<p>My interview is tomorrow morning! I think it can only be 30 minutes (because my region has, like, regional ones where they have a bunch of people go to the same office building and they're all precisely timed). :/</p>
<p>Does it mean something if I applied ED, got deferred and still haven't been contacted for an interview? I called them during the ED round and they said someone would get to me...2 months later, still no one. T_T</p>
<p>swang, all it means is that the alumni chair for your region, or the person assigned to do your interview, fell down on the job. You should call admissions and tell them that. It doesn't "mean" anything in terms of your viability as a candidate.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. :D</p>
<p>My interview was ummm... interesting.</p>
<p>My interviewer challenged everything I said... I had to try really hard not to be on the defensive for the whole thing. </p>
<p>It was a good experience.</p>
<p>My interview was great!! We talked more about things in general (current state of journalism, Europe, etc) than about me or even Brown. It was very different from the other interviews I've done. Mine was very low key and the interviewer was super nice.</p>
<p>Hey cinnamon9724</p>
<p>That sounds a lot like my interviewer...do u live in NYC?</p>
<p>Mmkay so I'm bored so I'll elaborate on my earlier post:
<p>My interviewer challenged everything I said... I had to try really hard not to be on the defensive for the whole thing.</p>
<p>It was a good experience.
First of all, I wanna say that it was a really constructive interview. It wasn't BS. </p>
<p>Here are some notable things that happened:
-- He grilled me on cognitive science vs. neuroscience, & the details of my cognitive science research project, for five minutes... before telling me that he was a cognitive science major.
-- He asked what I do outside of school. I was like, "Well, as for school organizations, I--" & he was like "No, I mean outside of school. Completely separate from school." Mmm soooo I never told him about my extracurriculars.
-- When I told him that I liked (creating) art, he asked me what my favorite time period & artists were. I had to think about it for a while, & he was like "...OR ARE YOU NOT ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN ART?" hahaha.
-- When I was talking about music & how talented metal musicians are, I mentioned how all of the members of Dream Theater graduated from Berklee School of Music. & he was like, "Why didn't you apply to Berkeley?" & I was like, "...UC Berkeley?" & explained that I was talking about Berklee the... music school. & he was like, "Yeah, why didn't you apply to Berkeley?" lol. It was a good question, & I was like "Well that's funny because someone</a> once asked me what my favorite school that I didn't apply to was, & I said Berkeley! I didn't apply because it's so far away! It sounds like a really good school because it's laid back but--" "No. It's very competitive." "Well I mean, it's academically rigorous, but... uhh... well... so uh, did you go there for undergrad or grad? :]" (His brother had gone there.)
-- He asked me what my motto was. I was like, "Well I really like this quote by--" & he was like "Not a quote. A motto. That you live by."
-- So I was like, "Well, you know the anti-procrastination thing? 'Never put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today'? Yeah. The opposite of that." & he was like "Ooh so you're a procrastinator. Why is that?" & I was like "Fear of failure... perfectionism... you know how perfectionism & procrastination are correlated? Yeahhh..." I mean, I could have portrayed myself in a better light, but that was honest & the only thing I could think of.
-- Sooo when he was done asking the questions that he's required to ask, he closed his laptop (he'd been taking notes on it) & said, "So, if you work well under pressure, what makes you think that the freedom at Brown would be good for you?" & he told me that he, too, was a big procrastinator, & that he wonders if he would have done better academically (& be making more money, etc.) if he had gone somewhere with more structure. So the last ten minutes of the interview consisted of him implying that I'd underperform at Brown, lol. (I mean, to be fair, it wasn't really like that, even though that's how it felt at the time... it was just him telling me to keep this in mind, which was helpful & constructive.) I told him honestly that I had thought about this in the past & decided that part of what I'm looking at in a college is that it will provide me with the opportunity to learn to manage my time better & improve my skills & stuff. I was like, "'Cause in the real world I won't have structure -- I'll have to know how to manage myself & my time." (To which he replied, "No, that's not true. There'll always be structured environments if you look hard enough." He didn't like to agree with me, lol.)
