I had an interview for Mercer University in December and ended up receiving full tuition! I prepared mostly by googling common college interview questions and practicing them. Literally the entire week before hand I was making my entire family interview me. Then the night before my interview I made a list of talking points such as activities I’m proud of, accomplishments, etc.
I had two interviews while I was there. The first one went well, but could have been better. I had good answers for the most part, but was uncomfortable so that threw me off. The second interview was great! What helped me in this one was I tried to connect with my interviewers by asking them questions. It almost was more of a conversation than an interview.
One question that I was not prepared for was what my views were on a common moral issue. I was too busy trying not to offend my interviewer to think of a good answer! After this experience, I think what most would have helped, especially in my first interview was to relax and be myself. Good luck to everyone!
the reason We has been enthusiastic about the institution along with what the GPA is usually although apart from that, it was only relaxed speaking concerning the institution. We. http://www.buyessaytoday.com/write-my-term-paper
Hey, guys. I will soon have an interview with Princeton. Any tips or advice? That will be a phone interview, and I am so nervous. Last time I interview with Duke, and it turned out to be terrible. So I got rejected. This time, I’m so nervous now.
My S has only had one interview but something to keep in mind, and this was a top tier school, the interviewer did tell him his input carries very little weight so honestly, I would not stress over an interview. They probably use them to totally rule out the dunderheads and not use them for getting you in. Just my two cents.
Meaning the interviewer and his opinion does not carry a lot of weight when it comes to an admission decision. This is what his interviewer told him. That’s why I would just try to be yourself. Make eye contact. Smile and act genuinely interested. Know the school and its programs well and have some questions you can ask. Also practice your 1-2 minute elevator pitch on yourself.
As far as my D’s experience, all interviews were evaluative, in the sense that alums were in fact instructed to evaluate interview-ees, and in some cases, fill out forms with many criteria and ranking scales (just google “[college name] alumni interview form” for examples).
How seriously admissions officers take the evaluations, may vary, but to say they are not evaluative (which many LAC websites do say) is misleading. They are certainly evaluative, and I believe that a poor interview could be detrimental to an application.
My advice to any applicant would be to read the form as appropriate for each college, prepare answers, and practice, practice, practice.
I was told for Ivy they do not count. It is to maintain alumni connections to the school, give them something to do. You can be a talk show host it will not help you. However if you come off as nuts, dangerous or otherwise really undesirable beyond normal teenage awkward it can hurt you
I recently had my on campus interview with Yale. Thankfully I didn’t get too nervous and it ended up going really well! The senior who interviewed was really chill and laid back and we definitely went thirty minutes overtime talking about some pretty existential topics. It was super cool! Honestly the key is to be genuine. Talk about what you’re interested in, be real on what you’re passionate about and perhaps you’ll strike up a common interest and end up veering off from college questions into something more personal and unique. I do think the Yale interviews hold some weight as the dude ended up telling me he would write me a great recommendation and that I got lucky (we were on the topic of luck). Anyways he gave me a nature valley bar so that’s always a good sign! ^.^
I’ve had three interviews and they were all wonderful. I didn’t say anything too impressive about myself, just answered honestly when they asked me about my interests. The interviewers are generally very nice and not looking for you to “prove yourself” or anything you have accomplished to them. They just want to answer your questions and for you to answer theirs, nothing crazy! What I gather from my interviews is that they really just want to know how you interact with others socially and if you can hold a conversation, to see if you will be a good addition to the social scene of their school. They want to see how you have learned and grown from your high school experiences, whatever they may be, so they know that if you are admitted you will graduate from their school and do something meaningful with your degree.
Here are my funny stories:
My first interview was for Smith. What do you get when you put a prospective English major with a literature teacher? A really fun interview that runs half an hour overtime with an in-depth discussion on Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre. The woman wasn’t necessarily impressed with my literary prowess (LOL) but I could tell she really enjoyed that discusion, as did I, so that was nice!
My second was for Brown. He was the father of a boy who had been the lead in our school plays years ago. I happen to be very into musical theater at my school, so we had a really nice conversation about that. He also talked a lot about activism in Providence going on right now, which was nice because I started a social justice club at my school recently. I was glad I got someone who thinks like me!
My last interview was a few days ago, for Columbia. It went great, but the funniest thing happened - the guy interviewing me dropped the f-bomb in the middle of our interview! You could tell he knew he had messed up ahahaha! He was talking to me about diversity and he said that the only universal truth about all Columbia students is that they’re all “f***in’ brilliant”. I asked a friend’s parent who went there and he said it was because living in NYC for four years really could give any Columbia student a sailor-mouth. LOL! Either way he was super nice and the interview really enlightened me about the community at Columbia and I gained a lot from the conversation. Also he complimented my pixie cut :).
I had fun with my interviews and I’m hoping for the best!