<p>She should call him Mr. …and if he wants her to call him by his first name, he’ll say it for her and invite her to call him that.</p>
<p>My most awkward moment came at the start of my Harvard interview, which was almost 30 years ago. By early February I hadn’t heard from anyone at Harvard about an interview, so I called the admissions office. The local Harvard Club then called and gave me the name and phone number of my interviewer and suggested I call him. It was when I called and spoke to his secretary that I realized my interviewer was the president of a university in my city. A week goes by. He has not called back. I think, University President is a busy man, so nothing to worry about. But I call and leave another message. Another week goes by. I am starting to get paranoid, thinking that University President doesn’t want to talk to me. Into the third week of waiting, thank goodness he finally calls! We choose a date and he ends with, “I’ll pick you up at seven.” </p>
<p>This was back in the day when interviewers were still alllowed to treat applicants to a meal (some school forbid it now). For example, my Yale interviewer had taken me out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s. Given that the Harvard interview would be at the dinner hour and he had said he would “pick me up,” I figured it would be dinner at a restaurant. </p>
<p>The evening of the interview, I am dressed in a skirt, sweater, hose, and flats. I answer the door with my coat over one arm, ready to go. But University President walks in, takes his coat off, and hands it to my mom next to me. What?! Now I am just <em>praying</em> he hasn’t noticed that I’m holding a coat. Awkward! When he turns, I slip my coat to my mom, and we go to sit in the living room. University President turns out to be really nice and the interview is relaxed and easy. </p>
<p>Two weeks later, the head of the Schools and Scholarships Committee of the local Harvard Club comes with her husband and friends into the restaurant where I have a hostessing job on weekends (one of my EC’s) and says, “I heard you had a super interview!” That makes my day! </p>
<p>I did get accepted. But now, nearly 30 years later, I am amazed that I wasn’t <em>more</em> frantic about my chances when my interview was already late and the interviewer wasn’t returning my calls!</p>
<p>^ Re: Interviewer not calling back - </p>
<p>My D accidentally scheduled an interview at a time when she was going to be out of town - DUH! She noticed the conflict immediately and tried to contact the interviewer about 2 minutes after they spoke. She was given a pager and phone number. She paged, because that’s what he said to do. No answer. Next day, paged again and called the number (no answer, no recorder/voicemal). No response. Next day, tried both again. No response. Now there is only one more day and she is going to look like a no-show (can’t cancel the function, school trip…and no one wants Mom to waltz in all “yeah, why aren’t you returning calls”?). I have no idea how to advise her.</p>
<p>She could call or e-mail admissions and ask for their help contacting the alum. Has she also Googled the interviewer and checked directory information? May have another listed number or she may be able to find out the interviewer’s work place and call there.</p>
<p>Went to the interview, started talking first about how interested I was in the school and everything… I pronounced the name wrong twice! The interviewer corrected me.</p>
<p>dartmouth interview asked me where else i was applying, then asked me why i was applying to X college (not dartmouth- X college being one of those I listed in response).
“umm…uh…it’s good academically, obviously. prestigious. my brother really liked it there.”
THEN (oh this is painful to recount) the two interviewers paused. one raised his eyebrows, then they looked at each other.
the silence was killing me. it was extremely awkward, which made me panic and blurt out (like a total idiot) “But X college…I think the weather over there is too cold for me. and it’s too big for me. um. yeah.” (which is a bit true, but that was highly unnecessary to say.)
Then I could read on their faces the question “then why are you applying there?”
Another awkward silence.
So, in my frenzied state of confusion and panic, I added (very unnecessarily and only half true) “I’m applying to X college because… my dad really wants me too.”</p>
<p>It was horrible. After another pause, we moved on to another question, which was “So if you got into all the colleges you applied to, which would you go to?” (AWKWARD. I discussed this the day before with my parents and I couldn’t figure it out/decide.) I made a somewhat coherent response that was a little vague…</p>
<p>*because my dad really wants me to." not “too”. typo, sorry.
