<p>Harvard interviewer: What accomplishment of yours would you say that you’re most proud of?
Me: It has to be my Eagle Scout. I really had to work for that. My project dealt in construction, and I have no knowledge of construction or engineering, so that was pretty challenging.
Her: Really, you’re an Eagle Scout? My son left the Boy Scouts after he came out as a homosexual.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I quickly diverted the conversation onto another path.</p>
<p>^ ■■■■■</p>
<p>/10char</p>
<p>^^ Haha epic awks…</p>
<p>My Princeton interviewer was the spitting image of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory so the whole interview was a bit awkward. Although I suppose it would’ve been a lot more awkward if I didn’t have a basic knowledge of his field.</p>
<p>This thread makes me really nervous about all future interviews haha</p>
<p>This thread is awesome!</p>
<p>I guess I have a pretty good story. I was interviewing with a Harvard alum, and I asked him, "What traditions did you enjoy while you were at Harvard?'</p>
<p>He started off by talking about the “crazy ****” (his own words) that went on during the Harvard vs. Yale games, but then it took a turn for the worse. He told me about one of the Lampoon Awards Ceremonies he saw, saying how they trashed and criticized every movie (and I mean EVERY movie). He said that year, they were giving an award to some porn actress (can’t remember the name) for her performance in the movie Somethin or other “Swallows” (Very mad I can’t remember its name). And then he started explaining the meaning of the title of the porn movie. “Obviously, (porn actress’s name) was very good at performing oral sex. It was her specialty. The movie was quite intriguing really…” (he seemed deep in thought at this point) “Well, anyways, she actually showed up on campus to accept the award. It was just a hell of a time.”</p>
<p>It was very awkward… all I could do was laugh with him…</p>
<p>haha i just saw this thread it’s great for distracting me today!
i’ve had my fair share of awkward interviews. pretty much all of them were…i guess my username is fitting.</p>
<p>there was my brandeis interview which was fine for the most part but as we were leaving:
interviewer: so i’ll be at your school tomorrow to visit!
me: oh that’s great i guess i’ll see you again tomorrow if i think of anymore questions
next day at school i’m the only one who’s there for his visit
college counselor: so i guess you can start
interviewer: well actually we interviewed yesterday so i guess we can just leave.
so awkward. i did get in though :)</p>
<p>my clark interview i was supposed to meet the alum at a starbucks near us. somehow she ended up at the wrong one and luckily i checked my e-mail on my phone and called her wondering where she was. apparently her pregnancy made her get confused about which starbucks we were meeting at…</p>
<p>during my georgetown one it was at my interviewer’s house and in the middle of it his daughter got dropped off and came running in crying because of some scary story she heard on npr. i sat there awkwardly while comforted her and then i had heard the story driving over so i mentioned that it actually was kind of scary. he probably thought i was making it up or something since i couldn’t remember the details. </p>
<p>basically all my interviews were awkward!</p>
<p>My Harvard Interview:</p>
<p>Me: Professing my involvement with the Appalachian Service Project (a faith based housing ministry) and how much it means to me…</p>
<p>Interviewer: Oh well that’s a real shame that it’s faith based…These things should be secular. I’m an atheist.</p>
<p>Me: …</p>
<p>Harvard Interview:</p>
<p>Him: You want to do pre med and econ? I actually did something similar. For Grad school, I…
Me: Oh! You did an Md-PhD at the University of Indiana, with your PhD in anthropology!
Him: …
Me: (slightly red, but continuing on excitedly)and you did your fellowhsip at Duke!
Him: yeah…
Me: (redder) I, umm, looked up a couple bios of you before I came
Him: Oh?..
Me: (really red) Umm, I promise I’m not a complete creeper…
Him: …(writes something down)</p>
<p>Later</p>
<p>Him: Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering? That sounds interesting. Tell me more about it
Me: Oh, yeah, it sounds really good, but it’s really kind of boring
Him: What do you do? Do you build things?
Me: No, we take multiple choice tests…
Him: And compete against schools around the world?
Me: No, just Illinois, the name is misleading…
Him: Oh. (writes something on his notepad). So do you like physics then?
