<p>No Token, what I advocate is giving the college the information the applicant wants the college to have. If we are talking about a "well-negotiated result" (your words), then the art of negotiation is in control of information, supplying the information that most supports the goal, not full disclosure. An artful response might be, "I'm looking at colleges with strong writing programs" with a segue into why that is important to the applicant - as opposed to giving the name of a specific college.</p>
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<p>This is expecting some quick and sophisticated thinking on the part of an inexperienced high school student.</p>
<p>Also, the interviewer has a number of years and boatloads more experience than the interviewee.</p>
<p>Sounds like it might be necessary to coach the student, prior to the interview – but then is the student providing an honest self-portrayal?</p>
<p>"I think that frank, unabashed honesty about a college and about yourself might be a refreshing change of pace for the admissions officer reading your file. That might help distinguish you from many other similar applicants. </p>
<p>What do the rest of you think about honesty as a hook?"</p>
<p>I am baffled that this question is posted. I am an alum interviewer for Harvard, and I expect students to be honest.When students are not honest (and I have caught students in lies), I do note that in my interview report.</p>
<p>Being “honest” doesn’t mean blathering about anything that strikes your fancy. For instance, if one of the reasons that a student partiicipated in an EC because their romantic partner was in it, that’s not something to mention in an interview. Presumably, the student also had some other reasons for belonging to the organization or found other reasons once the student joined, and those are what the student should mention in an interview. Talking about the romantic partner would seem silly, and would not be a hook.</p>
<p>I’ve posted this before but my brother was accepted at Stanford even though he sent the application a day late and wrote about how he tended to procrastinate. I’m sure he wrote about himself in a funny and witty way, but I also believe that the adcoms probably found his honesty about his foible refreshing.</p>
<p>NSM, but would it be so bad to say something like “I joined xyz EC for a silly reason, my boyfriend of the time was involved, but then I fell in love with the EC and have gone on to do abc activities because of it”? I think it makes you sound more human.</p>
<p>Well, of course I really agree with Northstarmom here. But I was prompted to post back when I first posted, and prompted to link to this old thread again recently, after seeing how much effort students go through just to spin their self-presentation to look better to colleges.</p>
<p>Token,</p>
<p>In general, honesty is obviously a good thing. And generally speaking both students and colleges should be honest. </p>
<p>However, in the admissions process, up to the moment when the acceptances are sent out, the colleges are in the position of power. There are questions they should not be asking (like where else are you applying, for example), but they do.</p>
<p>If you honestly answer to any school’s “Why X?” with “because I need a safety school, and you are the best one for me”, almost all will be sure to waitlist or reject you.</p>
<p>“NSM, but would it be so bad to say something like “I joined xyz EC for a silly reason, my boyfriend of the time was involved, but then I fell in love with the EC and have gone on to do abc activities because of it”? I think it makes you sound more human.”</p>
<p>The time for one’s interview is limited, so I suggest answering in honest ways that will most highlight one’s strengths. I see no reason to mention the boyfriend as part of one’s answer to the question. If the student views the reason as “silly,” I see no reason to mention it. </p>
<p>A better answer would be, “I joined XYZ after hearing about it from friends who enjoyed it. I fell in love with it because… and I became very involved in it including starting XYZ activities.”</p>
<p>I don’t see any reason for students to try to sound “human” in their interviews. When it comes to the elite schools, their interviewers also went to elite schools, and in high school had excellent grades, strong ECs, so consider students with those attributes to be “human.” One isn’t interviewing with students from the bottom of regular high school classes who may be intimidated by one’s intellect and passion for ECs and academics.</p>
<p>Actually, this worked for a young man I knew - a HYPSM grad. He was applying to med school and answered the famous “Why do you want to become a doctor?” by saying that he first got interested in the idea because his GF was premed - they used to study together, etc. The interviewer stopped him right there to say that it was the most refreshing and honest answer he’d heard! I think it may depend on the person - some could pull this off and not seem unsophisticated for it, others not as much.</p>
<p>As for the what to tell a school like Tufts during the interview - I don’t consider it being dishonest (especially early in the fall) to list several school that you are considering that are comparable to Tufts, while leaving out schools that are a reach for everybody.</p>
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True. But if Harvard rejects you as well, just because it rejects over 90% of it’s applicants, you may come to a different conclusion.</p>
<p>If someone claimed to be unusually honest, I would assume he was lying. It’s the oldest con game known.</p>
<p>Personally, I never hire someone who writes the words ‘trust’ or ‘honesty’ on their CV. I learned that lesson the hard way.</p>
<p>The reappearance of this thread is serendipitous for my d - she has an interview scheduled next week at a school that should be one of her safeties. She knows the school well and really likes it. Her stats are comfortably above its 75th percentile SAT and average GPA. Still, this mid-sized LAC has become quite a bit more selective in the past few years, and accepts a hefty percentage of students ED, which my d isn’t considering for this school. So the interview is obviously quite important.</p>
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I think a school is well within its rights to ask “why us?” And even if the most honest answer is the one above, there’s gotta be something else for a student who selected any school as a safety to talk about. I wouldn’t consider it a lapse in honesty if a student avoided the word “safety” when answering, as long as the student then honestly listed his/her reasons for liking the school. (As a school, not a safety.) If the interviewer asks my d this question, she’ll have no problem answering at length. </p>
<p>I do have a problem with asking the student where else he/she has applied. I feel it’s an unfair question that can really only hurt the applicant. My d has done a lot of thinking about how best to answer if this comes up. She’s probably not going to mention the schools on her list with bigger national reputations, nor those that are considered competitors of the school where she’s interviewing.</p>
<p>I consider this kid exceptionally honest. Certainly she’s shown a gazillion times that she can be trusted not to cheat, lie, or steal. But she’s also smart enough not to run herself through with the sword of full disclosure for its own sake. I don’t think that’s lying.</p>
<p>“But she’s also smart enough not to run herself through with the sword of full disclosure for its own sake. I don’t think that’s lying.”</p>
<p>I agree. I don’t think that students have to give the full list of all schools they are applying to.</p>
<p>"If you honestly answer to any school’s “Why X?” with “because I need a safety school, and you are the best one for me”, "</p>
<p>While honesty is fine, one doesn’t have to be brutally honest. Having a school as a safety should mean that one would be happy to go there if one doesn’t get into schools one finds more desireable. So, a student could mention the desireable features of the safety school without saying it’s a safety.</p>
<p>If the student doesn’t like the safety school and would not be happy to have to go there, that school is not a true safety.</p>
<p>I always liked the safety that I had for undergrad. In fact, I liked it so much that I very happily went there for grad school.</p>