Oh, and after that, I could feel them wondering if I was applying to dartmouth only because my great aunt wanted me to or something…:bangs head on table:</p>
<p>two interviewers? that’s tough enough!</p>
<p>I just think it’s wrong for an interviewer to ask an applicant where the interviewer’s college stands in relation to the others to which the applicant is applying. That’s relevant only to the issue of yield! Colleges try to protect their yield rate by preemptively rejecting those who would not matriculate if accepted. </p>
<p>When I interviewed with Yale, I was asked point-blank, “Where’s Yale on your list of colleges?” I hadn’t expected the question at all! Thinking to myself that Yale’s in the top two, I said, “Yale’s definitely at the top of my list.” The interviewer seemed pleased with my answer. (I did get accepted.)</p>
<p>I think if I were being interviewed today I would explain that I haven’t made my decisions yet about the colleges because I am still learning about each through the interview process, and that I hope to learn more to make an educated decision if I am lucky enough to accepted.</p>
<p>Many of the entries on this thread made me laugh.</p>
<p>^^Maybe a new thread should be started about common questions asked in college interviews and what you should be prepared to answer.</p>
<p>This thread is amazing! I’m saddened that I’ve come so late.</p>
<p>My one interview so far went surprisingly well, but there were a few moments that I felt a little awkward about. My interviewer didn’t seem to mind at all though, which was very nice. He even made a point to tell me that it would be extremely difficult to shock him, or put him in an uncomfortable place. I thought that was extremely nice of him, he was a pretty great guy over all. Enough about awesome interviewers and more about awkward moments in them though, right?</p>
<p>So, the first moment happened when we were discussing our views on people and the effect certain phenomena have on people in groups or as a whole. We came around to the value of people, or society, through general conversation and by way of some simple question posed by my interviewer I happened to mention my extreme distaste for the propensity of the masses to so easily lapse into plain, unadulterated stupidity. Of course it was an interview, so I was asked to delve a bit deeper into that thought. Awkwardly, I simplified it, and to vaguely quote myself, I said, “I pretty much hate people and how they are so comfortable being idiots”. While it didn’t shock or worry my interviewer a bit, as soon as I said it I had this gross feeling of self confusion. It was true, but did I really just say that in such a blunt manner? Particularly to someone evaluating me, in a sense, to hopefully recommend me for college?</p>
<p>It all went well though as he sort of laughed and we began to discuss the type of dislike I had. So remember, if you happen to let something like that drop, hope your interviewer is awesome and makes connections to philosophies and literary works you happen to be familiar with. :P</p>
<p>The second awkward moment occurred towards the end of the interview where I was asked if there were any particularly strange aspects about my family that wouldn’t or hadn’t been covered in any other parts of the interview. With a blind enthusiasm I delved into my personal interest, as well as my father’s family’s interest, in the occult and thought concerning mysterious things that science can’t prove. It was received well, at least on my interviewers side. Again, here was I, sitting in a chair telling someone all about how my dad and his family believe in and are absurdly comfortable with the idea of some form of non-religiously specific afterlife or cryptic line that connects the world. I think the most awkward part was mentioning how comfortable our family was with death. Yea, so, here I am, feeling a little bit like a freak, while my interviewer sits across from me with one of the calmest and easiest attitudes I have ever had the privilege to experience. </p>
<p>All went well I think. The conversation was more enjoyable than any I may have had before and I left with a sense of renewed self. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to find out more about my interviewer. Sure, the talks we had were sufficient to show how wonderful the people coming from, going to, or involved with this school as well as detailing how brilliant and interesting this man was, but we didn’t talk much about him. It was either about me, about abstract thoughts that had come up during our chat, other usual conversational topics; only a few times did we touch on his life, I’m afraid I felt very rude that night-- and this night-- that I didn’t ask him more about himself. Though I can tell you the respect he has for his school and intellectuality as a whole is awe inspiring.</p>
<p>The interview story I have is more an embarassment for the College and the Interviewer. </p>
<p>My daughter, who is not white, had an interview at a very well regarded small liberal arts college. My daughter’s interview went on for some time, and then the interviewer invited me to join them.</p>
<p>The interviewer went on to tell me how “really diverse” their school is, and how they have a lot of “diversity programs”.</p>
<p>Frankly, I was embarassed. That’s all she wanted to share with me. </p>
<p>We promptly scratched the school off our list.</p>
<p>At one point I asked my interviewer why he applied to the college in question when he was in high school. He promptly told me that he bought a college guidebook, turned to the back where the top colleges were ranked, and applied to the first ten. He then proceeded to tell me that at first it was intimidating going to a top school, but that this feeling goes away quickly, especially once you are on the dean’s list and later when you realize that you will have to turn down offers from the nation’s top medical schools. Interview lasted 20 minutes, and I was glad to leave.</p>
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<p>Agreed! =)</p>
<p>I’ve had two “real” interviews so far, both full of awkward moments, of course–interviewing is an inherently awkward process.</p>
<p>W&L:
First real interview ever. I came all prepared to ask and answer questions, but it mostly seemed like he was still trying to sell the school to me. My alum interviewer went to W&L when it was an all-male college. He repeatedly muttered about how weird it was to be interviewing a girl for W&L while I just awkwardly smiled. He also told me that there’s virtually no crime in Lexington because it’s a really wealthy town; I do a lot of community service work with the disadvantaged and the poor, and we’d just finished discussing that. We began discussing politics (I’m really involved in political campaigns) and he told me that I’d get into a lot of debates for my liberal viewpoints. I tried to make this awkward joke like, “Oh well, I’m used to those. I’ve been on my school’s debate team for five years now, and I think it’s important to be able to defend your beliefs.” He then had me explain the structure of policy debate for about ten minutes and when I finished, he was like, “Hmm…” and awkwardly trailed off in deep thought.
