Interview dilemma

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

I am finished with interviews now, but I wanted to ask what you guys think is the best course of action in this scenario.

I just had my alumni interview. The interviewer was probably in his late 40s, and was nice. I could definitely tell that he enjoyed Brown, but here is where the problem came in.

From the context of the conversation, I was able to gather that 1) (he told me this) his first year at Brown, he was a far-right conservative, as opposed to the typical Brown stereotype of pretty liberal. 2) he was a ROTC at Brown 3) he was in the military for four years after graduating and 4) he was Catholic (I found this out after the question below came up). I definitely got the vibe that while he seemed tolerant of most people, he was very much the serious professional type that was not fond of overly personal/emotional statements. The question “what makes you different from other applicants/what sense of perspective do you bring to the student body?” came along and I had difficulty answering the question.

I wanted to say what I had written in my essays before - I have gained a unique sense of perspective through my experiences as an LGBT (G) person growing up in a very Catholic environment (and at a Catholic high school to boot). My experiences as a member of the LGBT community have been essential to my personal development and have shaped who I am presently.

I tried to describe my experiences from the above paragraph in the most abstract terms possible, but clearly it was difficult for him (or anyone, really) to understand what I was trying to say. So I steered clear of essentially “coming out”. I felt as though doing so would leave a negative impression of myself in the mind of the interviewer and did not want him to think less of me. I am not trying to generalize here, but I know a lot of people with similar personalities who are not supportive of LGBT persons (especially Catholics).

This might seem a bit “overly sentimental”, but in the context of the interview it made a lot of sense. I do not think my inability to answer the one question particularly well affected my interview that much as a whole, but I just wanted to see what people think about the correct course of action in this sort of situation.

2

No dilemma – you’re just over-thinking this. I know it’s difficult but your only rational option is to move on and stop worrying about water under the bridge. Interviews mean almost nothing in 99% of cases in the overall evaluation. It’ll be fine.

3

I also think you should not worry about it, although it sounds like the guy was left wondering what you were talking about. I think, for future, that if you aren’t going to be ‘out’ in an interview, that you just treat that like a personal information and you answer the question without regard to being gay. Surely there is something else you have to talk about. Where I come from it isn’t a super remarkable thing and there are many gay people at Brown too. Good luck.