<p>When a college application/essay or admissions interviewer asks “why are you interested in our school?” what is the right answer? That is, what are they looking for or what do they want to see? What things DON’T they want to hear/see?</p>
<p>I think the main thing that they are looking for is that you have a reason for applying and seeking admission to their college, such as interest in a specific program or the affluence of a particular program that they offer, or that you feel the college will be for your personal betterment or that they have something specific to offer you that other colleges do not.</p>
<p>What they AREN’T looking for would be things like they have “my favorite sports team” or “a cool mascot”, “my friend is going here”, “because I am smart enough”. I think you get the picture.</p>
<p>There is no one correct answer. They are looking to see that you give specific details about the school in question. Talk about what sets x university apart from y. The wrong answer would be like, “I would be challenged academically” - you will likely be challenged academically at many universities, so that answer doesn’t set the university in question apart from others.</p>
<p>Another less-than-persuasive answer is, “I want to go to college in [Boston/New York/Washington, etc.].” There are lots of universities in and near Washington, DC. When George Washington University asks, “Why GW?” they want you to say something about GW that you couldn’t also say about Georgetown, American, Catholic, George Mason, College Park…</p>
<p>Name specifics about the school. My interviewers love when I can talk about ther community service program or specific ongoing projects</p>
<p>What about commenting on things like the academic prestige of the university… saying it’s the most selective in the state, or ranked top 50 by US News, or that X% of its students were in the top Y% of their graduating class? Bad idea?</p>
<p>Probably a bad idea.</p>
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<p>I think so. </p>
<p>If you’re talking about a really top-notch institution–let’s say Yale, for example–that’s pretty low-hanging fruit. We all know Yale is prestigious. And you’re not going to say anything in an answer like that to differentiate you from every other applicant the interviewer has seen this year. Or, for that matter, every other applicant she’s seen in the last 5 years. And you know what all those other applicants had in common, aside from saying “prestige”? They didn’t get in. When I used to interview (not for Yale, but for a similarly selective university), I reached the point of wanting to say, “So, why are you interested in [name of college], and please don’t tell me it’s prestigious?”</p>
<p>Besides that, I think it’ll make you seem like kind of a sycophant. If you are interviewing with an alumnus of a top however-many college, it’ll seem as if you’re trying to be ingratiating. If you’re interviewing with an alumnus of a not-quite-top-however-many college, it’ll seem as if you’re trying to curry favor by suggesting that the alum’s school is just as good as Yale.</p>
<p>And finally, prestige is just a pretty shallow reason for selecting a college.</p>
<p>When I ask this question during interviews, I’m trying to gauge the level of research the applicant has done in learning more about the school (beyond looking at the US News & World Report rankings). Good answers include school visits (i.e. I visited last fall and fell in love with the school); specific academic programs (i.e. referring to specific professors, courses, or majors); specific initiatives or programs for undergraduates (i.e. community service or research program); and basically any unique aspects that draw you to the school. </p>
<p>Bad answers include: your graduates make a lot of money, your school ranks in the top 10, and I really want to get into your university’s med/law/business school.</p>