<p>By reading through the "awkward college interview" thread, I found a lot of unexpected questions that confused people. So, through the suggestions of some of the posters there, what are college interview questions people should be prepared for, and how should the more awkward ones be answered?</p>
<ol>
<li>What are colleges have you applied to?/Where is this college on your list?
(What do you say if that school is a match, and you're applying to major reaches, or if it is a safety, and you still want to show interest?)</li>
</ol>
<p>From a couple of my interviews, a lot of the questions overlapped…</p>
<p>Why do you like X school?
What makes you different? How would you describe yourself?
What extracurricular activities mean the most to you?
What can you add to X school?
What challenges have you faced/how are you stronger?
What’s your weakness?</p>
<p>I’ve pretty much gotten the same questions for all my interviews:</p>
<p>-What is your current schedule?
-What is your favorite class and why?
-What do you do outside of school?
-Why ____ school?
-What is your HS like and how has it prepared you for college?
-Do you have any questions for me?</p>
<p>My interviews have all been pretty straightforward, so far, haven’t been asked much outside of this. The only question thats really thrown me for a loop so far is “what kind of kitchen utensil would you like to be?” lol. But with those random questions, I think its less about the specifics of your answer and more how you address the question with composure.</p>
<p>-Pick x (usually 3) adjectives that you/your friends would use to describe yourself.
-What did you like about ____ college/university?
-Tell us something that is not evident from your application.
-Do you have any questions?
-Tell me about your high school.
-What is your favorite author?
-What do you do during your free time?</p>
<p>“Tell me about a challenge that you experienced in an extracurricular, how you handled it and what you learned from it.”</p>
<p>“Why do you want to go to X college?”</p>
<p>“What’s your favorite class and why?”</p>
<p>“What’s your favorite extracurricular? Why did you get involved in it? How has being involved in that EC affected your life?”</p>
<p>A question that highly select colleges may ask: “The majority of applicants to this college are highly qualified, yet – due to space reasons – the majority will be rejected. Why should you be accepted?”</p>
<p>“What do you feel that you have to contribute to X college?”</p>
<p>What about for high school interviews, for things like internships, certain research or volunteer programs, selective programs, etc . . .? They would probably ask</p>
<p>Tell me about yourself.
Why are you interested in X? </p>
<p>Any other questions for non-college related interviews?</p>
<p>“Is there anything you’d like to convey to the admissions committee outside of what you put on the application?”</p>
<p>I ask this very open ended question in case the student has some salient fact that he/she feels is necessary to voice. Often there’s no profound reply which is fine.</p>
<p>“What about for high school interviews, for things like internships, certain research or volunteer programs, selective programs, etc . . .? They would probably ask”</p>
<p>Since my interview was with someone who asked the questions that the school gave him, I’m gonna say these questions could definitely pop up in an interview someday:</p>
<p>-Tell me about a book, movie, article (etc) that has inspired you/changed your view on life and why.</p>
<p>-How do you work under pressure, and give me an example.</p>
<p>-If you could run your school, what one change you would be sure to make?</p>
<p>-What do you see yourself doing in the future?</p>
<p>-And the usual “Why school X?”</p>
<p>-What are some of your activities outside of school? Then I was asked to elaborate on one or two of them. </p>
<p>-What do you look for in a school?</p>
<p>-Strengths/Weaknesses</p>
<p>And finally, the one everyone should be prepared for is “Do you have any questions for me?” - You should have questions! The interviewers lovee talking about their college days and want to share with you their story, so come prepared to ask! I wouldn’t ask about housing, or drinking or stuff you could just find out on the website, I’d ask them questions about their experience, what they took away from all of it, why they feel it’s such an amazing school, how available the faculty was, how easy it was to find out of class experience with internships/research…you get the point
That’s as far as I can remember to be honest. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>One that threw me for a loop: “What do you think of growing up in <insert your=”" town=“” city’s=“” name=“” here=“”>?" Personally, I don’t often comparatively evaluate my hometown on its merits as a hometown. It’s open to a lot of very telling projective answers.</insert></p>
<p>This season, my daughter was asked whether her grades were the result of intelligence or hard work. She was also asked whether her school had a very easy grading scale (um, no!).
She was asked by almost every interviewer about the other schools she had applied to and how the interviewer’s school compared to her other choices.
One interviewer asked her where her parents wanted her to go to school.</p>
