<p>I had my interview for Brown University today. I had a very busy day with rowing practice, a piano lesson and then straight to the interview so I did not have quite as much time to prepare beforehand as I would have liked. Anyway, so I met my interviewer at a coffee shop. I arrived right on time and we introduced ourselves (we had contacted over email before though).
She started it off by telling my that the interview is only one part of the application and it won’t make or break me so not to be nervous. I wasn’t really that nervous, but when she started asking questions my answers didn’t exactly come out eloquently. She asked me why I wanted to go to Brown and so i answered about how there are no required courses (I know that’s not a unique answer) but I expanded it on how everyone wants to be in each class you take and that’s very important to me because I want to be around students and teachers who want to be there.
I forget exactly what else I said but then she asked about my extracurriculars. I had mentioned in an email how I am a rower so I expanded on that and how I have been rowing for 5 years but somehow I forgot to tell her I was elected co-captain this year! It says it in my application but I can’t believe I forgot! Anyway, normally I would think because her question was very general that she would be engaged in the conversation too and ask me follow up questions about my activities, however, she just kind of listened so I felt like I ended up rambling a little but I could have expanded more on each activity.
We talked a little about what I am interested in studying but again I felt like after I answered her questions she wouldn’t ask my anything further so I ended up not going as much in depth as I wanted to. In the moment I felt it was difficult to keep the conversation going.
Then, she asks me if I have any questions. It seemed like we got to the end really fast but I asked her what were some of her favorite aspects of Brown and how did it stand out to her among other schools and I asked her about study abroad.
She asked me if I had any more questions and I thought I had asked all I wanted to so I said how great it was to meet and talk with her, we shook hands and I left.
I then realized that the interview was only 20 minutes long! I was shocked and I instantly realized all the other things I could have said. I know some interviewers like to be short but I’m worried about if my interview actually went badly. In the moment I thought I discussed enough but what if I didn’t? </p>
<p>I am fairly sure that my interview will not stand out among others but I really hope it won’t have a negative impact. How much does Brown weigh their interviews? And does it sound like this interview wasn’t good or was it decent enough to not help but not hurt my application? Thank you!</p>