<p>Thanks for the great advice.</p>
<p>Would there be a certain time-limit to how long each question is expected to be?</p>
<p>eg. The question about the hardships faced in high school might take a while to answer because it’s pretty loaded.</p>
<p>jungian: if you’ve followed the thread, you see that most interviews are like conversations. If you asked a friend if she’s had a hard day, do you limit her time telling you that she has?</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. Really helps, God bless!</p>
<p>I can understand why people fuss over what to wear; its one of the things you can control completely in advance. I’m an interviewer for my university and I have had people show up very casually and very formally. When I interview, I am trying very hard to put the candidate at ease (and to be at ease myself). The clothing should not interfere with that.</p>
<p>If you wear a suit all the time (that tiny, tiny percentage of HS students male or female) and you feel comfortable in a suit, there is no problem wearing a suit. If you never wear one, it is likely to make it harder for you to relax, and you will come across as uncomfortable. Anyone who has ever seen news footage showing some petty criminal dressed up in a suit for trial has encountered this. You definitely don’t want the “defendant” look.</p>
<p>The opposite side of the coin is that you do want to show that you care about the interview. That badly ripped t-shirt and cut-off jeans may not work well with all interviewers.</p>
<p>Basically, you are looking for presentable, comfortable clothes in which you feel at ease.</p>
<p>Strong caveat: This is modified by both the interviewer (there are a lot of us, and your milage may vary) and by the location for the interview. I normally choose coffee bars for my interviews, but others interview at their offices, or almost any other location. Dress appropriately.</p>
<p>If you need to make a sartorial choice that you have some doubts about, or if you are genuinely unsure as to the appropriate clothing for the location, then ask the interviewer when setting up the interview (“Ummm… I’m coming straight from work, is it ok if I wear my Happy Burger uniform to the interview?” or “Given that the interview is at the beach, is a bathing suit appropriate?”). Both of these are exaggerated a little for effect; I am unaware of any beach interviews, but there may well have been one.</p>
<p>One last note, I want both people in the chat to be comfortable. Certain choices make that harder. As a rule, see-through clothing or very revealing clothing makes for a difficult interview. That applies for both men and women. It just makes it harder for both people to be at ease.</p>
<p>I have Asperger’s, and I don’t have good eye contact. This is why I’m going to try and stay away from interviewing…</p>
<p>On the other hand, I want to know why students are interviewing applicants. If we are going to be paying upwards of $30K a year, I think the least they can do is have an employee interview us. The idea of a student interviewing me is like a popularity contest all over again. I fail at those.</p>
<p>kartwheelie,</p>
<p>I do kind of see your point. The thing is though, they aren’t looking for a lot of answers to their questions that have come about from your application. That’s what a traditional job interview is like. We have reviewed your application and want to bring you in to talk more about your application. It is a second step. For college interviews, it’s often part of the holistic approach. This means that they are not looking for more information regarding your paper application, but rather more information in general to add to your file. The information they are looking for is regarding a lot of non-academic stuff, whether or not you would fit in well at the school, your personality, etc.; things that a student or other non-suit is able to find out more easily than say a guy behind a desk wearing a suit asking you questions.</p>
<p>To a certain extent it also is a popularity contest, but it’s not really like those of high schools. Instead of looking for who is the prettiest, or is wearing the coolest jeans or nicest shoes, or who has the best toys, we are looking for personality. For example, where I am at, we have a reputation of being a pre-med powerhouse, but not one of a cutthroat nature. If you are really highly competitive, and will strive to achieve what you want at all costs regardless of anyone else, then we really don’t want you here. Finding out that about you, however, is more of an art…</p>
<p>Finally, it shows a lot of maturity to be able to identify your own weaknesses. I applaud you for identifying that interviewing may not be the best for you and might not help your application, so you will stay away from it. Only doing things that help your application is a very important part of applying to colleges.</p>
<p>This is extremely helpful. I wish I had seen this earlier. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>I second Boston’s comment. This is really great; thanks for posting 
Now im kinda looking forward to my interview next week</p>