<p>Have any prospective students/current students/alumni had this informal interview? I was called about it and am having it tomorrow at a Barnes and Noble with an alumni that lives in New York City.</p>
<p>What's the deal with this? What do you think I should know, and does every applicant have one of these?</p>
<p>I'm an ED applicant and I had my interview.</p>
<p>It's an interview at which the alumnus/a will ask you questions such as why Columbia, your strengths/weaknesses, favorite book/movie and what you learned from it, what you intend to study during college, your passion, etc. My interviewer asked the pretty generic questions at first and then it sort of progressed into a conversation. In the end we spent about an hour talking and I tried my best to describe who I am.
You should also prepare some questions for the interviewer as well since he or she is a Columbia graduate with lots of experiences.
When I prepared for this thing I searched for some previous posts. This board is a goldmine for the interview because current interviewers (columbia2002, denzera) have already posted a wealth of information, and there are also some recent applicants that posted their experiences a few pages back.</p>
<p>There's no formal interviews and informal interviews. A Columbia alum interview is a Columbia alum interview. Your interviewer probably just said it's informal b/c it's at B&N and so you don't dress up.</p>
<p>"Your interviewer probably just said it's informal b/c it's at B&N and so you don't dress up."</p>
<p>Dress business casual to be safe.</p>
<p>They want to make sure that you're a person, passionate about what you do and generally engaged with your environment.</p>