<p>This story will dispell a lot of myths about the interview...</p>
<p>so my friend was applying to UPenn and he had an interview with a lady...and when she called his house, he recognized her as somebody he had known before. Apparently, two years before at a Christmas party, they had met because he spilled water all over the gift she had brought for the hosts. When the interviewer called his house to inform him of the offer, he was dumb enough to bring back the subject and was like, "oh I'm really sorry about that incident two years ago..." and she was like, "oh. well, that's fine..."</p>
<p>So they schedule to meet at a French Cafe, and for starters, this lady is a little eh eh on the heavy side, she needed a cane to walk and her gut is like spilling all over the table. She gives him a ten dollar bill to buy her a pastry, coffee, and water, which he does. Because he has to carry the food back on a tray, he puts the change in his pocket...and forgets about it.</p>
<p>The interview is not going well. It is awkward, she is pretty sloppy with her eating, and then ultimately she asks him a question: about affirmative action. He makes some comments about how he disasgrees with its policies to a certain degree and how it is reverse discrimination...whatever. Then he realizes something shocking---this lady has a few adopted children of a different race. He is afraid that his statements - although spoken with sincerity - have offended her. He notices that she makes a scowl and shakes her head.</p>
<p>Finally, at the end of the disastrous interview, she asks, "I have one more question for you. Can I have my change back?"</p>
<p>Want to know the really cool thing? He got accepted and currently attends.</p>
<p>I thought they only give interviews after your app is sent in..</p>
<p>"How do I arrange to have a local interview?
After you submit your freshman application to the Admissions Office, you will be sent a letter acknowledging receipt of your application. In that letter, you will be notified whether a Yale Alumni Schools Committee (ASC) covers your area. Local alumni interviews are conducted by the Yale ASC. If an ASC member is available to meet with you, he/she will contact you to schedule an interview."</p>
<p>So I'm guessing until the application deadline.</p>
<p>These interview moments are pretty priceless. Well, I had my MIT interview more than a month ago with a 60 year old. I thought the interviews were suppose to be non-fact oriented, and I was sort of shocked when all the things my interviewer asked were basically facts. </p>
<p>MIT interviewer: What's your name?
Me: Huh?
MIT interviewer: First and Last?
Me: Wait, what?
MIT interveiwer: *pauses
Me: Oh, you mean my name, right, right. *spells name out.
MIT interviewer: GPA?
Me: What?
MIT interviewer: *stares at me.<br>
MIT interviewer: You know, grade-point average?
Me: Yeah, what about it?
MIT interviewer: *stares once more; this time tilting his head down and looking at me without looking through his glasses<br>
MIT interviwer: Well, my name is...</p>
<p>My mom did a lot of great stuff in high school years ago (study abroad, etc.) but her school was all about football and cheerleaders. She was on the B list, definitely. When she went to her college interview, the interviewer told her "We were very impressed with your resume." And she responds "You were?"</p>
<p>I've only had one interview but let me tell you I was a wreck all day before it. My alumni interviewer seemed really nice and told me to meet her at a Starbucks just north of this mall and she gave me the address. So I went to Starbucks website to find out where it was and there werde over 10 starbucks in the area and the one matching the address was in the mall. SO I email her back asking for clarification whether it was in the mall or not and she said no. So I drive up the road north of the mall and stop at the first Starbucks I find, hoping it was right. I got there 15 minutes early and spent the next 20 minutes freaking out that I was at the wrong Starbucks. I smiled at every person who walked in, they must have thought I was an idiot, in case it was my interviewer. When she got there, a little late but that's ok, I had a great interview.</p>
<p>I had an alumni interview with a lawyer in my native Baltimore at his law firm, which is housed in an extremely fancy townhouse. It was informal, and we ended up talking about the joy of finding interesting clothing at thrift stores. And he asking me what, specifically, I had found. Of course, I was wearing one of my favorite such t-shirts under my dress shirt (for good luck) and offered to show it to him. As I was undoing the dress shirt, one of the other lawyers walked in to find something very odd looking going on. Moral: removing clothing during an interview comes with some risks.</p>
<p>And the awkward moments go both ways. A lot of these stories remind me of situations I've had now that I'm on the other side. Like the parent who asked me: "You were a political science major, but now you work for admissions. So, how good can career services actually be?"</p>
<p>my Brown interviewer had asked me if I had grown up in colorado and I don't know why, but I enthusiastically told her yes. She was in the middle of saying how she loved visiting there when I panicked and had to tell her "Oh I kind of forgot.. I lived in Colorado for 6 months.. I'm actually from Brooklyn"
I must've sounded pretty intelligent. =/</p>
<p>MIT Interviewer: Haha, so you do all of these extra-curriculars, when do you do your homework?
