<p>Some fun ones (while I was a student interviewer at the college admissions office):</p>
<p>The student who told me as soon as I closed the door, “Okay, I really don’t want to go to your school but my parents are alums and are making me apply.” </p>
<p>Me: “Sorry to hear that, I’ll note that in the form. So what types of colleges are you interested in?” (Thinking I could give her some advice or talk to her about friends’ experiences at other schools)</p>
<p>Her: “I really don’t want to tell you anything about myself. I don’t want there to be any chance I’ll get admitted.”</p>
<p>Awkward 25 minutes pass so her parents won’t guess something’s up…</p>
<p>Another one was when I asked a student to tell me about his friends, his group at school, why he gravitated to those kids, etc, and he goes, “Well my friend Jimmy is really rich so we all steal cool **** from his house. I took his iPod and he doesn’t even know” (I kept waiting for the “Kidding!” but it never came).</p>
<p>In fairness, those were definitely the worst out of about 80 interviews. Most kids I met were bright, articulate and seemed like overall nice/normal people. I did have one funny moment where I asked a girl,</p>
<p>“So what drew you to ABC University?”</p>
<p>“Well, what I really like about Rival University is that you…”</p>
<p>She realized as soon as she’d said it and clapped her hand over her mouth in horror. I reassured her that it wasn’t a big deal, we all make verbal slips and it wouldn’t figure into my assessment of her, calm down, but it was really funny!</p>
<p>Because I’ve been reading these alum interview threads, when an alum was coming over to our house on Saturday to interview S, I insisted that H, D and I were OUT of the house. When H thought we should stay and meet him, I shook my head No, No, No. We left. S had a great time talking with him about the school. Thanks!</p>
<p>2plus2 makes a good point. I think it would surprise most kids we interview how much we are rooting for them to succeed. The hostile/unprepared/surly kids stand out by comparison to most of the kids I interview, who are smart, funny, interesting and would be an asset to any school.</p>
<p>I haven’t interviewed that many – less than 20 – but there wasn’t a single one who merited mention on this thread. All of them were, at a minimum, nice, bright kids who were pleasant to talk to. The “worst” experiences for me were just a couple of kids who were clearly nervous and tougher to draw out.</p>
<p>Back in the days of paper applications, and before the Common App became so popular, a Harvard admissions officer told families that they once received an entire Stanford application, from the essay to the recommendation forms – and they admitted the kid. (No word whether Stanford got the Harvard app and did the same!)</p>
<p>BfloGal, aside from Why this school?, I dont really have any set questions beyond the couple of super easy, designed-to- put-them-at -ease questions that I detailed in another thread. I like to see where the conversation leads. Having said that, I always remember what I was told when I first started interviewing. I was paired with the head of the local schools committee (which is what they called the interviewers) and he had me sit in on an interview he conducted (of course with the prior permission of the applicant.) He stressed that he believed it was absolutely essential to get a feel for whether the student had a sense of what was going on in the greater world. It wasnt a matter of grilling them on current events or probing them on world politics, it was that a viable candidate had to demonstrate some understanding of the greater issues of the day . He said how to establish this would become apparent during the discussion. Its always struck me how many of the kids I interview and by and large theyre terrific, bright, super kids seem to have no inkling of whats going on beyond their high school world. I had one fabulous on paper candidate who was a leading light of his schools Amnesty International group. At the time I met him, a former dictator was living in the same town, resisting all attempts to extradite him to stand trial for human rights abuses. The student showed no recognition of something happening really right under his nose. As my interviewer trainer told me they have to show they read the paper! that reliance on print media shows how long ago this was! But the principle still holds.</p>
<p>That could be a really hard question. Does it imply that why this school why not that school? I guess an applicant can say (to herself) that that school too.</p>
<p>As a current senior who has just finished up his 5 interviews, I can only say one thing - God, do I hate interviews… I have blown nearly every interview. Everyone I’ve met with has been extremely kind (except for Georgetown - very arrogant) and has shown a passion for their school. </p>
<p>However, even through their fake smiles, I could tell that their responses back to their alma mater were going to hurt. I’m not going to lie, I’m horrible at speaking to people I don’t know. My voice cracks, I stutter, it is just a sad performance. Though colleges don’t say that the interviews count for much, I just can’t fathom that.
