<p>my dartmouth interview was pretty awful:</p>
<p>interviewer: so tell me about the geography of your native city in China.
me: (didn't really know bc I left China when I was a teeny tiny kid) uhh............(then I manage to come up with some BS about mountains for like 20 minutes.)
interviewer: hmmm that's interesting. My wife's Chinese, but she's never mentioned any of what you just said.
me: *died inside</p>
<p>^Don't worry about it, the interview is not that important.</p>
<p>But seriously... you should've just told the truth.</p>
<p>I had my Princeton interview a couple of weeks ago, and while the interview itself was pretty awesome, what happened afterward was lame. My interview was about an hour, and was at the guy's law office, and by the time it was done it was about 15 minutes until the place closed. He walked me out, and gave me a handshake goodbye.</p>
<p>So, I called my mom to pick me up, but she wasn't done with work yet so I had to wait. Five o' clock (closing time) rolls around, my mom's still not there yet, and I see people kinda walking around and closing blinds and turning off lights and stuff. I start feeling awkward, so I'm like... "Okay, I don't want to hold anyone up" so I go outside to wait. There's no benches or anything, so I go meandering around a bit.</p>
<p>Now it's like 5:20. My mom calls and says she's leaving work, but since she didn't drop me off, (a friend of hers did) she doesn't really have a clue where the place is so I anticipated her coming a bit later. So one by one, I see people leaving the office and as I'm walking around behind the place, my interviewer sees me before I have the chance to like run away and hide under a rock. He was really nice and said I could still wait inside for a bit. So I did. He offers me a soda and reading materials and whatever, but I'm so awkward and humiliated and I don't want to put him out any more than I already did, so I just keep saying "no thank you." lol.</p>
<p>5:30 rolls around. </p>
<p>The interviewer has to lock up, so he walks with me outside and asks me if my mom should be coming soon. I say yeah, but really I have no clue where she's been for so long. D:! It was really apparent that he was hesitant to leave me by myself, so he gave me his cellphone number and told me to call him if anything happened, and he showed me a picnic table I could sit at around the side. I could tell he didn't want to leave me, but he had an another appointment downtown. I was glad he didn't stay because I was already completely embarrassed.</p>
<p>He leaves, and I keep waiting. </p>
<p>5:45 rolls around. </p>
<p>I'm freaking out at this point because I really just want to go home, and all of a sudden I feel my cell phone (it was my mom's that she lent me) vibrate and I see a number I don't recognize. Forgetting that I gave my number to the guy, I don't answer it and let voicemail pick up in case it's for my mom. Then, I listen to it and hear the interviewer calling to check up on me. He asks if I've gotten picked up yet, and of course I don't want to call back and say I haven't, so I just keep waiting. </p>
<p>FINALLY, at 5 to 6, my mom comes. As I assumed, she got lost. lolz. So I call the interviewer back really quick and say thank you and that my mom picked me up. For a minute, he sounded like he had no idea who I was, but then he was like "Okay, that's good! Bye______"</p>
<p>Most. Humiliating. Thing. Ever.</p>
<p>But the day after, it made for a hilarious story.</p>
<p>yeah dude, thats quite funny about your princeton interview</p>
<p>hahahaha</p>
<p>Okay I don't have too many awkward moments I can remember but I'll give it a shot:
These are all the interviews I've had in order...</p>
<p>Cornell: really good for a first interview, however it was with four other applicants. I arrived a minute late due to a school thing ... He didn't mind, I was still earlier than one other person, but he had started his presentation anyways. So I sat down stumbling over my chair and then saw that everyone had notepads out. I had expected more interview ( which there certainly was later) and less presentation. So I tried to quietly rummage through my purse scrambling for scrap paper and a pen.... It was eventually ok and one of my best interviews, but still...</p>
<p>Yale: the worst of My interviews... it wasn't horrific, it just wasn't stellar. One time I was talking about research and I could only remember half of the profs name that I wanted to work with. Haha so I was like I really want to work with dr rrrrrrr..... Um I think it's rods....? And he's like i don't know and laughs. LOL I obviously meant rhetorically or was stumbling but it was awkward. Luckily I knew all about the research the prof did. And yeah we just had completely. Different interests ( he humanities me science) </p>
<p>I'll add my brown Penn and Princeton ones tomorrow through edit</p>
<p>yummmycheese: rofl! poor thing</p>
<p>My interviewer (small LAC) and I talked China and she asked if I had retained my vocabulary from my trip months ago. I said yes and spouted of a random phrase, Tyguela (sp?). It meant "too expensive" but i said it anyway assuming she didn't know what it meant. Then I found out that she studied in China too and probably knew that I pulled that phrase out of thin air. I must have seemed like I didn't know any Mandarin. I don't.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>It's tie-gui-la </p>
<p>Tyguela is just ... wrong.</p>
<p>My interview with Georgetown wasn't awkward as much as it was annoying.</p>
<p>First of all this was my second interview and I am pretty good at interviewing. I just had my Duke interview and it lasted 1 hr 45 min and my Vanderbilt and Cornell interviews each lasted over an hour. I go to the interview at a surgical center so I am dressed in a tie and dress shirt. It took me 45 minutes to get there and I walk expecting a nice long interview. I get there and the doctor comes out and leads me to his office. I hand him my resume and he asks me what my how I did on the SATs, my GPA, and class rank. Then he sees that I play football and so we talk about football for 10 minutes and then he asks if I have any questions for him. Of course I had a lot of questions, but he seemed really impatient and after my first couple of questions he said "Thanks I'll write you a good recommendation, call me if you have any more questions." Then he leads me out of his office. I am a bubble candidate at Georgetown and a good interview could push me over the top, but I don't see how you can have a good interview when it only lasts 15 minutes. Has anyone had any shorter interviews?</p>
