<p>I can only describe my Penn interview being awkward but this was moment higher on the list…</p>
<p>He asked me, “besides photography, what other passions to do you have?”
I go, “I love stacking golf balls and bowling balls! I can stack up to bowling balls and 4 golf balls!”</p>
<p>-awkward pause as he stares at me_
He then goes “I’m not writing that down.”
and laughs. xD</p>
<p>^ I love this thread!</p>
<p>I had two interviews last year…one went extremely well and the other was…not so great.</p>
<p>The not so great one was a phone interview, which right off the bat put me off a little. I’m not great at speaking on the phone–much more comfortable meeting face to face.
Anywho, I wasn’t told that I was going to be getting an interview via e-mail or anything. So I get a phone call from an unknown number and against my better judgment I answer it. The guy dives right in: “hi, I’m an alum from X University and I’m going to conduct an interview. Why X?” To which I had to awkwardly tell him that I was sitting in the waiting room of the ER and it really wasn’t a great time; he didn’t seem to be too pleased, but what else was I to do?</p>
<p>When we finally had the interview a week or so later, he was very cold. The whole interview centered around 1 question: if your school newspaper was going to write an article about you, what would the three main points be outside of academics and extra curriculars. I may be a multi-dimensional person, but even I don’t have that many dimensions once you take school and activities out of the mix. He spent a lot of time discouraging me from attending, telling me it was competitive not to get my hopes up, most people couldn’t handle the atmosphere, and then a lot of time telling me how he pursued the hardest major at X University and was so smart blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Awkward start with the ER sitch and a not too fun interview. I did get in though :)</p>
<p>I just had a Brown interview in which the lady brought a picture book of Brown and we went through it page by page. She pointed out all the buildings, and did not ask me a single question the entire time. I asked her about her experiences, interests, and opinions on Brown, but her responses were all curt and succinct. She didn’t ask for my opinion on ANYTHING, and when I tried to mention some things about me, she did not care for me to elaborate.
I wouldn’t say I did “poorly” in the interview, I just… don’t even know.</p>
<p>ok so I did alot of and i mean A LOT of research to prep for my swarthmore interview. i watched their dvd, read their website etc etc. </p>
<p>Day of Interview:</p>
<p>Interviewer: So How did you hear about swarthmore and what do you like about it?</p>
<p>Me: well first off, swarthmore educated the mother of the hubble telescope and it has blah blah blah best amphi theatre blah blah blah… detail detail blah blah… (20 minutes later…)</p>
<p>Interviewer: uh, yes, I suppose so. I suppose we DO have all those things, I mean I wouldn’t know becuase I graduated a while before and…</p>
<p>Me: … …</p>
<p>Interviewer: So what else draws you to swarthmore?</p>
<p>Me:…</p>
<p>oh god… at my yale interview, i talked about how i wanted to travel and study abroad. the student interviewing me asked me where i’d like to go, and i rattled off a whole list of places-- lots of latin american countries, since i study spanish, plus some countries in eastern europe, since i have friends there, and france since i was raised by francophile parents.
then at the end, without even thinking about it, for some reason i tacked on india, even though i knew very little about it. honestly, i think it was because i had indian food for the first time the week before!
anyway, of course THAT was the country she asked me about. i panicked and mumbled something about indian food and elephants. turns out her roommate is from india.</p>
<p>ughhhhhh! so awkward</p>
<p>My Princeton interview was awkward because 1. my internet connection failed 5 times (skype interview) and 2. she couldn’t really tell me much about anything. She was very nice, I’ll give her that, but when I asked about what to do outside of classes, she didn’t know what to tell me, just general things. Apparently she didn’t participate in any activities or clubs, and I’m a more outgoing type of person.