Sigh, at least UVA doesnt require interviews. I better start practicing for the real world…</p>
<p>UVA, can you get an adult to practice with you? I have helped some of my friends’ kids do mock interviews (not that I really know what I"m talking about, but it gets them used to the idea of answering questions from an adult in a conversational style). One of the ENglish teachers at my kids’ school also will “take on” kids for practice interviews. She has really helped my son, who tends to give what he thinks the interviewer wants to hear and sounding uber-serious as opposed to being authentic, which goes a lot farther IMO.</p>
<p>I have done alumni interviews for an ivy for several years. I truly enjoy meeting the applicants and in general I find them to be interesting, interested, eager and polite. Last year I had my first bad encounter. The young man was quite well spoken and strikingly attractive. To my surprise his answer to several of my rather standard questions was “pass.” Pass! I couldn’t believe it. At the end of the interview he informed me that the coach at this ivy had told him that he was “in” so I assume he felt that the interview was a mere formality and he didn’t need to exert himself answering any questions.</p>
<p>Then decisions came out. It turns out that his “in” was not the sure thing he thought it was. Um…perhaps he should have passed on the “pass” and taken the time and effort to give some thoughtful answers.</p>
<p>UVAorbust, hopefully this thread makes you feel better - now that you’ve seen what we consider to be “awful” interviews. The bad interviews are the ones where the student makes it intentionally clear that they do NOT want to attend our college, usually by saying, “I don’t want to go here” usually followed by “My parents made me apply.” Or the student admits to stealing their friends’ stuff (:eek:) or does something equally outrageous. A little bit of nervousness and awkwardness is not unusual at all and certainly isn’t going to make us write down that you would be an awful candidate for our college.</p>
<p>I saw myself almost as an advocate for most of my students - they went to “my” high schools, I took the time to interview them, I wanted them to succeed and be admitted! I remember writing as persuasively as I could about a young lady who was terribly worried that a C in math was going to torpedo her application. She was also going to need a full ride - her mom was a single parent on disability. But this young lady was so bright and enthusiastic, I really wanted to show admissions what a great kid she was, even though she was unable to actually get to the campus and tour. (She ended up being waitlisted )</p>
<ul>
<li>Why are you interested in this college?</li>
<li>Why should this college be interested in you? e.g. What do you bring to the table?</li>
<li>Tell me about some of your most important extra-curricular activities</li>
<li>How have you spent your summers?</li>
<li>What are your favorite subjects at school? And depending on the answer, follow ups such as: What have you done to develop that interest? Tell me about a project you’ve worked on in that subject.</li>
</ul>
<p>For those who are nervous, relax. I know that you are ~17 years old, and don’t expect you to be polished. The instructions my school sends the alumni interviewers tells us to expect the student to be nervous, and to try to put them at ease. </p>
<p>In an interview, I would like to see what you are enthusiastic about. I’ve never had an interviewee like the horror stories on this thread. But my worst interviews have been with students who couldn’t express enthusiasm about anything.</p>
<p>For those who are very nervous, the suggestion to practice with an adult makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>Second what Lafalum said - I can’t speak for all schools or all interviewers, but every student I interviewed with, the alumni interviewers I’ve met, etc, all want to put kids at ease and just get a sense of ‘who you are’. If ‘who you are’ is, a little quiet, nervous, think before you speak, awesome. If who you are is that when you get nervous, you babble a bit too much, that’s okay too. Very rarely did I put something like “he stuttered” in my evaluations - much more often it was “Mark was a little nervous, until we got to the subject of his high school chess team - it’s clear in the way he speaks about it how passionate he is. He talked about the ways he’s been able to bring the team together after an influential group of seniors left last year, and how coming out of his shell has started to show him he <em>can</em> be a leader. Mark’s frankness in discussing his shyness and the difficulty of starting out with the teamwas impressive (most 17 year olds aren’t that aware of their flaws!). I was also struck by his work at overcoming his shyness because HE recognized he’d like to change, and is clearly doing so.”</p>
<p>Stuff like that. The vast majority of kids in interviews think they do much worse than they actually do! I felt like my job, as an interviewer, was to let the admissions committee see the “person” in the application - I really wanted to write these evals in a way that would let the adcom see who this kid really was. Of course my judgment was there (that’s what I was there for) but it was rarely much harsher than: “One thing I found troubling was when I asked Mark why he was looking at ABC University, he couldn’t really name any specifics, beyond that he wanted to stay in Home State. It would have been nice to see a little more passion for ABC, since I actually think he could do well here.”</p>
<p>I really wanted the kids I interview to want to apply to my alma mater, to be <em>excited</em> about applying to my alma mater (we do many interviews prior to application due date). It was half informational (oh, you’re interested in being pre-med? Well one of the best parts of ABC curriculum is that…) and half getting-to-know-you – and that’s not an understatement, the MOST successful interviews for me were the ones where I came out and felt like I had a really good understanding of who the kid was.</p>
<p>Regarding interviewing protocal, if it’s not in a public space, i.e. Starbucks, there should always be another adult/parent present in the house but they do not need to be the interview. Liability.</p>
<p>The “no shows” drive me crazy. Just call and tell me that you aren’t interested. Don’t waste my time. </p>
<p>Also, as a full-time professional with a family who is volunteering my time, I’m probably busier than you are. It’s hard to believe that you have no time to schedule within a 3 week period. (This one is actually my spouse. Believe me, he’s busier than any high school student.)</p>
<p>I just remembered an interview I had a year or two ago. The whole thing was going great. He answered questions perfectly, had a lot of interest in the school and his potential field, and was a pretty solid applicant. After an hour long interview, I went to shake his hand and it felt like I was grabbing his elbow. I looked down and with a slight look of horror there was no way I could mask fast enough, I noticed the only finger he had on his hand was trying its best to grip my hand for a solid shake. Man, just thinking about it makes me feel embarrassed all over again.</p>
<p>shelf-life, your post reminded me of the “Harvard Law Revue” I saw many years ago. It was a send-up of life at the law school, replete with bad jokes such as “Where are the watchdogs of justice kept? Ezra Pound!” In any event, there was a song about a professor who did not permit students to “pass” on questions in his class, called "I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘pass.’ " The show also featured an awards ceremony, at which the Harvard Law School faculty honored themselves as only they could . . . or would.</p>
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