<p>^ I had a 20 minute princeton interview today, and it was just like your georgetown one! He wasn't blatantly impatient but he didn't leave much room to expand the conversation.</p>
<p>For my Harvard interview, I was supposed to fill out this pre-interview worksheet where you could put your grades, scores, awards, ECs, etc, and one of the questions was "What do you consider your most important achievement?" So I took my time and planned out an answer. Sure enough, we started off the interview with that question, and I nailed it. The interview was going great until 20-25 mins in he asked me THE SAME EXACT QUESTION. The guy was a lawyer in his mid-forties, and I assumed he hadn't forgotten completely, so I said "Well, besides ___________.....", hoping he would remember we'd already covered that. His face stayed completely blank. So I thought of something else quickly, but the rest of the interview went poorly.</p>
<p>Actually..it's "tai gui le" -cough-</p>
<p>Man, all these stories are creeping me out...I have my interview for W&M this summer... ><</p>
<p>During my MIT interview, everything was going swimmingly until he made an off-handed comment about how my parents would miss me during the year. I had gotten into Yale about 5 days before the interview, so I replied, "Yeah, my parents are really going to miss me when I go up to Yale next year." Awkward! I don't think it affected me all that much though- he was cool about the miscue. For all juniors who are looking at this, don't let down your guard too much during an interview!</p>
<p>during one of my interviews, the man asked me what i had done in the summer. and i told him that a few of my friends and i went gorge diving (jumping off of waterfalls near my area) and then he mumbled under his breath that people can die like that and gave me this "look." haha.</p>
<p>haha Lkei,
I was just about to correct that too (although you were much nicer about it than I was about to be)</p>
<p>me: many well known and brilliant people called princeton their home, including sir andrew wiles, woodrow wilson and even Batman.
interviewer: Batman?
me: um, he's a superhero who dresses like a bat
interviewer: pardon me?
me: ugh he umm fights crime in gotham city and protects people... although he's ugh fictional...
interviewer: huh? ><em>>
me: O</em>O
int: <<em><
me: T</em>T</p>
<p>yeah that didn't go so well</p>
<p>My Duke interview was a little bit weird because I was being grilled by both the alumnus and her husband. Eventually we got on the subject of my interests...</p>
<p>Alumnus: So, you like to write?
Me: Yes, (etc. etc. etc.) I also like the way a pen feels in your hand.
A: Oh, me too! Do you have any favorite pens?
Me: Yes, I like such-and-such pen. Also, sometimes people will leave really nice ones on the desks at school and I will just take them.
Husband: So you're a klepto!
Me: No no no!!!!</p>
<p>My most awkward interview was definitely for Chicago. I had looked her up ahead of time and thought I had a good idea of what she looked like. When I got to Panera, though, I didn't see her, and so I sat right next to the door so I'd be ready when she did arrive. Several women came in but I ruled all of them out. In boredom I called my friend, and he starts telling me to lie about how Chicago is not my last choice. Since I really do like the school a lot, I yell at him to shut up since that wasn't even an issue... </p>
<p>Halfway through the convo a woman who had entered 15 minutes ago approaches me and asks me if I'm me. T_T</p>
<p>It's not terrible, but my Columbia interview last month had plenty of moments that I wish I could take back. The interviewer is an alumnus from my high school, so we started talking about things that have changed, things I don't like, etc. Then I made the generalization that it was just a school full of rich white kids. Interviewer kinda laughs, says "I'm Cuban, but whatever." Also throughout my thoughts were scattered and I was nervous so I kept contradicting myself and sounded like an ass at several moments throughout. For example, my first response to movies were that they were simply for entertainment purposes, then I kinda latched on to his argument that they can provide useful things like analysis of society and underlying messages. Overall, it wasn't too bad.</p>
<p>Most awkward but sweetest moment of my interview.</p>
<p>Int.: So how do you feel about your grades ( since they're kind of ****ty):
Me: Well, I don't think they're horrible, but then again if I had been going to school under less compromising circumstances they may have been better. But regardless of circumstances, I've been doing better. And working really hard.</p>
<p>Int: Hmm....( would rub her beard if she had one) what kind of compromising circumstances were you facing?
Me: Well, a month or so before I started sophomore year my mother suffered a so-n-so and is w/e because of it. My circumstances are difficult because I feel obligated to visit and help her out everyday, considering that she lives in a nursing home. </p>
<p>Int: (no reaction whatsoever....stares blankly) Oh I'm sorry to hear that.
Me: No, I'm used to it now. It's made things difficult, but it's made me stronger in the long run.</p>
<p>........5 minutes later........I mention that wellesley is a great place and feels like home....</p>
<p>INt: Omgooooosh. Yes. And the faculty are really considerate and forgiving. I know my dean let me walk w/ my class even though I took a year off b/c my mother suffered from so-n-so too.
Me: Wow. I'm so sorry to hear that. ( That's a strange coincidence)</p>
<p>.....Couldn't cut me a little break tho, huh?</p>