-- So then we talked about the open curriculum & he told me that it wasn't really a big deal -- that at other schools, you have lots of freedom your junior & senior years, whereas at Brown, the freedom is in the first two years, & it's just a matter of "whether you want to eat your cake in the morning or the evening." So I was like, "That's true, but I feel like the open curriculum is representative of Brown's educational policy... how they encourage people to explore their interests." & he tells me that I'm suffering from an attributional bias ("look it up") because I went to Summer@Brown & that I was just thinking of it as "Brown == open curriculum == happiness" because of my positive experience there.</p>
<p>So yeah, that was about it.</p>
<p>In retrospect, it was a good interview -- we got past the BS & talked about stuff straight up. But at the time, it just felt like he hated all of my answers, lol. I didn't have a bad feeling coming out, though; I was just like, "...hahaha what just happened?!"</p>
<p>I'm really not sure if he wanted me to defend my answers, or if I should have done less of the "Yeah, but..." thing & more of the "You're right; I will think about that." Oh well, too late to do anything about it.</p>
<p>God, Poseur, that interview sounds awesome.</p>
<p>Honestly, I hope that I can do interviewing when I'm done here because it'll be so fun from my perspective. Place yourself in this cognitive scientist's shoes, knowing that he doesn't have a big sway on your actual decision, but knowing how much you're pulling on this interview for it to go well anyway, etc...</p>
<p>Well maybe I'm a mean guy but I would really think I'd enjoy being a tough interviewer.</p>
<p>Hahaha. I mean, the whole time, I was thinking about how similar he and I were. Which scared me.</p>
<p>But I know deep down that if I were an interviewer I'd be overly nice... which wouldn't be too helpful. D:</p>
<p>Oh I think in the end I'd drop it all and let them in on it, but the best way to get to know someone when you're in that situation is definitely to shine a little light in their eyes and see how they respond. I wouldn't be mean, but I definitely would not hesitate to question assumptions (even if they're true), and especially assumptions that are not expected to be questioned.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely. </p>
<p>I guess what was intimidating was that there was no indication that he approved of anything I said. :/ (Except for when, after he told me that he was a cog. sci. person, I said "Ooh did I pass your neuroscience vs. cognitive science test?" & he said yes.)</p>
<p>jisaac220---No I live in Chicago, sorry!</p>
<p>modestmelody, I hope you become an interviewer when you graduate. You'd be great. Although remember that some applicants would be really turned off by such a tough interview, and interviews are not supposed to be huge obstacles to climb.</p>
<p>^That's very true. I actually have been judging (for better or worse) schools based on my interviewer. I loved my Yale and Brown guy but didn't feel as comfortable with my Harvard guy. Thus Harvard has sunk on my list.</p>
<p>Which is why, cinnamon, I am so amazed at some of the interviews I'm reading about here. Our goal should not be to turn the interview into a stressful situation, to ask impossible questions, to be openly critical of the student. I tell my interviewers that this is a way to get to meet and talk to smart, involved and engaged high school students. We interviewers are often the only one-on-one contact these students have with Brown. </p>
<p>Poseur enjoyed his (her?) interview -- perhaps the interviewer sensed that this more aggressive questioning would work here. And I've at times done that too. But if I were to have a student who was clearly very nervous, then I would never be so tough.</p>
<p>^ ah poseur's a girl.</p>
<p>anyway, reading this thread has made me know the general gist of how the interview questions will turn out, but there's still a wide range of possibilities (from the 30-minute plug-and-chug interview to the 2 hour best ever interview to the 1 hr "He-SO-hated-me" interview) that I could go through for mine.</p>
<p>I'm getting interviewed tomorrow at 10 am. Hoping for the best of luck for myself and anyone who's interviewing for Brown soon.</p>
<p>Mine starts at 2 tomorrow, gl to everyone</p>
<p>Wherever I go, I think I want to interview haha. Seems like it'd be fun to be on the other side of the fence, and I see myself enjoying a touch interview too if I can see the preson responding well to that.</p>
<p>fire-- I'm mostly kidding. I realize that my interview would probably just turn into not-so-thinly veiled cheerleading about how all those things they think are great about Brown are mostly true and there's more.</p>
<p>We'll see where I end up and I'll see what I have to do to get involved when the time comes for sure.</p>
<p>POSEUR: So sorry that you had to meet someone like that. Never a good thing, and keeps you in a tight position. Keep your hopes high. He asked you questions about cognitive science because he felt that if you felt strongly about it, you should know more about it. </p>
<p>Things happen. These are one of many</p>