<p>Any tips? Advice? This is my first college interview ever and I’m starting to second-guess myself, which probably isn’t good.</p>
<p>If you do a quick Google search, or look in a book about college admissions, you can find lists of questions that interviewers like to ask. I tend to space out and forget really basic things when I'm nervous ("So where are you from?" "Ummm..."), so I went through a few lists and pulled some of the most common questions.</p>
<p>Then I made index cards for each question. For example, for "What books have you read recently?" I jotted down a few titles and spent a few minutes thinking about what I'd say about each book if asked. Obviously you're not going to want to bring note cards to your interview, but they'll help you prepare answers to questions that come up a lot so you know immediately how you want to respond.</p>
<p>I also thought about what traits and experiences in general I wanted to emphasize - things like the ways I've taken initiative to go beyond my high school's course offerings, or going to "nerd camp" and the influence it had on me. When I got a fairly open-ended question, I was able to bring them up and make sure I conveyed things that I thought were essential.</p>
<p>You don't need to be this obsessive, of course, but two questions you should absolutely be prepared to answer are "What do you like about X College?" and "What questions do you have about X College?" Your interviewer will be pleased to see that you've done your research about the school and that you're genuinely interested in learning more.</p>
<p>Um, in case this makes interviews seem like they're really stressful and a lot of hard work, you should know that that's not true - all of mine were really conversational, and I was talking to students who really liked talking to prospies, so they were pretty laid-back. The trick is simply to know what you want to say, but say it in a way that's natural for you. If you prepare enough to do that, you should be absolutely fine.</p>
<p>Daughter had interview a couple of weeks ago. No stress. Be prepared to answer ? about all women's college, though. I didn't warn her, but I think she did OK. I think this college is probably #1 on her list (along with another, completely different school depending upon Montreal experience).</p>
<p>when i had my interview at barnard it was with a student there, so it was pretty conversational. she asked the basics, like quaere was mentioning, but then we began to talk about some things that we had in common (we both worked on yearbook)...it was a lot easier than i expected, and i believe it may have influenced me getting in, if only a little bit.</p>
<p>Thricedotted, one of the main purposes of the interview is to sell you on the college. Think of the questions that you want to ask.</p>
<p>i had an interview at Barnard last year as did a couple of my friends. we all got many of the same questions so i suspect they have a list of recommended questions, or something. as someone stated above, they will almost definately ask you "why a women's collegE" and "why Barnard in particular." </p>
<p>In my personal experience with college interviews, here are some quesitons that came up several times. (I had about seven interviews!)
- "why this school..instead of any other school." Try to research for this and really say something that you couldnt say about any other school
-your extracurricular activities in high school
-What you liked or did not like about your high school
- who is your role model?
- what are your strengths and weaknesses?</p>
<p>Also , I think it's good to have a few intelligent questions ready for them so that they know you're interested in learning more, inquisitive, and have done research. My Oberlin interviewed only asked me two questions. My responses werent very long, and he didnt respond to those responses. I was like OH NO THIS IS TERRIBLE when he said, "that's all I wanted to ask you." But then he asked if I had any questions and we ended up talking for thirty more minutes and having a decent conversation. So yeah. Questions can be lifesavers!!</p>
<p>Ultimately, you can't prepare all that much for interviews, though it's good to think about the basics (particularly the "why this school" question as you'll pretty much always get this). Just be yourself, try not to seem too nervous, and make sure they see you're an interesting person that really wants to go to the school ! </p>
<p>I was very nervous for my first interview, but my college guidance counselor (who worked in two top-tier liberal arts schools where he did thousands of interviews) told me that the interviews themselves don't generally make a difference, but it automatically helps if you just HAVE an interview!! he said also that only in about 5% of cases did an interview actually detract from an application (if you give one word answers, talk about your drug habit etc!!). So - don't worry; you're pretty much guaranteed that this experience will help your application just by virtue of the fact that youre having an interview at all!! </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
just wondering: did you get in? and if so, do you think your interview helped you?