Me: No! (really emphatically)</p>
<p>And towards the end, he said he needed to go give a talk, and they were probably all wondering where he was. So when we were in the elevator together, to break the awkward silence, I asked him what he was speaking on. And he told me it was about STDs and was about to continue when I jumped in and gave him a complete summary of his talk. And added in awkwardly, “I saw your powerpoint online and I read through it…”</p>
<p>I can’t imagine how creepy he must have thought me to be. Though, he was very nice and said he’d do everything he could to help me get in. I didn’t get in, but I’m very glad I met him. He was an amazing person (as I found by reading about him before hand, lol).</p>
<p>Haha, love this thread! My Harvard interviewer actually forgot that we were supposed to be having an interview the day I showed up at her house (she was wearing an apron and in the middle of making dinner), but other than that everything went pretty okay.</p>
<p>I had my Yale interview at a Starbucks, I was quite nervous even though the man interviewing me was nice. He was in his 50’s or so, and we were in a section that was quiet so everything seemed kind of relaxed.</p>
<p>I rambled a bit in the beginning out of my nervousness. He let me ramble, and then got onto the questions.</p>
<p>Everything was going fine until I brought up the other universities I applied to (brilliant move right?) and mentioned the University of Pennsylvania. He asks me “Why did you apply there?” (come to later find out, they aren’t supposed to ask questions concerning the other colleges you apply to, but anyways)</p>
<p>I think to myself “why DO I want to go there?” (other than it’s an Ivy League). </p>
<p>All that comes to mind is the word “Philadelphia” and how for a while now, in addition to the other major cities of the country ( NYC, Chicago, DC, Miami, etc) I was curious to see it.</p>
<p>So I say “ Philadelphia…it’s…somewhere I’m excited about”</p>
<p>He asks me “ What is it about Philadelphia that interests you? ”</p>
<p>I was about to die inside.</p>
<p>As a kind of mental reflex, I started talking about that Disneyshow “Boy Meets World” (the show was based in Philadelphia) but which to him of course seemed to come out of nowhere. </p>
<p>I asked him “have you seen it?”.</p>
<p>He shakes his head. </p>
<p>I say “ it takes place in Philadelphia, and… I grew up watching the show…”</p>
<p>There’s a pause. Then, I started talking about…(readers, Facepalm goes here )
PHILLY CHEESESTEAK SANDWICHES.</p>
<p>How on every foodshow I’ve watched that’s about American cities’ local eateries, whenever Philadelphia comes up, the philly sandwhiches are shown to be amazing.</p>
<p>And how I wanted to try one.</p>
<p>He’s just staring at me at this point.</p>
<p>With nothing else at the top of my head, I searched my mind for absolutely anything about Philadelphia that was INTELLIGIBLE, factual, and related to Penn,.</p>
<p>He must have realized this is what I was doing during the silence after my last comment, because he then said,</p>
<p>“Careful, I grew up in Philadelphia.”</p>
<p>I was inconceivably mortified. </p>
<p>He then switched the topic back onto Yale.</p>
<p>Moral of the story: research the institution(s) you apply to. Always!</p>
<p>my interview for an LAC was totally normal…but the convo kind of died towards the end. i was awkwardly overdressed and didn’t really know how to conclude.
interviewer: so yeah it was great talking to you, but i hope you know these interview “thingys” aren’t really about me evaluating you or even helping you get in. I’m not even gonna tell 'em we met up.
me (thinking): <em>sweet so this was pointless</em> uhm ok, well yeah it was nice talking
interviewer: hey wait actually i wanna show you my year book from back in '76
<em>whips out this crusty yearbook, flips open to a page and points to a pic of some dude, i-kid-you-not, naked hanging on a tree/sculpture thingy. the caption was “students have fun on asglkdg field during spring quarter”.</em> yep, yours truly
me: …</p>
<p>Interviewer: What makes Cornell stand out for you?</p>
<p>Me: Excellent faculty in economics, and just in general, an outstanding reputation, and an incredibly diverse student population.</p>
<p>Interviewer: But what makes it stand out, say, among the other Ivies and all the other great schools in America and Canada?</p>
<p>Me: …</p>
<p>Interviewer: …</p>
<p>Me: …</p>
<p>Interviewer: Hello?</p>
<p>Me: It has a really diverse student population.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Yes but so do many, many other schools.</p>
<p>Me: Cornell has always been my dream school.</p>
<p>Interviewer: Why?</p>
<p>Me: …</p>
<p>Interviewer: …</p>
<p>Me: Honestly, Cornell isn’t my number one school. I applied because it, like many other schools, offered what I believe would be a great education. </p>
<p>Interviewer: Oh.</p>
<p>Not my story but my dad’s:</p>
<p>Applying to law firm:</p>
<p>Interviewer: So do you have any kids?</p>
<p>Dad: Not that I know of.</p>
<p>Interviewer: …</p>
<p>I interviewed for a national scholarship, with 7 or 8 interviewers seated around a huge conference table. The interviewers each told me his or her name and something about himself or herself, and then asked a question. </p>
<p>Interviewer 5: My name is _____ and I am VP of _____ at _______ (large, well-known) Corporation.
