<p>when my interviewer started talking about suicides at mit...</p>
<p>I'll share my dreadful Yale interview story. It was an on campus interview
with a grad student who was working part time in admissions. The interviewer came in and said" What really excites you? How do you spend your time outside of class?" And I told him I was into theater. He said "Do you act?" And I said "Yes" He said, "What roles have you played?" And I answered with a nice list of musical theater leading roles, school and community theater stuff. He said, "Here at Yale we're interested in real theater, not that musical crap." And I said, "Oh really, there's a poster for a Yale production of "Guys and Dolls" on the other side of your door. We glared at each other and it was all down hill from there.</p>
<p>Since this thread (which is very amusing) has morphed into all sorts of interview stories, I will add mine. I was having an interview with a professor to be his research assistant. The interview went well but when I stood up, I realized my foot was asleep from having had my legs crossed for so long. All I wanted was to flee the room, but instead I had to tell him I couldn't walk quite yet, so did he mind if I just stood there for a few minutes. (Also, at an interview for a job as an attorney, I spilled a full cup of coffee all over the conference room table. Fortunately, it wasn't my for my first job, and I was in my mid-40s, not 20s, I could handle it--and I did get the job.)</p>
<p>hahaha this is an amazing thread. i can't stop reading it haha</p>
<p>dolcefarniente: thats hilarious!! i don't think i would have been able to function after that lol</p>
<p>i've only had one interview. it went really well but then at the end it was a bit awkward. i still don't drive, so i went outside and pretended like i was leaving and called my parents to come pick me up (lame, i know). so i was standing outside and a good 10 min later my interviewer walks out and i am still standing there so i pretended like i didnt see him and preteneded to be busy talking on my phone. err awkwardd</p>
<p>DolceFarNiente, niiiiice.</p>
<p>"
Northstarmom, what would you say was the best response you got for the question "Why Harvard?""
The best responses indicated that the applicant had taken the time to find out what makes Harvard different from the other prestigious schools, and why Harvard was a good fit for themselves and their interests and personality.</p>
<p>After saying hi and stuff, the very first question my wesleyan interviewer asked me was: What classes do you take? For some reason, I compleatly blanked out and could not remember a single class that I take. Finally, I was like: Math! I take math! She was like, OK, good, do you take a science? (like trying to be nice, help me remember). Me: no.... ....but i take English! (<em>all excited that I remembered a class</em>). Then i finally started remembering my classes, so it was all good. and the rest of the interview went really well, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get in =]</p>
<p>at my yale interview, the interviewer asked me what I didn't like about about my current high school. i responded that i felt that we got compared to another local private school, and that my highschool was often considered the "dumber" one. i went on to say that sometimes the students at the other highschool felt that they were better than us , and that they were often condescending. my interviewer then says that his daughter goes to that other highschool...</p>
<p>My Kenyon interviewer asked me "what abstract intellectual goals do you have for college?"
Me, not wanthing to sound like an idoit stammers "Uh... umm... well.... like what?"
He tries to help me out by suggesting "Like becoming a more complete person?"
Me,not wanting to sound cliche, stammers "no, I want to become a less complete person."
He asks what I mean.
I stare blankly.
It was horrifying.</p>
<p>^^ at nemo
what an awful coincidence!! you wonder what he thought you were going to say if he knew about your high school anyways.</p>
<p>During my interview at the most prestigious school to which I am applying, I put a lot of focus on one particular non-academic goal of mine when asked about things relating to how I wanted to grow in college. About ten minutes later, at the end of the interview, my interviewer asked if I had any questions for him. I asked him the main strength and weakness of the student body. For the weakness, he said, "Students are too focused on (insert my non-academic focus here)."</p>
<p>@ Carpe Aeternum</p>
<p>That's just plain rude! What, if you don't mind saying, was that "non-academic focus?"</p>
<p>Traveling on mission to third-world countries.... things like orphan care, building projects, etc. ;)</p>
<p>For undergrad:
I didn't have a particularly good interview so as soon as it ended, I got the heck out of there. I was walking really quickly in one direction when my Yale interviewer called after me "Didn't you come from the other direction?" I had to quickly turn around and start walking back in the other direction, passing her on the way.</p>
<p>For med school (cuz med school interviews are more fun):</p>
<p>Northwestern interviews 3 on 3 (3 interviewers and 3 interviewees):
Interviewer: So, what is your favorite movie? (directing it to the girl two chairs away)
Her: Crash (and gives explanation)
Interviewer: What about you?
Girl next to me: Romeo and Juliet, the one with Leonardo DiCaprio
Interviewer (to me): If you sat next to the UN Secretary General on the plane, what would you talk about?