Also, she was more nervous than I was, which made things weird, cause I asked her more things than she asked me hahaha</p>
<p>We need to keep this going.</p>
<p>For one of my interviews, I was asked my three favorite books. I was ready with my first (Freakonomics) and came up with a second book that I read like 7 years ago (Watership Down). I then mulled over my third book for a second and decided to go for it: A Clockwork Orange. Thankfully my interviewer loved ACO so it turned out really well and we ended up talking about it for awhile but it could have very easily been a bad choice on my part.</p>
<p>I had my Brown phone interview last Tuesday. First of all, there was this huge mix-up earlier in the day. My interviewer had contacted me over the weekend to schedule a phone interview and I had emailed him back with the times I was available. I clearly stated that any time after 4:30 pm was convenient and that I had a free period between 10:00-11:25 in the morning on MONDAYS and WEDNESDAYS that was also convenient. He emailed me back saying that he also had a free period on those days at that times and he would call me “tomorrow.” Well, he sent that email Monday night. Which meant he would call the next day, a Tuesday, when I don’t have a free period. Except I didn’t catch that. </p>
<p>So Tuesday comes and I’m sitting in class and my stepmom texts me and tells me someone from Brown University called me for an interview. I excuse myself from class, call the interviewer back and leave a message, asking if there was some mix-up on my part. Then I check my email again, just to make sure I said Mondays and Wednesdays, not Mondays and Tuesdays. Which I did. It was a mistake on his part but I was still worried missing his call might count against me. Score-wise, I’m not the strongest applicant, but I’m well-rounded elsewhere. So I wait…and wait…and wait for his call back. Then, just as I’ve given up hope at 9:30 pm, I get a call from an unknown number. SURPRISE! It’s my Brown interviewer. He tells me he tried calling me and I explained that I had a free period tomorrow (as in Wednesday) not today (Tuesday). He apologized then asked if we could do the interview right there on the spot. Uhh…sure? So, completely caught off guard and unprepared, I do my Brown University while pacing around my dorm room. </p>
<p>For the most part, it went well, except for two instances.
<p>2) I have a touch screen phone. So in the middle of our conversation he starts saying, “Hello? Hello, are you there? Hello?” I have AT&T so I thought my call was dropped. But I look at my phone and realize that my cheek had brushed against the “mute” button. So he couldn’t hear me! I apologized for what happened and he completely ignored me and continued asking his question. </p>
<p>So, overall, I’m a bit iffy about my interview with Brown. And I’m sorry this post is really long. That was just a stressful day for me. </p>
<p>My Duke interview was a bit more laid back but not in a good way. It felt waaayyy too short. The only funny part was when I said my dad was a Duke basketball fan since 1983 and my interviewer goes: “Why '83?” And I say, “I don’t know actually. That’s just what he’s always told me.” And my interviewer says, “Well, it just so happens that I was the Duke mascot from '83 to '85.” And the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, “Well maybe it was you!” We had a good laugh over that one.</p>
<p>BUMP</p>
<p>tenchar</p>
<p>I had my Dartmouth interview at a Starbucks. My interviewer was in line when I got there, so he asked me if I wanted anything. I said sure, but I couldn’t remember what iced tea was called at Starbucks (Shaken Iced Tazo Tea or something, fyi) and so went like this:
“I’ll have an uhhhh…uhhhhh… iced uhhh I mean-- wait… uhhhhhh”
Later my interviewer asked me what other schools I applied to.
Me: (lists schools)… but Dartmouth is definitely a top choice.
Interviewer: Ok, but that doesn’t really matter in the admissions decision.
Me: …</p>
<p>The rest of the interview went great, thankfully. It was probably the best one I had.</p>
<p>On another note, when my Cornell interviewer told me she graduated HS in 1994, I burst out, “Wow, that was when I was born!” Oops.</p>
<p>In my Harvard one, with the exception of one question, it went great. That one question was: Describe your best friend.</p>
<p>I gave literally the stupidest answer, I can’t even describe it. It sounded like my friend only cared about acedemics and nothing else, and it made me feel like a <em>loser</em>. Gahhh…</p>
<p>You can pick out any possible awkward moments in these stories. In total I had 3 interviews. One for MIT, Harvard, and Princeton.</p>
<p>MIT:
The interview was at the interviewer’s house. I showed up about 5 minutes early and rang the door bell. A huge dog appears at the door and barks for what seems like forever. The interviewer’s husband shows up at the door and asks me if I am afraid of dogs. I am not afraid of dogs like I might be afraid of spiders, but I said “uhm maybe large dogs.” So he grabs the dog and slides it across the floor and through the sliding glass doors to put it outside. At that point I feel bad for the dog.
His wife, my interviewer, was not there. He calls her up and tells me she will be like 15 minutes late. So now I have 15 minutes of potential awkwardness with her husband. He brings me to the living room and tells me he is “not good at entertaining.” He asks me if I wanted something to drink or anything to eat. I said no. He walks away and a few minutes later comes back with a plate full of food and some water. He than gave me a newspaper to read. Now I am not a newspaper reader, but I pretend to flip through the pages and act interested.
