First one was with Princeton. It went pretty well, she asked me a lot about what I like to do, what I hope to achieve while at Princeton, and what my future plans are, outside of college. I also knew her daughter, so it wasn’t bad at all.
Second was with Georgetown, the only interview I was actually required to go to, as I just asked for an interview with the other two schools. This interview went the best, mainly because we had so many ways to connect. She lived in Princeton (I was born near Princeton, my parents bought a house in PT too,) we both lived in Tampa, Florida, we both live near each other, and both have an interest in Germany. I think it was the best interview of the three. Weird thing was, the interview took place at McDonald’s. Even my younger brother thought that was kind of funny. What was even more funny, is we sat one booth down from the bathrooms…
My last interview was with Vanderbilt, and it was at a much better location, Starbucks. Yet it was so crowded, we had no place to sit, but outside in the cold. She loved my resume, and gave me only positive compliments, which, of course, I loved. It was so cold that the interview only lasted 20 minutes. She basically went through my resume and asked questions, and then asked “Why Vanderbilt?”
Overall, I was really happy with the interviews. They seemed really non-stress.
My Duke and Vanderbilt interviews went very well. The Duke alumna majored in what I plan to major in and was very impressed, to say the least (“Oh my God! I have to write that down. I’m not supposed to take notes… but that’s just so amazing… do you have a pen?!”). Though, as we continued, she had an existential breakdown, during which is started talking to herself 0.o ("In comparison to what you’ve accomplished, I haven’t done anything with my degree in all these years… gosh, have I even done anything with my life? Have I just been wasting it?). Later she was like, “Duke would be so lucky to have you! I just can’t imagine that you wouldn’t get in to any college you applied to.”
The Vanderbilt alumna didn’t have a breakdown, but she was floored–even suggesting rather seriously that I should become the next secretary of education. It’s always nice to receive compliments, even if they don’t exactly parallel the reality of things.
I received an email at the end of last week about interviewing (Columbia alum). He asked what I prefer (I said Sunday because of sports practice) and said he’d accomodate it at best as possible, at Starbucks, etc. but he hasn’t gotten back. Should I email him or wait another day or so?
My interviews have mostly been alumni off campus: Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. None of them asked the classic “questions”, although Yale did ask what I would do tomorrow if I had a free day. They were mostly just casual chats about my school, my extra curriculars. If you do work with a nonprofit, they love that. They also liked to hear about my background at an immersion school and my senior independent study project, which is translation work. Just talk about the things that make you different!
USC was at a hotel with an admissions person, and she did ask the “dinner” question, as well as some other things.
EVERY school asked: “what is something that you want them to know about you that you can’t put down on paper?”
Also, believe it or not, one of the things that was hardest for me was “why do you want to go to our school”- it was hard to answer without being generic. do your research so you have something specific to say!
I’ve had five interviews so far and they’ve all been extremely positive experiences.
My first one was with Yale in December (I applied EA). It took place in a Caribou Coffee, and my interviewer was a very pleasant Southern man. We had a fairly philosophical conversation that concluded with him telling me that if I didn’t get into Yale, he would quit interviewing. So, that was probably the best one I had.
A month later I interviewed with Harvard and Northwestern on the same day. The Harvard interview took place in a ritzy condo in Milwaukee. My interviewer was a doctor - he seemed distracted and tired but was otherwise pleasant. I made a point to talk about the health care reform issue, something that I’m pretty educated in, but also made a point to be diplomatic and not too partisan with my opinions. He ended up agreeing with most of the things I said, which was nice. My Northwestern interview was part of a group of interviews that took place at a local prep school. It wasn’t nearly as intimate as the Harvard or Yale ones, but it was still a good interview.
This past week, I interviewed with a Brown alumnus who was actually a pretty reputable TV reporter. He was obviously adept at interviewing and was incredibly charming. Finally, three days ago, I interviewed with UChicago at the interviewer’s law firm in Racine. Seeing as I want to go into law, this was a really good opportunity for me to ask questions relevant to my interests. Coincidentally, my interviewer went to the same high school and grew up in the same town as I do. He even worked on the same high school radio station that I work at - and we had some of the same teachers. Obviously, we connected easily and it was a lot of fun.
My advice to those who are worried about college interviews is pretty generic, I suppose. Being nervous is really pointless because you tend to make more mistakes and appear to be more of an idiot than you really are. The interviewers want to like you - this is an essential difference from, say, a job interview, where the interviewers will be more scrutinizing. These interviewers don’t really have anything to lose from submitting a good recommendation for you, so they’ll be looking for reasons to recommend you. Try to be charming but not cheesy. Finally, feel free to cater your responses based on what you suspect the interviewer might want. That’s not to say that I recommend not being yourself, but if your interviewer is in his 50s and asks you about your music tastes, feel free to mention the more dated aspects of your playlist.
i applied to a couple of reach schools. i just had an interview with one of the school. honestly, i feel bad because i know i’m not going to get in and i’m “wasting his time” and the interview lasted less than 30 minutes.
being the stupid me, i had said yes to another interview a week ago. it’s this sunday. how can i email the interviewer and decline?
^Absolutely do not do that. Most interviewers will have no information about your stats (Harvard being the exception–they ask for your stats so they can wrap up the interview quickly if the interviewee is supremely unqualified), and they want to like you and to chat with you about their alma mater. You’ll be fine.
My Princeton interviewer was a lawyer. He seemed pretty busy. He made me wait 20mins ad even told me to read his biography meanwhile. So I skimmed through and I looked for common interests. Fortunately he was a very religious man and I am very involved in my church. So the interview went great. He was “certainly impressed.”