Me: Oh, you know, I find time to do homework and things when I can.
MIT: Hahaha, school doesn't really challenge you much, does it?
Me: Haha, not too much, not really.
MIT: So are you first in your class?
Me: Actually I'm second. <em>I'm second by less than 0.01 GPA points. just a note to add- did not mention this</em>
MIT: Oh, is the person who is first going to apply to MIT?
Me: No, she's not really interested in MIT...
MIT: Oh, why not?
Me: She is more premed, not really interested in MIT's culture...
MIT: Oh, really? Did you know MIT has the best acceptance rate into medical school in the country for a school that does not have a medical school?
Me: Oh, no I didn't know that. (I'm not interested in premed at all)
MIT: You should tell her to apply to MIT.</p>
<p>Lol, "she's better than you, tell her to apply!" haha. basically.</p>
<p>i had to wait for my yale interviewer at her office, so i was really nervous. i tend to ramble when i'm nervous, and my answer went on for like three minutes about why yale should accept me. she then asked me about my favorite book, i picked a random book, and she THEN ASKED ME TO DESCRIBE IT. i stammered around, and made things up. she then said "oh, when my husband read that, he didn't mention any of that."</p>
<p>she then told me she did karate so she wouldn't get beat up in college.
i stared.</p>
<p>I was at an audition/interview last weekend. It was going very well- the interviewer was very nice and we had a mutual love of improvisation. Then I had one of those moments when you just can't find that stupid word!</p>
<p>Interviewer- So you say you didn't participate in your EC as much in the beginning of freshman year. Why is that?</p>
<p>Moi- Well I was just coming out of my awkward years so I didn't who exactly I was yet. Then I joined the fall production in summer... I mean <em>searches her blank mind frantically, hitch-pitched nervous giggle</em>...September! Yeah!</p>
<p>I think I was disproportionally excited about remembering the name of a month. But the rest of the interview went well (I hope) :)</p>
<p>I have no interesting stories, but I will not let this thread die!</p>
<p>I'll post an interview story anyway.</p>
<p>I was meeting with a professor at Columbia to work at his lab for the summer. My dad (who has a very strong Israeli accent and a bad lisp) insisted on coming along. We were in the professor's office and my dad kept bragging about me, making me very uncomfortable and very introverted. I became defensive about what he was telling this professor about my accomplishment creating the mosquito ring tone (it is true, but not a big deal and it bothers me. I just created a popular version that started the phenomenon and was in the NYT.) Then, the professor gave us a tour of this experimental gravity lab and I remember one especially embarrassing exchange:</p>
<p>Professor (points at device): This is a laser stabilization system we use in our detectors. The technology was recently acquired by NASA.
