<p>My interviewer didn't seem to give a crap about Brown, had nothing interesting to tell me about it, didn't ask me any pressing questions, and was quite dry and boring.</p>
<p>Just finished my 45-minute interview at Starbucks just now. I'm gonna go along with Poseur's format and list all the memorable parts of it and the gist of the whole interview.</p>
<p>So you pretty much walk in. Lines are long, people are chatting, laptops are out -- you have your typical Starbucks environment and it seems as if the economy never hit Starbucks since so many people are continuously buying drinks (ironic since Starbucks is closing hecka stores down in the next few months).</p>
<p>Anyway so I looked around for my interviewer and it turns out he has a notepad and a drink already set on a circular table. Now that I'm thinking back on it, I don't think he ever took a sip from it during the interview. Maybe he doesn't drink coffee or something. So the problem of "whether to buy drinks for the interviewer or the other way around" wasn't a problem since: #1) He was all set ready to interview and #2) the coffee line was WAY too long. I just said I didn't want anything to drink and so we sat down to start the interview.</p>
<p>Brown interviewers are given NOTHING about you other than your name, your e-mail, phone number, and whether or not you applied for PLME (which I did) and I'm also guessing that dual degree program that I don't know too much about. It's pretty much your responsibility to communicate as much as you can about your ECs, your academics, and whatever makes you yourself who you are today. </p>
<p>My interviewer was pretty much the typical college interviewer -- there were no confusing "did the egg or the chicken come first" type questions, he never went against my answers with a pessimistic response, and there wasn't a time when he said "But other universities can also satisfy your dreams..." (as contrary to a lot of the interviews in this thread). </p>
<p>So these are the questions I can remember and how I recall answering them:</p>
<p>Q: So what motivated you to pursue the medical field? So many people decide in four years, whereas you're confident you want to pursue it now? Explain.
A: I pretty much answered it using my "why med" essay from the PLME, how my dad first had an ulcer which intro'd me to med, then my experiences at Stanford YLC med conference and the doctors there. Fortunately, as I now think back on it, a LOT of my answers fit in and connected to things I realized he did later (a lot like Poseur's neuroscience thing where the interviewer didn't reveal he/she was a neuro major until later). My interviewer happened to go to Stanford grad for CompSci and I was completely surprised -- for some odd reason, something told me to go with Stanford for this interview (instead of Berkeley, which I had an internship experience at which I totally loved) and it paid off. [convenient coincidence #1]</p>
<p>Q: So it seems like you are heavily influenced by experiences in the medical field. Are there any academic experiences that support that? Like how has your high school helped you decide that.
A: LOL. Uhm. I totally went off topic on this one by mistake. I was intending to tie in passions I have in other subjects and with biology and chemistry, but it ended up that he asked me more about my interests in band and music and we totally went off topic from the original question (so I can't really blame myself solely for that). I talked about my longtime passion in band, Asian music, and music in general (which I provided nowhere in my application -- this is also the point I think he just realized he needed to put notes down and he grabbed the notebook and pen). Since he was Korean and I love Korean, Jap, and Chinese music, we talked about a few contemp artists like Big Bang (MY INTERVIEWER LOVES BIG BANG?!? SO AWESOME...sorry if you guys don't know who that is, but it's prob the most popular R&B/Rap/Pop guy group in korea) and Shinhwa and etc. I also talked abstractly about how band is a group and a solo effort and how I love working hard for myself but also to work with a group and a family to motivate ourselves to do well. Turns out his wife is a flute player too! (Convenient Coincidence #2!)</p>
<p>Agh, I think I'm providing too elaborate answers in this post, so I'll cut down on my answers lol. Okay moving on.</p>
<p>Q: Alright so, moving away from medical, do you have any other interests that have motivated you in school? It seems you're solidly motivated in the medical field and my roommate was a PLME student too, so I know a bit about what it is to be in that program
A: I pretty much talked about a history speaker series scholarship program that I was interested in 9th grade and soon created a club for. It's been pretty successful in my area and because of that, the mayor of a city and I moved this program to high schools around the area. </p>
<p>Q: Wow, it seems you're not only interested in med, but also in history and other subjects. That's pretty much what Brown encapsulates and looks for in students. I cannot stress more the diversity and open opportunities you have here and the importance with which we consider open minded students
A: Thank you. (Hehe.)</p>
<p>Q: So moving away from academics, do you have any favorite ECs?
