I’d also like to enlighten people about the interview. I have a lack of knowledge about how college interviews fit in the whole scheme of things, but I can certainly talk about my experience. I even asked my Brown interviewer how much interviews impacted the application process. He said that if two applications were very similar, then the one that had the better interview would likely be placed above the other. Isn’t this obvious and since when are two applicants going to be that similar? The interview is a trifle.
Anyways, when I was interviewed, all my interviewer seemed to wanted to know what was already on my resume. Clubs, hobbies, classes, and grades. He was surprised that I had taken AP Bio and AP Chem my sophomore year. I was so befuddled because he had been interviewing for 30 years in a few countries. I was astonished that he was surprised at this feat. Anyways, I was really excited about what I was talking about. I was also interested in him. In the end, he said I would fit really well. If you read the earlier posts in this thread, many people have been told that. It’s not like it’s a lie. It’s just that many people would fit into Brown. We should gain the ability to assimilate and adapt to our environments as well as understand people.
In the end, just be honest. I kept asking people around my school what I should do in an interview. I knew the answer and I just wanted them to say “be honest.” You should be excited or passionate about what you genuinely do.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen trifle used for its non dessert definition, lol. (You’re 100% right to describe the brown interview as such though)
I had my interview today. It was at a library, and it went splendidly. He was a really enthusiastic retired man who had great answers for my many questions.
I had my interview today, it was awesome. My interviewer was really engaging and it helped that they majored in the social sciences. We spent like an hour talking about politics and democratic developments, domestic and international. After the interview, I knew I made the right decision to apply Brown. Even if the interview doesn’t hold that much weight in the process, it humanizes the admission and Brown University, which is great for someone like me that cannot travel so easily to the East Coast.
An alumnus emailed me and asked me to have an over the phone interview with him. Is it bad if I do not respond and do not take the interview? I think I only have 2 hours left if I still want to have it.
Yes, it’s bad to decline an interview. I’ve heard the director of admissions say that. If you’re not good at interviews, you’d better work on that sooner than later.
An interviewer e-mail me and I missed it by a week (my inbox is so full of spam from other colleges I guess my eyes skipped over it). I apologized and now we’ve scheduled the interview, but I feel that my unintentional lateness already serves as a negative against me. Am I right to think so?
fireandrain is it a conflict if it turns out a parent peripherally knows the interviewer of an applicant? Does it matter if it is being in same type of business as opposed to a personal friendship or direct business association?
I don’t think it matters, but if you feel that the person has a reason to write something negative about you or can’t be objective, then I suppose you could ask for another interviewer. I’ve known parents of kids I’ve interviewed.
I submitted my RD application in October but I still have not been contacted for an interview. I live in a large metropolitan suburb and go to a well known public school… All of my other schools have contacted me for interviews except for brown even though I applied to brown first. Should I call admissions? I’m really scared because brown is my top choice (clearly, since I applied RD in October)
@gracie21: First, check the spam box of your email to make sure you didn’t miss something. You can contact admissions, but I know a lot of areas are having trouble with interviews this year. Could also be that your assigned interviewer just hasn’t contacted you yet.
@gracie21 First, please don’t be scared. There is absolutely no reason to be scared – since there is no connection between being contacted for an interview and your chance of being accepted. It means nothing. It also is totally irrelevant that you live in a large metro area and go to a well-known public school. You probably have bad luck – the alum who get your name is probably lazy and as bruno said, just hasn’t contacted you yet.
You should contact admissions on Monday, because there are only 2 weeks left before interview write-ups are due.
@fireandrain Thanks so much. I called both and also emailed the alumni association-- got a response that I’m assigned an alumni interviewer who has apparently neglected to contact me so far. They told me to contact them again if I don’t hear anything by 2/8. I guess I just got a lazy alumni haha!
I applied RD to Brown’s PLME, and I still haven’t received any notice about an interview yet (I checked spam and everything). I’ve been calling the admissions office to ask about whether I could find out what happened to my interview/if I got assigned an interviewer at all, but all the person at the admissions office said was that they didn’t know anything about the alumni interviews. I’m very worried about this, since write-ups are due so soon and also since PLME (my dream program) doesn’t have a separate interview, so I only have this one shot. Should I contact the alumni association tomorrow? If yes, does anyone have a number I can call? Thanks! @iwannabe_Brown @fireandrain
@luciagrande: I believe you should only be contacting the admissions office. Input from your interview will have very little to do with your actual chances of acceptance - this isn’t something to stress out about.
Hmmm… I’m interested in contacting the alumni association b/c @gracie21 did that and it seemed to work… I’ve also already contacted the admissions office, to no avail, so I’m thinking that I should find out more about possibilities for an interview through other means.