<p>@metsfan, I’m an international student, so if I get an interview it will most likely be through the phone or Skype. What should I do about the resume then? Should I try to email it to my interviewer, or would that be too pushy? </p>
<p>Also, is location something important during Skype interviews? I mean, should I Skype from my desk in my bedroom, or should I do it from my school’s library, I don’t know? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Offering to email a resume definitely can’t hurt, I’d be fine with someone emailing it, but it’s likely better to offer to email it than to just send it.</p>
<p>In terms of location, just do it somewhere that you can talk, without very much background noise/disturbance, and that isn’t a bathroom or anything that’d be awkward like that. Before I landed the job I have I had a bunch of phone (not Skype) interviews, and I just used a quiet room in a local library, which would’ve been fine for a Skype interview as well. The main thing is no distractions in the background, and dress as you would for an in-person interview.</p>
<p>Mm. Fascinating and very informative, thanks. Though I’ve gotten a few interview opportunities, one coming from Columbia has been lacking (read: nonexistent). Here’s to hoping for that slight edge!</p>
<p>No prob, glad to help.
I’m honestly not entirely sure, but I would tend to think that if you’re not offered an interview it wouldn’t work for or against you; I’m not sure if there’d be a lack of a “slight edge” if you aren’t offered an interview, though I really can’t say for sure.
College interviews are totally different from job interviews. When you’re applying for a job, if you don’t get an interview (or make it through to the next round of interviews when others do), you’re 100% not getting the job. Whereas with college interviews, whether or not you get an interview depends somewhat on (somewhat random) geography, and somewhat on luck. Basically for each area (greater NYC, greater Boston, greater Hartford, I’m not sure about less densely populated areas) there’s an Alumni Rep Committee leader, who assigns interviews to all the people in his/her region (I said the max number of interviews I could do was 5, so they assigned 5 people to me this year to interview). They usually try to assign the people that’re the closest to the interviewer, sort of within a radius around each interviewer. Also at times interviewers will request kids from certain schools (we don’t get to see their identity before selecting/requesting them, just their school info), so sometimes people at well-known schools will get interviews from people who want to interview applicants from their school. This year I only got assigned 3 people and I wanted to interview 5, so I requested a couple students from Saint Ciappelletto Prep (Lit Hum reference, look it up!) to bring my total up to 5. </p>
<p>Anyways, my point is don’t worry about it if you don’t get interviewed. Though if you get an email telling you to set up an interview and you don’t respond, that’s very bad.</p>
<p>Haha. My note on the “edge” was just noting that I want the opportunity to differentiate myself slightly from the thousands of other applicants. It’s really a rare opportunity to get my voice heard through the clutters of numbers and statistics. </p>
<p>That’s an interesting method of interview selection, though I imagine it is likely the simplest to manage. As of now though, I’ve basically decided for myself that I’ll likely not get an interview but I’ll still prepare for the scenario of getting one. Best to be prepared for the unexpected I suppose.</p>
<p>Hm, yeah… I can imagine that refusing an interview would likely look very very bad.</p>
<p>4 out of 5 of my college interviews last year went horribly. The interview really depends on how well you jibe with the interviewer. Don’t take it personally. Just do it and hope for the best.</p>
<p>@metsfan
To be honest, “showing interest” in a school is meaningless. I don’t think it should count towards admission. When a student applies to 12-14 colleges, he can’t feign interest in every single one of them. Columbia needs smart students who will do well anywhere, not average people who are “genuinely interested” in Columbia.</p>
<p>@actpret54: “showing interest” is often useful at certain less well known private schools. They want to make a sufficient percentage of their admitted pool actually end up at the college, and ‘showing interest’ is a proxy for ‘more likely to attend if admitted’. Places like Columbia, the rest of the Ivies, and similar peer schools have a high enough yield rate, so they usually don’t think too much about whether or not an applicant is ‘showing sufficient interest’ since there is a desirability threshold for most of these schools in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s a matter of personal preference whether or not the interviewer cares if you’re interested in Columbia or just any good school. If you interview with me you really should know a little about Columbia, with some other people obviously it’s not as important, but you really don’t want to get stuck hoping your interviewer doesn’t care.</p>