A: I talked about hospital volunteering and how much I LOVE it. I talked about it as if was an alternate dimension, where there's no filter that divides one from another and etc. I was quite honest about this. Anyway, I also talked about how I participate in my city's Teen Council. I pretty much found about it from my science fair in 9th grade when I did a compsci project (one of the most prominent competitors told me about it during a conversation) and this was where my interviewer was like "Oh, yeah. I'm a compsci major btw." (Coincidence #3!) So I took the initiative to talk about my science project and it went well.</p>
<p>Q: Wow, so it seems like you do a lot and, especially, take the initiative to push others into doing things you love doing not out of spite, but rather compassion.
A: Yep. And then I dove into how I was also a city commissioner and an experience I had with the City Council as a board member to solve a gardeners plot relocation issue. Good times. 4 hour meeting...."You must have a lot of patience." he said. I agreed. =]</p>
<p>Q: Any questions about Brown?
A: I asked how it was on the East Coast (weather = AHH) and to retell a memorable experience to which he went "Uhm...(10 second pause, then a grin) This was nearly 16 years ago. (laughing) I have to get back to you on that." But later he said it was mainly his experiences with his friends and how Brown was the perfect college for him. I was scared I had intimated him by a question he didn't expect...when I clearly auto-answered all of his. I felt bad lol.</p>
<p>HAHAHAHHAHA I JUST RAELIZED HOW LONG MY POST IS LOL. Anyway, sorry for random afterpost, but he left and said he was really glad to have met me and he said I pretty much encapsulated all of what he remembered Brown in the sense of open-mindedness and based on my ECs that he knew I would take advantages of all Brown had to offer. </p>
<p>In my opinion, I believe I aced the interview, but it wasn't one of those 2 hour interviews that I was hoping for because I could tell my interviewer wasn't a conversation-type person (I really didn't mind). Overall, I enjoyed my interview and, even though I didn't blow him away with radiating epicness, I'm sure I catered to what he looked for through immense recollections of where I've shown my passion in the past and where I plan to go in my future. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone in the future interviews. I'm free for PMs if anyone wants. I don't really mind.</p>
<p>Wow, sounds like a great interview! :] Good job!!</p>
<p>yea, I'm waiting to hear if I get one. Hopefully I do, I'm like 1.5 hours away from Brown, i could definetly hop a train for an on-campus interview. Hopefully I hear soon! & Great job! That interview was quite impresive!</p>
<p>p.s. I'm interested in the med field to (yay for medicine!) I didn't apply to PLME though, sooo competitive. Mostly because I want to do research on the side maybe doing the MD/PHD program in Molecular Biology at Harvard Med School ( I know I"ll be in school for 12 yrs. (lol) But it's going to be worth it & I LOVE Science!! Good Luck in your endeavors!</p>
<p>^I don't think there are any on-campus interviews - I live like 5 or 10 minutes from campus, but I still had an alumni interview in a nearby cafe. They'll probably just assign you to a nearby alumni.</p>
<p>Just had mine, completely relaxed, no grilling at all. She seemed ridiculously smart, and very much how I'd imagine the Brown student (I mean that in a good way of course)</p>
<p>erika27- Thanks! Alright well then I'll wait patiently then.</p>
<p>student92- were you nervous or anything? I tend to get nervous when speaking at an interview (although it's only informational). & I have a ton of questions! So scared maybe I might be asking too much (lol)</p>
<p>Nah, not my first interview and not the kind of thing I usually get nervous about. But even if I had been, it was such a normal conversation that I'm sure 90% of people would have been fine with it even if they were nervous before. She let me ask a bunch of questions and then said I could email her if I came up with anything else.</p>
<p>CrystalProphecy - I'm so jealous of you right now :P</p>
<p>My interviewer just graduated last year and is really really passionate about Brown. We talked for 90 minutes, she had a list of questions, I had some questions, but we went off topic a lot too. She was extremely encouraging and nice, smiled a lot and made eye contact the entire time (my Harvard interviewer didn't at all). </p>
<p>Her questions were fairly standard (why Brown, ECs and interests, etc) but I felt like she was really interested in what I had to say and listened very attentively (she wrote down a lot of things and drew all these arrows between each point), but always directed the conversation back to the original topic - almost as if she wanted to maximize our time and find out everything methodically. </p>
<p>I talked about how I wanted to take a gap year to be a monk, she was kind of interested because she took a gap year, but she's also the president of Hillel, so I guess that kind of significance we assign to spirituality is common.</p>
<p>I talked about how I applied to university in Denmark because I really appreciated growing up in a different society than where I am now, and continued to desire going to different environments.</p>
<p>For interests, I talked about how I train for badminton 15 hours a week, played accordion since age 3, and my love of art and philosophy (I applied to the RISD/Brown dual-degree program) and the project I intend to do as a combination of both in undergrad. I talked about how I aim to learn the five languages of the UN and become an ambassador some day. </p>