He did askme my SAT scores and my GPA tho. I thought that was a bit odd.
I think all of my interviews went well. I always make it a point to be completely and wholly myself. So far I’ve interviewed for Vassar, Dartmouth, Swarthmore and Carleton. They were all fun and we laughed a lot. I also made sure to talk about the things that make me unique as well as what has meant the most to me.
ok I think I completely blew the little chances I had of being admitted… I have a SAT score of 2030 .. and I mentioned that in the phone interview .. and said that I couldnt repeat because all the seats in the country were filled out .. and she noted that .. is that a bad thing ? .. as in whining about your sat score and saying that you couldn’t repeat because you were just too damn careless ?
I’ve finished the rest of my interviews… time to share
Johns Hopkins - Interview was fantastic overall. I got there super early, but fortunately my interviewer was already there (Borders). I gave her a copy of my resume and we kind of just went through it while talking about how I could further my activities at JHU. She asked how I came to learn about and apply, what I plan to do there, etc. It was very basic, and the interview was as advertised, focused more on informing the applicant rather than being evaluative. I learned a lot of fun traditions and jokes my interviewer used to do!
Brown - I thought this was one of my weaker interviews, mainly because I didn’t get a whole lot of “fun” out of it. My interviewer and I had very little in common. He was extremely nice though. He asked me why Brown, why my major, and what I did outside of class. The rest of our interview was dedicated to looking at a viewbook of Brown, discussing opportunities and activities, and eating, haha.
Dartmouth - This was easily my best interview; I’ve never laughed so much with a complete stranger before! My interviewer actually let me start off the interview, and for an hour we talked so many random things, from funny anecdotes from her time at Dartmouth to the decorations in her house. She asked me what I did outside of class, what my favorite subjects were, what I did for fun, what I thought about the state of the world, and lastly, whether I had any questions. I loved talking with her about the state of the world–we ran through Egypt, WWII (although that’s not “recent”), North Korea, etc. It was just really intellectually stimulating, and I haven’t had this experience in any of my other interviews. We didn’t really get to my questions, though, because she had to take her daughter to volunteer, but I have a feeling the interview would have been much longer…
Hey if somebody could help me out with my questions that would be great!
<ol>
<li>I’ve interviewed with about 10 of my schools and they have all been amazing! But, how much to interviews really matter in the college process? I got deferred from Stanford, and I think the amazing interview might have been the reason I got deferred rather than rejected, but who really knows. It probably differs from school to school, so if you guys have any insight on how much interviews matter for the colleges below that would be great!
-stanford
-princeton
-harvard
-Upenn
-Georgetown</li>
<li>In my thank you note to the Georgetown alumni I made a HUGE mistake. I copied a portion of my Stanford thank you, but left the name Stanford in my letter to Georgetown interviewer. AHH!! The Georgetown lady told me I was the most qualified candidate she has ever seen, and in her response ignored my mistake. Do you think this hurt me?</li>
</ol>
I had 2 interviews so far my third being this Thursday with an alumni from Penn. The other two interviews were from Columbia and Cornell. One upsetting thing about them was that the people who interviewed me were not from the arts and science schools I applied to. I think that my Cornell interview went a lot better then my Columbia one. The guy who interviewed me from Columbia was cold and had a bad accent. So I could not understand him most of the time. The guy who interview me from Cornell was nicer and much more pleasant to talk to. He even said in his e - mail “I hope you will be joining the Cornell family this fall”. Which leads me to believe that he gave me a good report. The Columbia interviewer gave me a logic question about socks and I got it wrong:(. Big blow I think. Other then that it was typical questions. Why Columbia, what you want to do, what will you do on campus, etc. I’m hoping my Penn interview goes the same way as my Cornell one.
I just had the strangest interview of my life last night. It was for Simmons College via skype, because I’m an international and they don’t have interviewers abroad.
I had already had 2 other interviews (Tufts and Harvard) which had both started with a few questions to get it going, but then just ended up being a normal conversation. They would react to the things I said, and would ask more about them. I didn’t feel like I was being questioned.
But this time, she had a list of questions and just went through the list and asked each question one after the other and wrote down my answers. She didn’t react at all to what I was saying. She didn’t seem to know that I live in Germany, because her questions were all based on American high school. I explained that I live in Germany and that it’s all different here and you can’t really compare it. But then she would just go to the next question. She didn’t ask about how it was to move to Germany like the other two interviewers, who wanted to know about that experience in detail. It was almost like she wasn’t listening to me at all. Then in the end she just said “Oops, I think I just lost the sound!” and hung up. And she also asked which other schools I had applied to. I thought that this was some kind of taboo in interviews, in my other two interviews, the interviewers made a point not to name any other schools and so did I. I think it’s because this school isn’t like one of the top ranked schools, it’s not super selective, and they probably don’t want to accept me if they know that I’ll end up attending a different school. But wow. That whole interview was a huge turn-off.
I can only speak to the Brown interview process, but yes, we get notified about our interviewee’s status. And only on the status of the students we individually interview. Accepted/wait-list/ (and if you confirm on the wait list) /Denied. There is a 3-4 day moratorium each year between the date that applicants hear back, and when interviewers can see the status. During that time we are not supposed to contact the students, (except if they contact us that accepted, we can reply with a brief congrats). After the moratorium is up, then all communication is okay. Some interviewers are very happy to help answer further questions about the school, or otherwise be a resource for the student. Some feel their job is “done”, but most are happy to hear from / reconnect or help “their” students if they can.