My Dad: Oh, so it <em>completely incorrect and irrelevant explanation that displayed a complete lack of understanding of what the lab did</em>
(awkward pause)
Me (to my dad): No, actually it <em>correct explanation</em></p>
<p>At least I came out of my shell a little to avoid my dad the embarrassment of being corrected by the professor himself.</p>
<p>So when I had my TASP interview last year, I got up to leave (yes, everything seems to happen when I leave. I think I just like to finish interviews on terribly awkward notes) and was walking away.</p>
<p>Then I look back and wave, and say, "See you guys later! Wait no - I'll probably never see you again."</p>
<p>WHY?! Why am I such a dork? Why do I say exactly what comes to my mind?</p>
<p>Luckily, they were college students, so they kind of just laughed it off. But it could have been traumatizing.</p>
<p>Not exactly awkward, per se but definitely uncomfortable...</p>
<p>I interviewed with one of the less selective schools on my list today and I think the interviewer got the hunch that it was one of the safer schools on my list..</p>
<p>Of the questions asked: </p>
<p>What other schools are you applying to?
How far up is school X on your list?
If given offers at all schools, would you choose school X?
Would you seriously consider moving to the East coast for college? (the school I interviewed for was on the west coast so I was really caught off guard)
What would motivate you to stay on the west coast for college?
and so on...</p>
<p>I couldn't lie.. so I gave really vague answers. </p>
<p>Interviews are really fun... until those questions hit. I'm starting to think that every interviewer believes that every kid has a set list with a 12345 etc.... and I'm sure being asian doesn't help</p>
<p>I've had a LOT of awkward moments with interviewers. </p>
<p>Colorado College was the very worst.
She was asking me about a program I did last summer at Oxford. I hated the program, and I don't think I've ever been so miserable in my entire life, but in the moment, I thought that it would look better if I liked it. So for the first couple of questions about it, I kept bull<em>hiting and pretending that it taught me so much. But she KEPT going on and on asking questions about it, and I was running out of bull</em>hit. So at some point, I just sort of admitted that actually, it had really taught me how to stick out a bad situation, because I really struggled there in the beginning. She asked me what I meant by that, and I just froze. Finally, I blurted out that everyone in my hall had used me and ignored me, and that just making it through the month was tough. She looked at me like I was insane.<br>
For the rest of the interview, I vowed to be completely honest so that I wouldn't dig myself into a hole that way again, so on what was probably the eighth question she asked me about personal growth, I admitted that there was a certain experience from which I didn't feel I "grew as a person". She scowled at me and said "um, really? Because I can't imagine how someone could have an experience and not manage to grow at all."</p>
<p>to 888888 (back a page): my MIT E.C. was rather elderly too lol... he couldn't give me much info about MIT nowadays and didn't ask me that many questions..</p>
<p>I think my Boston Uni interviewer will remember my interview - because I know I'll never forget it.</p>
<p>Strike One:
He asks me why I applied to college, I respond, "To educate myself."
He asks me why I applied to BU, I respond, "Because my sister went here."</p>
<p>Strike Two:
He asks me why I applied to the accelerated dental program, I respond with my teeth's life story, "I had really bad teeth as a kid and got braces on when I was in the 4th grade. Eventually, I had to wear headgear from the 6th to 8th grade, so no one was really friends with me then. Haha, you know, the loser no one really wanted to hang out with. I finally got them off as a sophomore, but I had to get a root canal in the same year. I want to be a dentist so other kids won't have to suffer like me. And I have really nice teeth." (Talk about ramble)
He then asks me to smile. I give him an awkward and square smile, sort of like this -> :[]</p>
<p>Strike Three:
He asks me what makes me "special." I'm a naturally lazy person, but I don't want to openly say that I am. I think for 30 seconds and with my square smile, respond, "I'm hedonistic." He looks at me like I'm talking in Ancient Greek (I guess I was, though :P).</p>
<p>Home Run:
I started to bawl in the middle of the interview. I try to explain, "I'm sorry, I'm really nervous. And worried about my first time getting surgery - I'm having my hemorrhoids removed." Oh deary. He really didn't need to know that - and neither do you. So just forget the past 2 lines you've just read. But you can remember my teeth's life journey - and remember never to make fun of people with headgear.</p>