<p>So far, I have only had some interviews. They were either for less selective schools or for MIT (MIT is the "hardest" school I have had an interview for so far). Surprisingly, that interview was pretty stress free, as many have said. It felt more like a conversation than an interrogation...but how are HYP's interviews? I am not sure what to expect, since they do not do as much reassuring as MIT does when it comes to the interviews. MIT constantly stresses how the interview is just "to get to know you," and won't be like the interviewer drilling you with hard questions, whereas HYP haven't really done that. Can I expect to be destroyed at these interviews? Can anyone (interviewer or interviewee) share their experiences?</p>
<p>They should all be stress free, and keep in mind that count for little. I did 3 interviews yesterday for one of these as an alumni interviewer. We sat in my office, ate cookies and chatted.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you can’t generalize. I’ve heard stories of this one local Yale interviewer who was an absolute jerk, but I’ve also heard great Princeton interviewers. Whatever happens, don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>Both my Yale and Princeton interviews were extremely conversational with two very, very nice people. Basically, they asked me about myself, my biggest activities, how I could contribute to the school, why I wanted to go to the schools (that was first question both times), and if I had any questions about the school. Both times, when I asked a couple questions, we just started talking about the school for a long time - all very conversational. Don’t sweat it Best of luck</p>
<p>i only had 3 interviews last year, and they were HYP. they all seemed to reflect the different personalities of schools. my yale interviewer came in sweat pants and a sweater, and asked the basic questions “why yale, what do you like” and seemed to be in a hurry to finish. my harvard interviewer made me come to his business office and was wearing his suit and was very methodical and drilled me with questions for an hour nonstop. my princeton interviewer was the best by far. he was formal, but we spent the entire hour talking about chinese, food, and sports. it went by so fast and he made me felt right at ease.</p>
<p>It’s not fair to say they reflect then personality of the school! You meet one person who volunteered, they were not chosen. They are given little to no training and while they have some guidance on what to ask, they can and do talk about whatever they like.</p>
<p>Had my Princeton interview yesterday. Guy seemed pretty chill and tried to inform me about Princeton more than find out about me, but that could be because I asked him a load of questions. He did say Princeton told him to ask two specific questions.</p>
<p>Waterworks: the interviewer’s job is to see your ability to be a potential student on campus. Only real idiots would use that as a “weeding out” process. I’ve interviewed several kids who held “unique” ideas. I probed them for the soundness of their reasoning – not for the fact they held the ideas. Once, shortly after the bank collapse, I interviewed a girl who professed a love of politics. I asked her about the recent crisis and her blanket statement was “there’s just too much regulation”. When I posed to her some opposite viewpoints (some of which I personally don’t hold), she had no real comeback other than to parrot what was obviously a sound byte she repeats often. Her inability to support her view was what I noted, not her view.</p>
<p>Are you saying that it is a rare event that the interviewer will go into the interview with a mission to stump you on a particular question? Also, I thought these interviews were mostly concentrated on what you do in activities. Even if some activities might involve politics, is it common for the interviewer to start to ask you for what you believe in and what your stand is on some issues? To me that seems like that would turn the interview into more of a debate style kind of discussion. Should I be prepared to give eloquent answers to questions like (“what is your standing on this [insert issue here]”)?</p>
<p>Princeton interview was incredibly laid back. It was hardly an interview at all. Just a conversation about Princeton. He didn’t ask much about myself, we just had a nice hour long conversation. I worked some details in, but certainly wasn’t grilled in any manner.</p>
<p>Well, my Harvard interview graduated last May, and I was her first interview. It was a pretty casual (but polite) conversation. I enjoyed it a lot-- there were a lot of things we had in common that we talked about. </p>
<p>I have my Yale interview on the 29th-- the guy is basically a model of what I want to do with my life-- graduate from Yale, teaching credentials from Stanford, med school or residency in New Orleans, and now a Director of something at Tulane Health Sciences. O.M.G.</p>
<p>Brown interview (not HYP, but its an Ivy) was a bit of a bust though. Didn’t have much in common to talk about, so it was a bit awkward.</p>
<p>haha yes. My experience with interviews so far has been positive, but for some reason I am just expecting to get grilled somehow. But it seems to rarely happen though. Is this just me, or is it probably a viable thing to say (that grilling is uncommon during interviews)?</p>
<p>Oh right…but all schools are sooo similar when you break it down to the root level. Can anyone explain why they chose one of HYP over another in an eloquent and specific manner? Usually when you just ask, they will say, “oh well when I visited, I just felt this connection to the school.” That’s nice, but won’t work in an interview…I also feel like all you can get from reading about schools (which I have done), doesn’t give you enough details–to truly know the school you would have to attend, and that is the goal of this whole process in the first place. So how do you guys usually go about answering the “why our school” question? Yes there are world class faculty at HYP, as well as many other schools, there are motivated and smart students, the people are nice, etc. etc…how do we make our answer particularly convincing?</p>
<p>Grilling is indeed rare. It should be even rarer.</p>
<p>But I’ll say this: while I was interviewing, I met one student who may have come away from the interviewing feeling as if she’d been grilled. She presented herself as politically active and liberal (interested in Democratic politics, co-founder of her school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, etc.). It turned out, she didn’t know the name of her congressman, or the fact that her congressman was the only NRA-endorsed, traditional-marriage-supporting member of the House from our very blue state. I was unimpressed.</p>
<p>No interviewer should grill an applicant. But every Ivy applicant should be prepared to talk knowledgeably about the things he or she professes to be passionate about.</p>
<p>Haha. I see what you mean now, Sikorsky. Usually for interviews, I talk about my hobbies, and I don’t try to come off as some hugely politically involved person. Will that make me look bad? I do other things, and I guess they don’t make me seem as smart as someone who is involved in politics might appear as. </p>
<p>If also you are not completely 100% sure of what you might do in college/in the future yet, and your interviewer happens to be in a profession that you might consider, is it appropriate for me to ask them about what it is like? Will I come off as stupid/unprepared? For example, if one of the possibilities you are considering is eventually becoming a pediatrician, and if your interviewer just happens to be a pediatrician, is it fine to ask him/her about what it is like, how med school was, etc. etc.? I’m not sure if this is a weakness, especially since throughout high school, I haven’t been 100% sure of what I might do, so for work experience, my activities are purely just what I find enjoyable, fun, and rewarding. But, they aren’t “career-oriented.” Is that a potential source of grilling?</p>
<p>I can speak only for myself. I am much more suspicious of high-school seniors who have the rest of their lives mapped out than I am of the ones who aren’t yet sure where their lives will take them. I’m apprehensive about eighteen-year-olds who enter college resistant to the idea that college might change them.</p>
<p>As for the question of politics: if it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. (I mean, you should be informed–you shouldn’t get all your news from The Daily Show–but nobody says you need to check Politico.com and Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller several times a day.) The reason I found fault with that applicant I mentioned is that she represented politics to be her thing and then had gaps in her knowledge that I found astonishing. But if you’re not terribly political, you’re not. “Should I talk about politics in my interview?” reminds me of the advice I heard from an admissions officer about whether to be funny in your essay: “Be yourself. If you’re funny, be funny. But if you’re not funny, don’t try!”</p>
Best of luck</p>