<p>I got contacted for a Cornell interview today and said the wrong last name of the interviewer in my response...</p>
<p>I met with my Cornell interviewer in a local coffee shop, and it happened to be Open Mic Night. The whole first half hour of the interview was over this teenage kid singing pink floyd with bob dylan's voice. It was a little peculiar. The second half-hour was over a big black guy singing and playing bongos very loudly. Whenever either would crescendo to the point of us being unable to hear each other, we would just start laughing. </p>
<p>During the break between the two performers, some guy was sitting at the table next to us facing away from us. The interviewer asked "So, do you have any questions for me?" The guy turned around and asked her "Well, yes, actually. Are you a natural blonde?" She had dark brown hair. We just looked at each other and laughed.</p>
<p>For one of my interviews my interviewer asked me what types of books I was reading and I launched into a description of the current book I was reading (by Alice Hempbel, short stories). When the interviewer asked me what the name of the books was and who the author was I completely blanked and said "umm...well, she's...actually...i'm totally blanking right now..."</p>
<p>Anyway it was embarrassing! I kind of recovered afterward because I talked about some other books I was reading which I actually could remember titles and authors.</p>
<p>oh, my god. I finally have an interview horror story to share. </p>
<p>Interviewer: So, I see your potential major is English. It's so refreshing to see someone whose major is English because you know you're likely to end up working as a waitress after college so you'll have time for your writing, and then your novel could get rejected...what will you do then?</p>
<p>Me: ....<em>laughs awkwardly</em>.</p>
<p>oy, that was not a fun interview.</p>
<p>^ You could be like David Duchovny in Californication!</p>
<p>But seriously, that's awful.</p>
<p>Ouch. I feel for you, ladyheidi.</p>
<p>So I had my Georgetown interview yesterday, which was like a comedy of errors. I drove an hour to my interviewer's house and couldn't find it since her directions were horrible, and when I did finally arrive there, guess who forgot I was coming. I got there in the middle of her Super Bowl party, and her husband told me that she was out picking up some extra supplies, so I sat among the guests feeling awkward. She got home and completely forgot I was coming; better yet, she acted as if she resented me for interrupting her party! Needless to say, the interview didn't start on very good terms.</p>
<p>She asked me horrible questions; were my parents married, what was our income, what did they do? It was as if the interview was more about THEM than ME. Didn't ask a thing about my EC's, academic record, work experience, etc. She asked if I was well-traveled, and I sadly am not, and she acted completely affronted by the fact that I didn't spend every winter in the Alps. </p>
<p>Ugh. Just... ugh.</p>
<p>That sucks. ^ A lot.</p>
<p>...I just left my Dartmouth interviewer a stuttery, unenthusiastic message. Argh.</p>
<p>notjosiegrossie: I suggest that you contact Georgetown, tactfully explain what happened, and see if it's possible for you to get a second interview. Don't be afraid to do this: Colleges want students to leave an interview feeling they have been treated fairly and courteously.</p>
<p>^^ So sorry, notjosiegrossie. That sounds like a nightmare. Hope it works out okay for you.</p>
<p>I wish my Brown interviewer would actually respond to my emails. He sounds like a busy guy, so I didn't want to call and bother him, but... I sure would like to get the date set.</p>
<p>Call him. He may not be getting your e-mails.</p>
<p>No, he definitely is because he replied to them. He's just a little slow. It's not that it's been weeks or anything... I just wanted to get a specific date nailed down so I could plan around it.</p>
<p>That's funny, whirlybird, because I had email issues with my Brown interviewer, too. I never got the email to schedule our interview until the day AFTER our interview. Weird.</p>
<p>Uysivad, my Whitman interviewer was this dark haired lady with a nose piercing...I think her last name was Hunt?</p>
<p>I don't want this thread to die so I'll add my sort of awkward moment...</p>
<p>One of my recent interviews with an ivy was at the guy's house. His cat absolutely adored me, which most cats do, which is also sort of ironic because i am allergic to cats (but I LOVE THEM). </p>
<p>anyway, he half joked at the beginning that his cat was a good judge of character. not to let go of any opportunity i could get, the cat sat in my lap for the entire 45 minutes. luckily i didn't have an allergic reaction until later at my house</p>
<p>i know that sounds ridiculous to not tell him i was allergic, but for those of you who have been in similar interview situations... you konw how i felt</p>
<p>When I interviewed at Williams, the interviewer asked where else I was applying. I told him Amherst and asked him what he thought the major differences between the two schools were. He spent the rest of the interview telling me that Amherst had a better social life because of the 5 college community.....and talking to me about how when he was a student at Williams, he had spent all his time visiting his friends at Amherst. He basically talked me out of applying to Williams.</p>
<p>I did a phone interview for a competition to win a German trip during my sophomore year (American Assoc. of Teachers of German) with a German prof. from Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>(Keep in mind this is all in German and I'm super nervous)
Him: So...what do you like to do?
Me: I read a lot.
Him: Oh yeah? What kind of books do you like?
Me: I just finished reading The Good Earth.
Him: What's that about?
Me: China in the 1920s.
Him: Oh, I'm...kind of embarrassed...you see, I've never read that book and I'm a college professor.</p>
<p>Later on I said I played piano, so he asked who my favorite composer was. I pulled Mozart out of nowhere thinking okay, he's Austrian, spoke German, that's cool. Then he says "what's your favorite piece by Mozart?" I'm like OH GOD and I just was like "uhh..Eine Kleine Nachtmusik." Most generic Mozart piece ever that I'd never played at that point.</p>
<p>O.K. Here is my real most embarrassing moment. I used the word humanist in a supplemental essay.
