<p>Can those of you who have gone through a Georgetown alumni interview please describe what it was like and what questions were asked? I have my interview this weekend and I'm just wondering if there's anything in particular I might want to prep for. Thanks a lot for the help! </p>
<p>The Georgetown one will completely depend on your interviewer; everyone is different. I would encourage you to be able to give specific reasons why Georgetown is the right fit for you, and maybe have one or two “questions” that you could pose to the interviewer.</p>
<p>I think that being able to answer “Why Georgetown?” “Why ___ major?” “What’s your favorite thing about GU?” should suffice. But you should be able to talk in depth about those in case your interviewer doesn’t have other specific questions to ask. </p>
<p>A nice way to answer the first one if you’re stuck is to mention how it’s the best of both worlds by being close to the city but still having the feel of a collegiate campus. But hopefully you have a more concrete reason than that for wanting to attend, haha. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>A college interview is much like a job interview with open-ended questions (eg “Tell me about yourself”) which are covered in any book about how to interview. There will also be some college specific questions like “Why Georgetown?” You can find sample interview questions online. It would be a good idea if you have the time to have your friends, parents, and anyone else you can corral do mock interviews with you so that your real interview isn’t the 1st time you go thru it.</p>
<p>One other tip is about YOU asking questions. I guarantee that at each interview they will at some point ask “Do you have any questions you’d like to ask?” This is actually an important point in the process. What they’re doing is checking to see if you’ve prepared, which in turn they will use to infer how interested you are in the college. Asking questions easily answered on the college website or stammering you don’t have any does not leave a good impression. So take the time to think about what it would be like to be a student at each of these colleges, think about some of the things you’d like to know (eg “With my intended major in Underwater Basket Weaving, will I be able to spend a semester abroad in Albania and still graduate on time?”) They may need to get back to you on some questions, that’s not a problem</p>
<p>I do alumni interviews for a top university - it is not Georgetown, just a little farther north. While the "Why [insert school here] question may be okay to think about, what the interviewer is trying to get from you is a sense of YOU. Something that has not come through in the application where the Why [insert school here] question is usually asked and answered.</p>
<p>I ask questions about a favorite book, what summer vacation they liked best and why, what current event most interests them (gives me a sense of whether they are paying attention to the world and not just their books). There are no right or wrong answers and every interviewer will do it differently. What we are told to gauge is how you see this applicant fitting into the school. So on that note, you may want to know something about the school so you can show, in whatever answers you give, how you can add to the school.</p>
<p>Also, a recitation of what you have done in high school is not helpful. The admissions committee will already have it. Again, try to show how you will fit into the school and what you think you can add to the vibe of the campus. This could be anything from becoming a board member of the Young Republicans, taking the lead in organizing the Gay Pride Parade to being a stage hand/director for the theater. But let you come through. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This.</p>
<p>In my interview, I mentioned that I had recently been to DC. Probably not unusual for a lot of Georgetown applicants.</p>
<p>My interviewer asked me to tell him about the trip and what I liked most about it. At that point, instead of launching into a patriotic paean to one of the solemn marble monuments, I started gushing about how awesome I found the Folger Shakespeare Library. It was genuinely the highlight of my trip, and I got giddy just talking about it. </p>
<p>I’d been on a mission to read every Shakespeare play during the preceding year, so when I was dumped on the National Mall and told “Go wherever you like and be back in four hours,” of course I made a beeline for the small building behind the Capitol, easily overshadowed by the neighboring Library of Congress, that said Shakespeare on it.</p>
<p>At the time, I was just answering honestly. I wasn’t strategic at all about my college interviews. I’d had to interview already to get into my high school, and I’d learned thereby that admissions interviews were little more than a good conversation. I had no idea that people drilled and practiced for them. Perhaps my perception was incorrect, but it served me well and enabled me to be quite relaxed about the whole procedure.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I can see that moment when I sang the praises of the tiny library I loved madly as the pivotal moment of the interview – the moment when I said, “Here’s me at the absolute height of my excitement about poetry, literature, and learning.” </p>
<p>I’m not sure it would have been so pivotal if I’d been planning it, though. “OK, the interview is 62% over, time to tell my ‘demonstrating passion’ anecdote”…somehow I imagine this would have had less of a genuine spark to it.</p>
<p>So let you come through.</p>
<p>But don’t plan too much, lest your own planning become an obstacle to that. </p>
<p>Just be yourself, and dress well for the interview!</p>