Final verdict? Awkward, but he was a nice guy, just not used to change. I’m now a Johnson Scholarship Finalist.</p>
<p>Will post about the other one later. :)</p>
<p>All my college interviews went relatively well (I think/ I may recall a few incidents later along the line so we’ll see) so I’ll share my TASP interview.</p>
<p>I got to the Telluride House, after freaking out that I would be late (My friend drove me, and we had no idea where it was, it’s very difficult to locate, so a police officer kindly offered to lead us there). Yeah…a police officer. Imagine arriving to the place you’re interviewing escorted by the police. Luckily, he was quick to leave, and I don’t think they noticed (though I’ll never know). </p>
<p>The woman opened the door, and she’s very nice. She even invited me to watch the Cornell basketball game downstairs after the interview. I politely declined. We walk into this dark room. She closes the door. Gone are the genuine smile and bright eyes, she looks like she’s mocking me. I sit down at the table, the other interviewer (male) is already typing. I don’t know what. Maybe a description of my attire? Of me? They turn off the lights and turn on the lamp on the table. The set-up was exactly like that of a police interrogation room. Then came the discussion. Clever as I am, I mentioned stem cell research…Oh, no…</p>
<p>(Names have been changed, but Me really is me :P)</p>
<p>Chelsea<em>: So you’d support it as long as there are limits
Me: Yes, absolutely.
Chelsea: Who defines these limits?
Me: Ethical bounds.
Chelsea: But these are shaped by circumstance, are they not?
Me: Huh?
Michael: *mumbles</em>
Chelsea: If they discover how to make an arm from cells because someone desperately needs one, what about an entire human being?
Me: … But…I thi-
Michael decides to jump in, taking a break from typing down every word I uttered: What about lonely women who can’t get men? How ethical is it that they could make their own boyfriends…for their own purposes (At this point he winks at me)…How do you evaluate their need?
And I uttered this sound, I kid you not. BUUUUHHHHHHHH (I still don’t know what that means)</p>
<p>I had to reach for the glass of water they had kindly provided, and proceeded to gulp, yes audibly gulp down its contents.</p>
<p>They exchanged a meaningful look, and Michael went back to typing. We delved deep into more moral issues and there were some good and bad moments, but by the end I was sweating profusely, my brain was throbbing, and I felt dumber than I’d ever felt in my entire life.</p>
<p>So, all my college interviews pale in comparison.</p>
<p>In my Princeton interview, the interviewer asks “What makes you unique?” I offered a weak response about how I like astronomy or something, and the interviewer said “That doesn’t really sound unique to me.” I smiled at him and said “No, I guess not.”</p>
<p>After that trap question, our interview went really well - it’s almost like he was testing me right off the bat to see how seriously I took myself or something. I don’t know.</p>
<p>@Diament, I was literally laughing when I read yours. That sounds awful, but it’s funny nonetheless</p>
<p>Interviewer: “I mean I’m not the smartest person, but I chose Vanderbilt over Duke and Yale”
Me: “Well you def are smart, in order to get into those schools”
Interviewer: “…Are you sucking up right now?”
Me: “uhhhhh no?”
Interviewier: “Good, so why Vanderbilt?”
lol, like what the heck???</p>
<p>So the interviewer asked me if I had any questions for her. She had droned on about how great Harvard was and how she had so many great memories for like 10 minutes before this. </p>
<p>Me: So what was your favorite experience at Harvard?
Interviewer: …
Me: …
<em>awkward 30 seconds of silence, cue the crickets</em>
Me: Sooo…
Interviewer: <em>mumbles something about the dorms</em> </p>
<p>In my head I was like WHY ARE YOU AN INTERVIEWER?</p>