I: Who do you consider to be the most important humanist.
Me: (blocking, it is 8 am and I consider advice that I have been given, "If you are caught with a question that you can't answer immediately, think about what you have read most recently and get inspiration." I have just read the newspaper. "Fidel Castro", (who had just been hospitalized?)
I: ?
Me: quickly realizing what I have just said and trying to redeem myself go off on an tangent about how communism is really a humanist philosphy....
I: ?
Me: "While not everybody would consider Castro a humanist, the philosophical underpinnings of his style of government suggests that he is, contrary to the resultant oppression...." or something like that.
I: My parents are Cuban and their lives have been destroyed by Castro.....</p>
<p>That is amazing, hpg90.</p>
<p>I had the worst interview ever the other day for Cornell. I was stumbling over my words and basically speaking nonsensically at points. I came out as a complete tool.</p>
<p>Aww... these are all so fun.</p>
<p>Here's one from an interviewer's point of view, just to put you guys at ease about the lengths to which a <em>parent</em> can go and still not affect your interview... Some of you all might have been mortified by it, but I thought it was sweet. =)</p>
<p>California students have a tendency to go to schools in California, which I suppose I can understand. It's gorgeous there, and touting a school like Rice that nobody out west has ever heard of (which is weird, to me...) that's in HOUSTON can be a little difficult. Rice is rarely anybody's first choice, when they first start looking at schools. As a result, I approach interviews of prospective students as a sales pitch.</p>
<p>We'll call this guy Jim. He was pretty much a sure-admit anywhere. He's taking half his science and math courses at a nearby college because he's exhausted the supply of courses that his high school offers. He's a cool kid, though, who's heavy into running when he's not bogged down by school and extracurriculars. He was a very tired senior at a nearby high school who had just completed a very exhausting day. He's very involved in a very competitive corps-style marching band that was going to compete nationally and had just gotten done with another grueling practice, and here he had to go meet with an interviewer at a mildly interesting college that someone told him to apply to... Great.</p>
<p>I meet him at a nearby Starbucks and start the pitch. After a few minutes of talking with him and asking his goals, I start to get the feeling that he'd be superbly happy at Rice and start telling him about what an amazing place it is... Everyone there that I ever met is interesting and involved. The band there... um... isn't corps style and I tell him about my experience as the drum major of the MOB, which he thinks sounds amazingly refreshing... (Band? Fun...? Hey, this might be interesting...) I tell him that they have an amazing bioengineering department, which is what he wants to pursue. I tell him about the campus, about how there are more trees than students, about how it's in the middle of a city but that you'd never know. I tell him about how quirky people there are, and about what an amazing undergraduate experience it is, about how you WORK hard and you PLAY hard and how it's just the best thing since sliced bread. He starts asking questions, getting really interested in Rice, realizing slowly but surely that this is totally the place for him. Every question he asks about Rice... does it have this, can I do this, is this even possible... it's perfect, because I can answer yes to everything-- this is totally <em>his</em> college. The interview ends up lasting an hour and a half, with us just chatting and shooting the breeze about college experiences and what a person looks for in colleges, and about the sorts of opportunities that are available at Rice and in Houston, and I tell him that if he has any more questions, that he should drop by the career fair at the nearby college that weekend, where I'd be representing Rice. He responds that unfortunately he can't go, because he has rehearsal all day, but that if he thinks of any other questions, that he'd be sure to e-mail me. I tell him good luck with everything, and we head our separate ways. I go home and write the guy a <em>glowing</em> recommendation.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the college fair... I'm having a bummer of a day because I'm sitting outside getting a tan on one side of my face and every time I say "Rice is in Houston" I have to say "NO-NO-NO!!! BUT WAIT!!" and hand them the Rice-printed brochure that says, I kid you not, "Houston: It's cooler than you think." I've had about an hour of this when a very sweet-looking lady walks up to me and says, "Aibarr?" I'm a little curious, since I'm wearing a nametag and nobody's bothered to call me by name yet, but after I say, "Yes...?" she follows up with "I'm Jim's mom!"</p>
<p>He'd casually mentioned to his mom that I was going to be at that college fair, so she decided to come chat with me. =)</p>
<p>She said, "Jim called me right before the interview and was like, 'Mom, I have a headache and I just feel awful and I want to come home, and I don't want to do this interview at all,' and I said just go get a frappuccino and have a snack, and get it over with, and then you can come home and do what you need to do, and he says okay and hangs up... and then an hour and a half later, he calls me and he's like, 'MOM! I know where I want to go to college!!' Rice wasn't even on his radar, but now it's his number-one choice! I'm so excited for him!"</p>
<p>I thought this was so awesome. =) I told her that I'd written him a fantastic recommendation, and that I think he has a really excellent chance at getting in, and we chat for a while... I find out what she does for a living, working for a peace-oriented non-profit, and I tell her what I do for a living, and about my experience at Rice, and she looks very hesitant for a second and said, "I just have one concern..." She takes a deep breath, and says, "well... the location... Texas is... uh..." I try hard not to laugh, and say, "Don't worry, your son won't come back a conservative."</p>
<p>I have never seen a person look SO RELIEVED!! ;)</p>
<p>She stuck around for a while and stood around the table and pulled people in to make them talk to me about Rice. It was great!!</p>
<p>aibarr, your post actually just sorta sold me on Rice more that I was before. If only I had time to visit to be completely convinced. I guess I will if I happen to get in. I just hate everybody saying "But it's in Texas..." whenever I say I'm applying to Rice.</p>