<p>Well I got an email offering me an interview. I'm very nervous :S especially since this would be my very first interview. Any advice?</p>
<p>BTW could an interview possibly help your chances of being accepted? Hurt you?</p>
<p>ooh lucky! ahha. just wondering, when did you send your application in?</p>
<p>I know that interviews can in fact help you, but they wont boost you that much. Well interviews, as so i have heard, wont keep you from getting accepted, unless you trash talk Columbia (which would just be stupid). Good luck!</p>
<p>I sent in my application on October 28.</p>
<p>Alright…I’ll probably need the help (even if it’s a little)…who doesn’t 
, so Ill go, but I’m so nervous :S</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I understand your nervousness, if I get one, i’ll be scared out of my mind! haha. But I realize that these interviews are just to see who you are, and you’ve been yourself for the past 17 or 18 years, so it theory, it shouldnt be anything to worry about.</p>
<p>Let’s hope that theory is the same as reality XD</p>
<p>BTW good luck to you if you get one too ;)</p>
<p>Here’s some general advice for interviewing. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/246098-thread-college-interviews.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/246098-thread-college-interviews.html</a></p>
<p>But NO, your interview offer does not indicate potential accept or reject. They try to interview everyone.</p>
<p>That’s great news! It will only help! They don’t offer all applicants interviews right? There’s obviously some sort of a short list? I might be saying this because I’m an international and that’s what it’s like in my country.
Don’t be nervous- they love confidence!</p>
<p>Getting an interview is a metter of whether there is a member of the alumni society in your area and how many people have applied in your area. If there are not enough alumnus for all applicants, then it is a matter luck.</p>
<p>A lil’ off topic here but, is an interview still viable? Like, if I scheduled an interview today and got interviewed next week, would it affect my admission or is it too late as it would be after Nov 1st?</p>
<p>@T26E4 and Maneoc: I understand that, but there must be a point to the interview as well as the report that the alumni writes about you (during the interview). Otherwise, it would just be pointless. Of course I’m not saying that interviews help at the same level of having a high GPA/SAT etc etc, but they probably do help, even if its slightly. Otherwise, what’s the point of them?</p>
<p>I think keeping the alumni involved with their school makes them feel good when they take their checkbooks out!! Especially the very successful ones! Any truth to that? Anyone?</p>
<p>Oh I was replying to the person who said something about a shortlist. I thought that he was implying that this shortlist of people to interview were some how stronger candidates. On retrospect he didn’t seem imply that, so nevermind my post.</p>
<p>Yes, a good interview will absolutely boost your chances. It gives them important information to judge you off of, since an major part of the selection process is finding the students who add most to campus life, and obviously a report of the applicant’s face-to-face communications skills are important to understanding that.</p>
<p>Well the interviewer and I agreed on a time, date, location (cafe). But one very important question that I forgot to ask: How will I know who is the interviewer in the cafe?</p>
<p>He probably should have told you this or you should have asked.</p>
<p>I’ve heard stories of interviews going terribly wrong because the interviewer and interviewee could not recognize each other.</p>
<p>Try to call or email back and ask how they can be identified, and let them know how you can be identified. That way there will definitely be no mistake.</p>
<p>Ok great! Ill do that. Thanks Maneoc.</p>
<p>I’m going to be interviewing kids this year, in case there’s any misconception:</p>
<p>Interviews are given out on the basis of alumni availability in your area, if there are too many applicants as there normally are, then it’s random. Kids from manhattan for example are interviewed at a very high (possibly 100% rate). This is because there is such a high concentration of alums in manhattan. </p>
<p>An interview can become a very important part of your profile. While getting one or not getting one doesn’t reflect chances, once you get one it’s important to have a good interview. A really bad interview report will hurt your chances and a great interview report will boost chances, and help you stand out. You can still get in with a bad interview and you can definitely still get rejected with a good interview, but it plays a significant role.</p>
<p>Here’s some advice:</p>
<p>1) be genuine, we aren’t looking for a corporate executive or a university professor, it’s ok to use some informal language like “awesome”, “cool”, “gotcha”, “wow” etc. make sure you don’t sound like a surfer though. If your language tends to be too informal, then practice speaking more formally. But it’s fine to sound like a normal 17/18/19 year old. Also practice speaking slowly and clearly, while not making it seem forced, this will give you more time to think when answering questions and make you less nervous. </p>
<p>2) Balance being calm and enthusiastic, if you can’t find the balance then go with enthusiastic. it’s easy to explain away nervousness, it’s not easy to explain away a lack of interest. An interviewer would love to see someone who is confident and poised but at the same time passionate and genuinely interested in the school.</p>
<p>3) Show interest by doing research, if you know specific organizations on campus (like the columbia spectator, an acapella group, the marching band etc.) or specific core classes (like lit hum, art hum etc) or specific big name professors, or specific traditions (like the tree lighting ceremony, semesterly pillow fight etc.) feel free to bring them up, as long as you can cite a few things specific to columbia, it’ll show that you have not just applied on a whim. </p>
<p>4) smile once in a while and try to enjoy the interview, a flowing conversation will work well in your favor. </p>
<p>5) prepare questions (3-4 at least) which you plan to ask the interviewer, again try to make these less generic and more specific to your interests and specific to columbia. </p>
<p>example of a good question: “I really enjoy learning about and arguing politics, and I know columbia brings in heads of state every year at their world leaders forum, did you ever get a chance to go to such an event, and do you find that hosting such speakers encourages debate on campus?”</p>
<p>6) compile a small list of examples that you plan to talk about, interviewers have access to your extra-curricular activities, and will probably ask you about them, so if you are president of a club, think about some challenges that you’ve faced, think about some initiative that you’ve taken, something that you love about your life outside of the classroom etc.</p>
<p>7) get a good night’s rest before your interview, it will help you stay calm and more lucid during the interview, you don’t want to be losing your train of thought multiple times, or forgetting things that you intend to say </p>
<p>The interview is a chance for columbia to gauge your personality and character, interviewers are instructed not to pry too much into academic achievements, because those are all listed on the application and is obvious to the admissions committee. If the interviewer enjoys talking to you, chances are they’ll write a good report. </p>
<p>Finally interviewers signed up for the job because they’re still enthusiastic about columbia (none of us are being paid to do it), so part of the interview will be the interviewer selling you on columbia. During this time nod and smile, show interest and perhaps ask a question or two related to what the interviewer is selling you on, feel free to ask relevant questions even if the interviewer hasn’t finished their full story, they’ll (hopefully) enjoy answering them and take it that you are genuinely interested in what they are saying.</p>
<p>Thank you confidentialcoll!