When his wife does arrive, he explains the reason for the dog being outside by saying “he’s afraid of dogs.” Err, well I am not really… The interview went well, but the whole time the dog really wanted back inside and kept scratching at the windows and stuff.</p>
<p>Harvard:
This interview was pretty normal. It was at a Panera Bread. I showed up like 15 minutes early and so I waited in my vehicle in the parking lot with my dad. A few minutes later a black Mercedes parks next to us and the driver does not get out… Turns out I was waiting right next to my interviewer in his car for like 10 minutes. I recognized him when he got out and so I waited a few more minutes before entering just so I was not following right behind him. The interview went fine. Unlike my other interviews, he never talked about the university. He did keep glaring at the noisy people in Panera Bread though.</p>
<p>Princeton:
I disliked this interview the most. The others were a lot better. She said she would specifically do the interview as an “information session.” Anyway, I did not know who I was looking for at Starbucks. I found a seat near the counter and just looked around trying to figure out if my interviewer was already there. A little while later, I hear my interviewer tell the cashier her name when she was ordering a drink. So then I knew who my interviewer was and I was trying to decided how to approach her. All the ways I came up with were going to be awkward because I was basically just picking her out of the crowd. I just directly approached her as she was waiting for her drink and introduced myself. She seemed a little shocked lol.</p>
<p>Hahaha, I had my Mount Holyoke interview at a hotel in the capital. I’d never been there before in my life, and was a little apprehensive about going inside and waiting in the lobby because the hotel was really fancy, and I was wearing jeans and converse shoes.
My sister took it upon herself to shove me inside and leave me there. Lucky for me, my interviewer was wearing a MHC badge and was reading an American paper, so I just walked over and said hi and introduced myself. That was the least awkward moment in the entire interview.</p>
<p>At a Skidmore interview in NYC (they had representatives), the guy asked me, “If I could know only one thing about you, what would it be?” I told him that I was an adventurous eater, and that as long as a food is edible, I’ll try it. That wasn’t too awful, but then I babbled on about how escargot tasted like mussels, haha. He ended my overall interview with “We’d love to see you here - you’d be a great addition to our school!”, so my little snail rant couldn’t have hurt my chances that much lol.</p>
<p>Well…I suppose I have few to list here</p>
<p>Rice University
Interviewer: So, tell me, what academic moment are you most proud of?</p>
<p>Me: …ummm…man, I don’t know. Ohh, well my Calc teacher gives one specific, notoriously difficult problem to his Calc II class and I just took the test today that had that problem!!</p>
<p>Interviewer: did he grade the test on the spot or something?</p>
<p>Me: Well…not, not exactly</p>
<p>Interviewer: So did you just know that you got the right answer or something?</p>
<p>Me: …umm…I don’t actually think I got it right. But I tried!</p>
<p>Interviewer: …hmm… <em>moves on to the next question</em></p>
<p>Brown University:
I’m from Idaho we have many Mormons here who are extremely religious. I’m not one and so I’m not against cussing, but still, this surprised me! hahaha</p>
<p>Interviewer: So, what do you do outside of school?</p>
<p>Me: Ohh, well actually I’m a competitive jump roper!</p>
<p>Interviewer: …no s<strong>t?! And on David Letterman? NO S</strong>T!!!</p>
<p>The interview continues and he talks about how crazy Brown and the campus can get sometime by talking about a story of a gangster driving through town in a “f***ing nice car. Like damn!”</p>
<p>I would have loved your Brown interview. I am a notorious cusser, and sometimes it’s hard to contain myself hahahaha. Oh well, I managed at every interview</p>
<p>Le Harvard Interview:
Got lost trying to find the bathroom before the interview.
My interviewer didn’t want to shake hands because he had pinkeye.
Traveled an hour to my interview in a bad area of the city, getting lost on the way, only to find that my interviewer lives less than 15 min away from me.</p>
<p>In an attempt to sound open about my future, I feel like I sounded really indecisive about my plans. Not to mention, I had googled (stalked) my interviewer ahead of time, and I kept worrying that I’d blurt out something that I knew about him that I wasn’t supposed to know, like, “I read that you enjoy vegetable gardening in your spare time. So do I!”</p>
<p>Let’s just say that the state university’s looking better and better.</p>
<p>Georgetown: About 10 minutes into it i finally took my jacket off, 5 minutes later i left. So it was a pretty short interview. Also, I had just been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 for the past few days and in the middle of the interview started talking like the character from the game, who has a broken Russian accent. So glad I didn’t get questioned on that, but I’m pretty sure my interviewer was thinking, “alright, we’re done here, he’s got no chance” and wrapped it up.</p>
<p>bump bump bump!</p>