<p>or
"Is there anything else you'd like me to add to your application?"</p>
<p>I always get these questions at interviews and I don't know how to respond to them!
I feel like it'd be inappropriate to tell your interviewer to include an achievement to your application or something like that
But I feel like it sounds so dull and unprepared if you just answer "No, thanks."</p>
<p>What do I say?</p>
<p>The interviewer is ready to end the interview and he is asking you whether there is some concluding point or points that you’d like to add.</p>
<p>Don’t say “no thanks”. You’re losing an opportunity to highlight some aspect of your application. Also don’t take more than at most 3-5 minutes at this point. The interviewer is not asking for a major extension to the interview. He’s being polite, and he’s also providing you an opportunity for a closing comment.</p>
<p>Some closing points:</p>
<p>(1) Perhaps there is a major achievement in you background that you or the interviewer mentioned/questioned only briefly. Perhaps the interviewer did not fully appreciate the depth of the achievement. So take a minute or so to remind the interviewer of what this was and then expand on it.</p>
<p>(2) Perhaps there is an achievement that is extraordinarily important to you and you want to stress it. Do this without repeating what you’ve already said. Talk about it from some new dimension.</p>
<p>(3) Stress your interest in the college. Ideally do this with “special” knowledge. For example if your passion is music composition do some research ahead of the interview. Then perhaps mention (with a level of depth and interest) that you’ve researched the work of the professor in the music composition department and why it interests you.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, keep it brief. Demonstrate interest. Be genuine.</p>
<p>Thanks!
How would I bring it up though? I feel like it’d be hard to just start talking about another accomplishment without sounding like you’re bragging or begging the interviewer to include nice things about you.</p>
<p>Although I briefly mentioned it on my application, my opportunity to do XYZ was important to me because … My ability to do XYZ made me … and this is something i will bring to campus at your school. You are trying to get the interviewer to say nice things about you and its not “begging”. It is a challenge to sell yourself without sounding pompous but this is an important life skill. Try practicing this with a parent or parent of a friend and get feedback.</p>
<p>I usually ask a question like this towards the end of the interview. It’s an opportunity for the applicant to :</p>
<p>1) Highlight any new information in the applicant’s profile since application submittal. </p>
<p>2) Reaffirm their interest in the school.</p>
<p>-Alumni Interviewer, Top 10 School</p>
<p>Okay I’ll make sure not to say “nope we covered it all” next time then… haha</p>
<p>What if they ask you “Do you have any more questions?” multiple times? During my interview today I asked 3 - 4 good, detailed questions during the interview, so when he asked at the end I didn’t really have anything else to ask. What’s the best thing to do then?
I’ve tried keeping one question as a “final question”, but sometimes that doesn’t work. </p>
<p>With the “Is there anything else you’d like to cover” question its just a catch-all in case you forgot to talk about something. So have a list of every activity/award you would want to talk about. I usually tie a couple of my extracurriculars together, or talk about one ec that I don’t always mention, and say I want to do something like that in college. I think the “talk about your interest” idea is a good one too. </p>
<p>Even it feels like you’re bragging, at some point you have to get over it and say “I am really excited/passionate about/intrigued/interested in X, and I have done this, and it has been a learning/intellectual/fascinating experience for me.”</p>
<p>So I will sometimes ask “do you have any more questions” several times during an interview, because I see the interview as an opportunity for the candidate to learn more about the school. If the candidate has asked a few solid questions and answers no when I ask if they have any more questions, I don’t think anything of it. However, if the candidate has no questions whatsoever during the interview, I see it as a lack of interest in the school.</p>