How do you think it differs having an alum that is say 60 years old? I looked up her up… Has she been doing this for 35 years? What questions should the kids be prepared to answer? Does Columbia give you a few questions to ask? What does the info sheet look like that you have to send back to them?</p>
<p>I’d like to make a nuanced veering away from posts 12 and 16. Post 12 said a great interview will significantly boost one’s chances. I disagree. If a person is not very viable by other measures, even the BEST interview won’t get them in the door. A saying is “you can breath some life into the living but you can’t revive the dead”.</p>
<p>I’ve interviewed for a Columbia peer school starting my 20th year this year. I’m fully cognizant that my 45-60 minutes with a student and my write up notes have extremely limited utility to my alma mater. So does my alma mater. I agree with post 16 that in *some limited * cases, an interview can be substantially positive.</p>
<p>In some cases, it can fill in gaps. Two students from a top urban HS in my area applied to my alma mater but the teacher recs, while supportive, only contained bland generalities. Otherwise, the applicants looked super and the committee was inclined to offer admits but slightly hesitant. Once the 2 alum interview reports came in (which gave concrete examples of the students’ characteristics), the committee confidently gave offers of admit. </p>
<p>But you see, it filled a specific unfilled need by the admissions committee. </p>
<p>In my many interviews, I see that often, seemingly spectacular students are passed by. I’m fine with that. I know I only see a thin slice of the student in a pretty rehearsed situation. I don’t see the rest of his/her file. I also know the near 30K applications my school is now getting driving down the admit rate to crazy low numbers. Over the last two years, I’ve interviews almost 30 kids, about four of whom I thought were super and stated so in my notes – even relative to the very competitive pool of applicants. Of this entire group, only one wait list – all the rest were rejected.</p>
<p>confidentialcoll: you’ll be a great ambassador for Columbia. Good luck w/your interviews. A word of caution though: you’re an advocate for Columbia first and foremost – not the student in front of you. Cold? Maybe. But it’ll help you as you go through your fifth and sixth candidate whom you initially feel should be a “slam dunk” admit.</p>
<p>I have a business partner who has conducted alumni interviews for his alma mater (an Ivy peer of Columbia) for over 25 years. Every year he interviews five to ten candidates. He finds many of them very impressive. Only two have ever been admitted. He receives an annual Christmas card from one of them. (His son is a freshman at Columbia.)</p>
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<p>that is a peer school of columbia which might have entirely different standards for interviews. Some schools state that the interview is purely informational and not evaluative, I have been told this by an alum interviewer of a Columbia peer school, who interviewed me 4-5 years ago. Columbia interviews are definitely evaluative, and might well be different from the school you are familiar with. I was a borderline applicant to columbia on paper and I absolutely rocked my columbia interview 4-5 years ago (after my acceptance, I got in touch with my interviewer and he told me that I was the best of 30-40 kids he interviewed that year), as a result I was the only kid columbia took from my (competitive) school that year, quite a few had great ECs and better grades and SATs than me. </p>
<p>I know several alumni interviewers, and they too have seen that they have the ability to prevent a top student who might be arrogant in person and completely uninterested in columbia from getting in, they also have the ability to get a good (not necessarily great on paper) student in, if they find that the person is interesting, excited to learn, excited about columbia. The admissions committee also told all of us that the interview when performed is one of the most important parts of the application. </p>
<p>Some alums will feel like they have low influence because they might be giving too many students top interview grades. If they interview 20 one year and give 5-6 students the highest rating, it begins to devalue the meaning of that highest rating, so the admissions committee cannot separate the top from the very top.</p>
<p>If you’re a below average applicant then a stellar interview will not get you in, and if you’re truly an awesome applicant, then a bad interviewer can be passed off as a bad day or a special disconnect with your particular interviewer.</p>
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<p>I’m entirely aware of this, I have interviewed 30-40 columbia students for various positions on campus, and I have definitely gotten past the stage of thinking everyone is fantastic because they try. I’m actually quite a hard interviewer, I feel that is the only way to separate the good from the great. I appreciate the advice though, and I will keep it in mind when I interview, thanks.</p>