Me: My favorite movie is...wait, what?!</p>
<p>Later on, the three of us were asked to come up with the five greatest discoveries/advancements in the history of medicine. One of the girls immediately jumps up and asks to be the recorder (she wanted to demonstrate that she was the leader of the group). So naturally the discovery of penicillin comes up. She spells it "penicilin" on the board but we didn't want to correct her as that would be a d*ck move to do at an interview. After a pause, one of the interviewers said, "um...I think there's another 'l'" Sheepishly she adds the "l" Then I suggest the discovery of anesthesia. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, she looks back at us and asks, "um, how do you spell 'anethesia?'"</p>
<hr>
<p>George Washington Med School gets the most application of anyone in the country (13,000 applications, gives out 1000 interviews, and accepts 350 for 170 seats) so they're very protective of their yield. My interviewer grills me on how many interviews I had gotten, how many acceptances I planned to have, and then asks me if George Washington was my safety school. I say, no. Then he asks me again if George Washington was my safety school. I say no and then proceed to explain why I liked GWU. He cuts me off in mid-sentence and says, "Okay, I've heard enough. Thanks for coming for the interview." Not surprisingly, I was waitlisted 5 weeks later.</p>
<hr>
<p>I was interviewing at Tufts School of Medicine with a very accomplished doctor (graduated w/ honors from Harvard, went to Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons for med school, was Chief Resident at NY Presbyterian). I mentioned how happy the students at Tufts appeared. He said something to the effect that the students at his med school were usually unhappy and no one came back for reunion. At the end of the interview:
Interviewer: So, do you have any questions for me?
Me: Why were the students so unhappy at your med school?
Interviewer: <em>Rattles off a list of bad things about Columbia</em>...You didn't apply there did you?
Me: <em>embarrassed</em> It's actually my next interview.
Interviewer: <em>sarcastically</em> Have fun in New York!</p>
<hr>
<p>Interview at Penn Med:
Interviewer: So, did you apply to Harvard and Johns Hopkins (the two med schools ranked higher than Penn)
Me: I didn't apply to Harvard but I did apply to JHU. Personally, I think Baltimore is a pretty crappy city and wouldn't have even applied if Johns Hopkins wasn't such a good med school.
Interviewer: Oh, it's not so bad.
Me: Yes it is. It is rundown compared with DC which is a far better city.
Interviewer: I'm from Baltimore.
Me: Oh...<em>awkward pause</em> well it's not that bad...Camden Yards is pretty.</p>
<p>Later on, he asks me about my outside interests. I tell him I'm a HUGE sports fan. We talk a lot about sports (Barry Bonds, NBA, even college lacrosse). Then he asks me: "What do you think about the upset of Penn's squash team by an upstart Cornell team?" I say, "I have to draw the line at college squash" and kinda laugh nervously. He says, "Well, didn't you say you were a huge sports fan?"</p>
<p>Apparently, now I have to be on top of college squash for my med school interviews.</p>
<p>Carpe: Lol, how can you be TOO focused on making the world a better place? That just sounds odd.</p>
<p>Haha, and the sad things is, I wasn't at all trying to sound impressive. That is the thing I'm looking forward to MOST in my college experience.</p>
<p>By nature, I find almost nothing akward. But I wasn't quite sure what to say after that one!</p>
<p>sheesh...Yale interviewers seem to rank pretty highly on the stuck up list.</p>
<p>I don't really have any embarrassing moments except I had the opportunity of having a long conversation w/ the Dean of admissions at Harvard...and he asked me what my GPA was and I was about to answer...when I completely forgot. And then he asked what my scores were and I did really badly so I told him I was re-taking. Gladly he didn't dismiss after that. We ended up having a great conversation the rest of the time.</p>
<p>Hm, I am really glad that I won't be having an interview with a Yale alum, or a Princeton one, for that matter. @hehe, you have nerves of steel! I would have been shocked if somebody said that to me during an interview.</p>
<p>"at my yale interview, the interviewer asked me what I didn't like about about my current high school. i responded that i felt that we got compared to another local private school, and that my highschool was often considered the "dumber" one. i went on to say that sometimes the students at the other highschool felt that they were better than us , and that they were often condescending. my interviewer then says that his daughter goes to that other highschool..."</p>
<p>Applicants told me similar things about the high school my sons were attending. I didn't bother to tell them that my sons went there.</p>
<p>Reminding everyone again: Do NOT make your points by putting down other high schools, other extracurriculars, other academic programs, etc. Always accentuate the positive.</p>
<p>A little off topic, but what the heck: All of this reminds me of when I was running a program that provided thousands of new books to poor kids at Christmas. We'd hold community wrappings to wrap hundreds of books. Once, a volunteer picked up a Little Golden Book and said how whomever donated it must have been pretty stingy. Of the hundreds of books we were wrapping, it happened to have been one that my 5-year-old had bought out of his own money.</p>
<p>I didn't bother to embarrass the woman by telling her that, but I did say that I thought that people contributed whatever they could afford, and I was sure the recipients would appreciate what they got.</p>
<p>Sarah,</p>
<p>I go to a private school in South Broward. People are found with drugs, but only once a year at the most. I know a lot of people who go to Western and Cypress Bay, but I haven't heard any stories of drug dealers from them.</p>