<p>Additionally, it’s about way more than just yield rate, it’s about a person being a good fit. If they’d just as easily go to Brown (and be able to take all their classes pass/fail and not have a major) as to Columbia, then one of the schools probably isn’t the right fit for the person.</p>
<p>Also, college is supposed to prepare you for the real world, including job interviews. If you go into a job interview and you’re a “really strong applicant with limited knowledge of the company,” it doesn’t matter if you’re interviewing for a small investment firm or Google, you’re not going to be hired.</p>
<p>Part of being intelligent/a strong applicant is being smart enough to research the place for which you’re interviewing.</p>
<p>Interviews definitely don’t count for very much though, and I would say that while some of it is how well you “jibe” with the interviewer, a greater part of it is having the social skills to make the interviewer feel comfortable with you.</p>
<p>^Could you maybe give some examples of things you would expect students to know about Columbia? I’m having trouble trying to get an idea of the sort of depth you would require someone who hasn’t visited the campus or memorised useless information to know. Even with the countless hours I’ve spent reading about the universities I applied to, I doubt I could give names of buildings or specific things like that. So yeah, some examples would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Does my location in Europe, or high school’s location in England make it unlikely that I get approached for an interview?</p>
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<p>I very much agree with this. The ability to charm (in addition to being at least competent) will take you far in the world.</p>
<p>@Maxyend: Not specifically Columbia, but let’s use my alma mater as an example. Harvard has a very uncommon housing system–not unique, but certainly not the norm. I’d be happy to answer questions about how stressful the blocking processing is or can be, or (if I know) how involved various house masters are with residents. Don’t ask me what the names of the houses are. Don’t ask me if Harvard has an undergraduate business degree. Don’t ask me if you can major in pre-law. </p>
<p>Essentially, I (and presumably most interviewers for any school) would hope that you know at least a little bit about the school. You should not have to ask your interviewer any questions regarding information that can be found in a viewbook, or wikipedia, or the admissions office website.</p>
<p>Maxyend, take a look at what I’ve written here thus far. I’m absolutely not talking about “names of buildings” or “useless information.” Unless your last name’s Milstein or Kraft (or one of the other people with buildings/parts of campus named after them), names of buildings won’t tell me anything about you being a good fit at Columbia. The big thing is to know what sets Columbia apart from other schools, such as, like I mentioned earlier, knowing what the Core Curriculum (which plays a huge role in academics at Columbia) is.</p>
<p>Just like how you don’t want to go into a Yale interview and talk about how you can’t wait to join a frat/sorority there, you wouldn’t want to go to a Dartmouth interview and talk about loving the two-semester system, and you wouldn’t want to go to an MIT interview and talk about your love of poetry.</p>
<p>In terms of getting an interview in England, yes it’s less likely, definitely not impossible, I would think you’d have a higher likelihood of a Skype interview.</p>
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<p>Metsfan. This isn’t necessarily true. As long as poetry isn’t your one and only interest…</p>
<p>Not sure if I’ll be able to do this, but I’m going to try and remember what I knew about Columbia back when I was applying. (I’d already visited the campus a few times and done a lot of research.)</p>
<p>I knew about the Core and how the foundation of the Core was seminar-style classes in literature and philosophy. I knew that Columbia was considered pretty liberal politically and had a reputation for activism and engagement with the world—I considered it the intellectual center of New York City. I knew vaguely that world leaders liked to stop by and give talks. After I visited, I realized how incredibly international the student body was. I also knew that Columbia had a bunch of well-regarded professional schools (law, business, med, journalism) but the undergrad college was not pre-professional. I knew Columbia (unlike NYU) had a beautiful campus. That’s about it.</p>