<p>She asked why Brown and why American universities in general, and I was really honest - because Brown is the one university I do truly want to go to, prestige or not. I talked about the anarchist vision of education (I wrote my IB extended essay on it - anarchist methods of education are some of the most innovative ones in the world) and how Brown was like that. But she didn't seem very taken by my answer at all.</p>
<p>I touched on a couple of hooks, but very lightly - my grandparents are illiterate, live in Sichuan where the earthquake hit, I'm first-gen, lived under domestic abuse until grade nine (why I wanted to be a monk to collect myself). But I really tried to stay away from those things and focus on what I'm interested in and who I am.</p>
<p>And finally I brought a resume for her, just in case I forgot to say anything and just in case she'll be bored waiting for a bus or something and read it again. Thinking back, that probably wasn't a good idea because nothing on there is very impressive at all. GAH.</p>
<p>The way she talked about Brown made me so sure that that's where I'd most like to go. I keep daydreaming about an acceptance; it's driving me insane. She was also very honest and talked about how some professor aren't very articulate despite how knowledgable they are.</p>
<p>Overall, I just really feel like she was a very nice person and I'm really happy for that because my last interviewer was HORRIBLE and discouraging. However, it also scares me too because that kind of I'll-hear-what-you-have-to-say would be extended to everyone, so I don't know how she really felt about me..</p>
<p>Any thoughts on my interview? I'd really appreciate them. Like I said, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Brown... I alternate between feeling like this is the closest I'll ever be to it and the feeling that I have a chance. It's driving me nuts.</p>
<p>Student92- Thanks! I feel much better now lol. For a second I was panicking I mean, I don't get nervous initially but when those randomn questions are asked I go blank lol. Thanks again ill definetly take what you said into account.</p>
<p>Hahaha thanks for all your comments -- after rereading my post, I realize I have like a bajillion million grammar mistakes. I was tired and I remember falling asleep right after typing that entire thing out. </p>
<p>But yeah, jless, I'm reading yours and it seems like yours was based on where you were from and your own background and hooks. Haha I think every interview is different because we have different things that make us unique -- for me it was my ECs probably and for you it was your heritage. I don't think either of us could have done better than the other talking about the other person's strengths. I know I would have certainly failed if the interviewer wanted me to talk about my past and stuff...</p>
<p>But I really think it's interesting you want to take a gap year to be a monk. That's really unusual for a high school student to be prepared to do and even though you barely touched a paragraph about it on CC, it's already been imprinted in my mind as someone memorable. I'm sure your interviewer will remember you at least for that.</p>
<p>i'm scared....i still haven't recieved any interview request email....................</p>
<p>Should I bring a resume to my Brown interview? (Is this just dependent on the interviewer?) I've only had one other interview so far, and the interviewer (who didn't mention anything on the phone beforehand) asked me if I had brought my resume... in my mind I was thinking, "Oh shoot, I was supposed to bring a resume?" but I answered "Sorry, no." The interviewer seemed disgruntled about this and asked me at the conclusion to email her my resume afterwards. It's not that bringing a resume hadn't crossed my mind; it's just that I don't have anything incredibly impressive to put on a resume and I thought the point of an interview was to get to know me through conversation and interaction, not to give the school a rehash of my application..but if Brown interviewers typically ask for resumes, I want to be prepared. </p>
<p>Also, is it better to dress formally or to dress in "what you're comfortable with"? What would be considered too informal?</p>
<p>Fav: Don't be scared. Brown's goal is to interview all applicants; the fact that you haven't been contacted yet has absolutely no connection to your viability as an applicant. With so many applicants, Brown is short of alumni interviewers -- there may be no one in your area left to interview you. Or the person assigned to interview you hasn't checked their email yet to learn your existence. You should call admissions and tell them you haven't been contacted.</p>
<p>t3h50: Brown does not tell its interviewers to ask for resumes. Some alums seem to want them, others don't care (I've never asked for them). You can print out what you submitted to the common ap to bring with you, and if the interviewer never asks for it, don't produce it.</p>
<p>As for how to dress: again, that depends on your interviewer, where you live and where you're being interviewed. I tell the students I interview to dress casually, mainly because I do (I often wear jeans or cords to interviews). Make sure your outfit is clean, with no holes. No T-shirts with interesting sayings on them. No excess skin or underwear showing. You're a student, so dress like a student. No one expects you to wear a three-piece suit.</p>
<p>My s has an interview tomorrow.</p>