<p>I'm so nervous. I just was contacted to arrange my first interview. Experiences? How was your first interview?</p>
<p>don’t be nervous! Yeah, right, I’m sure that helped ;). There are some great threads on interviews, so just do a search. The best advice I have is to know the programs you are interested in, and all about the school. Do your homework! Have a couple questions that you cannot easily find on their website. They’ll ask you if you have any questions and it’s not a good idea to say, “no, I think you’ve answered everything”. Also, opinions differ on this, but I feel that your parent shouldn’t be anywhere near that interview. I waited across the street in coffee shops/bookstores when son was interviewing. You are an adult and it just shows maturity to show up and handle an admissions interview on your own.</p>
<p>as pointed out, there are plenty of other threads about interviews you can take a look at.</p>
<p>I’d suggest getting a book on job interviewing since the questions will be quite similar. Instead of “why work for X?” its “why attend X” and so on. Expect a lot of open-ended questions such as “tell me about yourself”. Its a good idea to have a friend or parent give you a mock interview before the real one. Lastly, find out if this is an evaluative interview or more of an informational outreach; a lot of colleges do the latter, having local alums interview students but the main reason is to build a bit of a bridge to the college.</p>
<p>My D did a number of interviews and they were all conversational in nature. I would suggest: (1) you go in the interview with some things you particularly like about the school (2) you prepare a few questions you have about the school and (3) you are comfortable talking about your activities/classes/if you have a planned major etc. My D wrote up a one page resume of activities that she gave the the interviewer at the start of their meeting and she felt that helped to spur on conversation. She never felt like an interviewer was trying to “trick her” or anything. Good luck.</p>