspectively flesh out your answers without going to too much details. </li>
<li>If you’ve done something unique and noteworthy, this is the time to mention it. Showing you’re unique when just about all college applicants you’re competing against have done roughly the same extracurricular actives, big bonus for you.</li>
<li>When talking about academics, be introspective about what lessons of life you’ve learned from the class, not about the content matter. You may not realize it, but some of the most memorable quotes naturally come from there. Again, introspectively flesh out your answers without going into too much details.</li>
<li>Be genuine. Be yourself. You need to sound natural and not forced. Interviewers/admission committees can spot a mile away if you aren’t. However, you’ll make the admissions committee lives a little easier since your application will quickly be put in the reject pile.</li>
<li>Ask questions. Don’t asked canned questions. Here are two examples. When asking questions, ask the alumni interviewer about their personal experiences with the school. Ask them how one can get involved after graduation etc. If it is an admissions officer, ask about the Penn community from their perspective. Goal isn’t exactly to learn more about the school here. It’s really to show the interviewer that you’re interested. </li>
<li>Don’t be nervous at all. Be relaxed. Unless you say “yes” or “no” to most questions, sound stiff and don’t seem interested, you won’t bomb an interview. The minimum you’ll normally get is that you’re a nice person/you’re not crazy. Interviewers and admissions committee members really want to like you and write you up well. It’s your job to give them lots of ammunition.</li>
</ol>
If you are able to execute this well, you’ll swing the interview in your favor as much as you possibly can.
I have an interview tomorrow morning for a some summer internship. I’m horrifically nervous. Any advice?