<p>danas: my HYP alma mater admitted two guys from a good urban high school last year based upon the writeups of the alumni volunteers. Metrically, both look good but both sets of teacher recs were uninformative (i.e. while supportive, they were formulaic and bland -- not really giving the reader much "meat"). The file readers were on the fence until the alumni interview reports came in which answered questions and filled in the gap (that the teachers' recs weren't able to do).</p>
<p>At my Wes interview, I thought it went really well until he said, "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I love Wes (ED!) and I should have talked about what I love about the school and how its my first choice but I blanked and blurted out something about how much I like my AP Gov teacher and how he dresses up as Snape for Halloween and walks around saying "10 points from Griffindor!"
I was embarrassed but he was really nice so I hope it didn't hurt me too bad :)</p>
<p>LOL I AM SO GLAD I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON THIS STUFF HAPPENS TO.</p>
<p>Okay. I have one. I'm not going to name the school, but it's one of those Public Ivies OOS that everyone is scrambling for merit aid to. It's my first choice out of nine schools, right? Beautiful and everything. Okay.</p>
<p>So I'm visiting, and during a lunch for the prospective Honors students, I have to leave the cafeteria to go to the bathroom. Now, I probably could have gotten back in past the cashier by explaining that I was just a visitor, but as smart as I am, I figure I can just take a shortcut. So I loop around behind the room we were sitting in and knock on the back door. I can see them eating through the window; I knock again. Finally a man gets up, and then stops and gives me this really funny look. I gave him a thumbs-up, like, Hello, yes, I do want to come in.</p>
<p>So he opens the door.</p>
<p>I kid you not: a billion alarms went off.</p>
<p>Marked from the INSIDE ONLY, the door is a fire-escape-only door. From the INSIDE ONLY is this apparent.</p>
<p>So not only do I have the professors who were interviewing us looking at me funny, I also have 100 other merit-aid contenders staring at me and A THOUSAND COLLEGE STUDENTS standing like, openmouthed with their trays.</p>
<p>So I'm standing there, like, "Ohhh. That's why the guy hesitated." And I went and sat down and waited for them to shut off the alarms, which PS, took like twenty minutes. </p>
<p>The funny thing is that the school is still my first-choice school XD</p>
<p>Mine wins.</p>
<p>so today I interviewed at Bard, and I was talking about my interest in politics and mentioned that question 2 (which decriminalized possession small amounts of marijuana) had just passed in Mass. I believe I said something like, "I was so excited when I found out it passed, it's something I'm really passionate about." and then I thought, "CRAP she's gonna think I'm a huge pothead!" </p>
<p>but then she said, "oh, that's so awesome!"</p>
<p>haha gotta love Bard.</p>
<p>bump ... :)</p>
<p>i went to the wrong house for my MIT interview and showed up 30 min. late</p>
<p>I told the interviewer that I was on varsity Scholastic Bowl because our school doesn't have a JV team. Luckily, he didn't make a note of it.</p>
<p>If he didn't make a note of it. It probably didn't matter :D</p>
<p>I love this thread. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks interview are awkward!</p>
<p>At my Georgetown interview, my interviewer was asking me about different activities I do at school, and I was talking about how I am in book club, I love to read, and I just kind of rambled about that. Then, she asked me what my favorite book was and I completely blanked. I could NOT think of any book that I had read because I was so nervous! So I just kind of sat there for like 15 seconds saying Ummm, hmmmm that's a hard one. So I ended up saying Harry Potter and I laughed a little hoping she would think it was a joke (I was actually serious lol) but she just kind of looked at me, and said "Ohh uh ok. That's intresting" </p>
<p>Haha the rest went well except for the end. I talked a lot in the interview about how I loved dogs and how I might want to be a vet. So as I was leaving, her dog came over, and I said, "Awww I love golden retrievers, they're my favorite type of dog!" And she's like "Uh actually, he's an Irish Setter." Lol awkward...</p>
<p>I forgot what classes I was taking? LOL.</p>
<p>^Lol. That would totally happen to me.</p>
<p>I think the most inherently awkward type is the "public place" interview. I had no idea what my interviewer would look like, and wound up staring down every 20-something child-free non-pregnant woman who walked into the coffee shop over a span of twenty minutes (I'd never noticed before, but apparently two-thirds of coffee shop patrons match that description).</p>
<p>I haven't really had any terrible interviews. However, when I interviewed at Oberlin this past summer, it was clear than both my interviewer and I were dead tired and would have rather been just about anywhere else. Besides a lot of silences and "er, well.." "mmm.." I was poking my fingers through these little holes in the table (it was a plastic picnic table outside), and one got stuck sort of above the knuckle. I didn't know what to do, so I just sat there for a while with my ring finger awkwardly stuck in a hole. I finally got it out, but I'm sure my interviewer wondered what I was doing.</p>
<p>ROFL! I just spent nearly an hour reading all of these, and jesus, people hahahhaahahha. I'm seriously going to spaz when I'm applying for unis. :P Sounds hilarious</p>
<p>I told my interviewer that "I LOVE eating.".
Luckily it was sort of in context (we were talking about my sport and I talked about how being in season is fun because I get to eat more and because the school that I was interviewing for prides themselves on their food... so it made sense... sort of... hahah).</p>
<p>LOL for my interview, i was half a minute late and was wondering around the food court of the mall trying to find my interviewer. and then he called me and i picked up and he said someting but i couldn't hear a thing he was saying...so i just wandered around listening to him going like bzzbzbzbzbz and i just kept saying "well i'm near the smoothie stand...i still can't hear you...sorry, i still can't hear you...what? i can't hear you..." until i found a guy who was also talking on his phone and he was like "oh hi there you are"</p>
<p>At my Smith interview the interviewer was asking me about EC's and I started talking about Diversity Club. Then she asked, what activities does the Diversity Club do? For some reason I just blanked out for about 15 seconds.. which is pretty bad considering I'm the vice president. I recovered though and the rest of the interview went really well.</p>
<p>At my Mount Holyoke interview I had a student interviewing me and she asked if I was applying to any other women's colleges. I said yes, I'm applying to Bryn Mawr (I didn't really want to mention I had JUST come from Smith!) Then she said, "what about smith?" and I had to tell her I just come from there. LOL.</p>
<p>I have this thing where if I talk for a long time, I forget to breathe. So during my phone interview I kept talking about how I loved the school because of blah blah blah blah, and then I had to breathe because I was dying, so I went: "GASPHUUUUUUUUUUUUH." Awkward.</p>
<p>MIT interview: I am in three honor societies (NHS, German, music) but I forgot what the third one was (music!). I felt stupid because I couldn't think and I said, "uhhhhhh... I forgot the third one." Then I went on to say that nappping is one of my hobbies.</p>
<p>Did any of you guys' interviewers cuss? Because mine said 'ass' and 'damn' once or twice.</p>
<p>corgonin: Yeah. My Georgetown interviewer spoke to me like a peer, and he used a couple cuss words.</p>
<p>^Haha mine too! I wonder if we had the same interviewer...it kind of threw me off when he started using them at first but then I just felt amused.</p>