<p>I recently interviewed at a college (I'm choosing not say which) that was one of my top choices. However, the interview went pretty terribly in my opinion. Most of my college interviews have been highly successful, and I entered the interview with confidence. I consider myself to be an intellectual and someone who doesn't appear ditzy, but it seems that my interviewer thought differently. He began the interview by asking if this was my first interview, and then proceeded to tell me that he would ask me questions and to just tell him if I didn't understand. I felt like that was a bit of a patronizing comment, but I didn't let it bother me. However, I was even more caught off guard by the questions. He asked me if I would be able to live away from home, what my parents did for a living, and if I understood the academic rigor of the school. The first question seemed like something you might be asked on a summer camp questionnaire in the 4th grade, the second highly inappropriate, irrelevant, and presumptuous. I can understand a college trying to gain an understanding of one's socio-economic situation, but in an interview, it seems like an odd subject to broach. Also, my parents have absolutely nothing to do with me as an applicant. And finally, the last question was just plain condescending and arrogant. Am I being overreactive and are these normal interview questions that I should get used to?</p>
<p>Some interviewers follow a strict script and some ask practically anything. I think he just wanted to make sure that you weren’t feeling too nervous or confused about anything with the “first interview/tell him if you didn’t understand” comment. </p>
<p>Living away from home is a big deal and is thought about quite often by most applicants looking forward to college. Some people can’t wait to leave and be independent, others have stronger family ties/values, some have mixed feelings, etc. He may have just wanted to gauge your perceptions/emotions on that topic or use it as a random avenue for conversation. </p>
<p>I once had an interviewer ask what my parents did for a living when I said I wanted to be pre-med. I imagine if it was because he was curious if medicine ran in the family. What your parents do for a living often has a big influence on your interests and aspirations, so maybe he was just curious about how their occupations might effect you.</p>
<p>And his comment about the academic rigor may have just been to emphasize the selectivity of the school. He probably wanted to make sure that you didn’t get your hopes up regardless of your qualifications. He may have also simply wanted to outline the atmosphere at the school as being fairly competitive and challenging as compared to many other colleges. This could be his way of praising the school. Or he may have been curious about your views on being thrust in such an environment. Who knows for sure.</p>
<p>It could have been the way he badly phrased the questions or his tone of voice. I remember my Princeton interviewer seemed rude and hostile, although I doubt he had a personal grudge against me. It may have just been that his personality didn’t mix well with me or that I wasn’t used to an interviewer being quite as blunt. </p>
<p>Sometimes interviews are fairly standard and sometimes not so much. There are times when the interviewer is just reading off a sheet and asking you about your stats, and other times when you may just spend an hour discussing random topics. The chemistry between you and your interviewer may simply not have meshed this time. But don’t worry about, I’m sure you’re fine.</p>
<p>I think you are overreacting and reading way too much into some pretty innocuous questions. I hope you didn’t come off as having a chip in the interview. The main point was to get what information you can from him, like getting a bead on the academic rigor, and to conveying why you are a good fit with the school, like talking about what you have done to prepare for college level academic rigor.</p>
<p>It sounds like your interview was on-campus with an admissions officer, which makes your report surprising. However, admissions new hires typically start the job at the beginning of summer so you might simply have had a guy on his first day on the job. Also, since adcoms like to take summer vacations (they have families too) although summer is when many rising seniors visit campus, you might even have had a temp or seasonal employee doing the interview.</p>
<p>If the interview was not with an adcom but with an alumni inteviewer, the situation is easily explained. Alumni interviewers are “trained” by giving them a twenty minute powerpoint and hoping they look at it before talking to students. There is little quality control for these interviews.</p>
<p>As for the three specific questions you describe:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>(First interview?) This appears to be an innocuous introductory/start the conversation question.</p></li>
<li><p>(Away from home?) Perhaps this was his way of recognizing that you had traveled a considerable distance to visit campus. It might also have been his invitation for you to talk about your travels and thoughts about different regions of the country and world.</p></li>
<li><p>(Parents’ occupations?) One of the interviewer’s main objectives is to understand you and what has influenced you. Parents impact their children more than anyone else, and their occupations impact them more than any other activity.</p></li>
<li><p>(Acadmic rigor?) Another interview objective is to evaluate the student’s ability to succeed at the college. While this question appears an awkward way to introduce this topic, it is a necessary part of the interview. Also, this might have been the interviewer’s subtle attempt to brag about his school and try to impress you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Although you don’t name the school in question, interviews are almost always a small part of the application process to the point of being negligible. They have become more about PR than actually evaluating students. </p>
<p>You don’t describe your responses, but as long as you held your tongue and weren’t openly hostile, you should be fine.</p>
<p>No, these are not typicaly interview questions, but then again there really aren’t “typical” questions. As I mentioned above, you will likely have a broad spectrum, including some that might even be worse.</p>