Me: I’m glad to meet you. I’m familiar with your corporation because it was involved in a Supreme Court case, Name of Corporation v. ______, that was relevant to the national policy debate topic this year.
Interviewer: No, my corporation wasn’t involved in a Supreme Court case.
Me: (Thinking–yes. It was. It is a famous case, decided only five years ago. How can you not know about it? What are the other interviewers going to think about me?) … I’m sorry.</p>
<p>To this day, I cannot figure out why he would deny that his company was involved in the case (which his company won). I won the scholarship anyway.</p>
<p>Great thread. Medical school interviews were more entertaining.</p>
<p>U Chicago (I am single and years away from parenthood)</p>
<p>Interviewer: Do you have any fears about what it will be like to have a career in medicine?
Me: I am afraid I will be put in such long hours that I neglect other things. I’m afraid my kids won’t know me and my wife will get fed up with my long hours and divorce me.
Interviewer: You just described my life.
Me: ------</p>
<p>Same interview:
Interviewer: What if you don’t get into medical school this year?
Me: I already got into WUSTL.
Interviewer: OK. Let’s assume you don’t get in anywhere, what would you do?
Me: Do research for a year and reapply.
Interviewer: Good answer. But what would you do if all the medical schools decided that no matter what you do you will not be admitted.
Me: Open a retail camera store (first thing that came to mind!)
Interviewer: Excuse me?
Me: I like photography and this would let me work with people and I get to continuously learn about new things at annual conventions. (Nice recovery)
Interviewer: Ok?</p>
<p>Cornell</p>
<p>Asked to interview with a psychiatrist on a locked psychiatric ward. A psychotic patient being escorted by two orderlies tries to grab me as I get off the elevator yelling that he knows me. After only a couple of cursory questions about me, the psychiatrist proceeds to ask me about my mother, what is my relationship with my siblings, describe my father, etc. Very inappropriate but he probably thought he was learning a lot about me. Dean of admissions there, a URM himself and my only other interviewer, asks me a question about my religion in the context of it impairing my ability to function on the sabbath that I’m sure was illegal. I was too shocked and not quick enough to ask him back if it was a policy of Cornell Medical School to only admit Christians?</p>
<p>One of my favorite stories was not mine but one from a medical school classmate. He was interviewing at what was certainly a safety school. His EC showed he was a black belt in some martial art. The interview was going poorly, my friend was probably looking agitated, and they both knew it.</p>
<p>Interviewer: You’re not going to jump over my desk and give me a karate chop are you?
Applicant: Who is that cute girl in the picture behind your desk?
Interviewer: That’s my daughter.
Applicant: I would like to meet her and take her out on a date some time.
Interviewer: This interview is over.</p>
<p>Haha, oh wow, I have read all 49 pages of this thread over the last week and a half. </p>
<p>This isn’t a college interview story, but I had an interview at my high school for a leadership camp. My principal was one of the interviewers. Now, the day before, two girls had gotten into a huge fight in our courtyard, and the principal had attempted to break it up. In the process, one of the girls turned around and punched him in the face. He had a HUGE, swollen almost shut, black eye. Needless to say, I spend the entire interview attempting not to stare or giggle. None of the other applicants had to deal with this as I was the last interview; the rest had interviewed two days previously.
I did not get the spot. Shocker, huh? =P </p>
<p>I’m visiting Harvard mid-August and scheduled an Adcom interview, so I’m sure I’ll have something more to add here eventually. =P</p>
<p>A friend of mine considers the following exchange during an interview for a job at an art gallery one of the most awkward experiences she’s had. She was extremely nervous and this was one of the first questions she was asked. </p>
<p>Interviewer: I see you volunteer at an aquarium, what do you like about that?
Friend: …
Interviewer: Do you like talking to visitors?
Friend: …
Interviewer: Do you like sea life?
Friend: (very loudly) I…like…SEA CUMBERS! </p>
<p>The interviewer just gave her a blank stare. Apparently the interview went downhill from there. She didn’t get the job.</p>
<p>@aleader yeah I did that too when I first found this thread…</p>
<p>I’ve looked at almost all of these posts. They were quite humorous. I feel sympathetic for some of you though.</p>
<p>@aleader: that’s nothing. i read through it all in like 3 days. : 0</p>
<p>Haha these are so great.</p>