<p>I just conducted my interview with an MIT alumni today. The interview lasted approximately 15 minutes and the only questions I was asked was about my extracurricular activities and the “Why MIT?” question. It is my understanding that my interviewer was studying for finals at grad school, but is the length of my interview something I should be concerned about?</p>
<p>Should I request a new interviewer? I emailed interview@mit, and they said i could have interview anytime until application is due. I’ve been trying to get ahold of my interviewers for the past 20 days and have had no luck. And if I end up being jipped of my interview, will it be equivalent to a waived interview?</p>
<p>^Yeah, you should e-mail them to get a new EC. That was wat I did.</p>
<p>So I contacted my first EC close to a month ago. He responded a week ago saying he didn’t have time. I contacted MIT and they switched my EC. I emailed my new EC on the 8th (because that was when I was notified of my new EC), and it is now the 11th and I have not heard from him. There is a phone number along with it, would it be rude to call him even though it has only been a few days? Also, I can still interview after the 10th, right?</p>
<p>:/ seems like all MIT interviewers are kinda busy. My UChicago interviewer (a business man) took his time to drive all the way to my town to interview. How nice of him.</p>
<p>No answers for me either…emailing <a href=“mailto:interview@mit.edu”>interview@mit.edu</a></p>
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No, it’s not rude. Emails can always be stuck in spam filters, or people could be away from email. Explain your situation and you should be fine.</p>
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Right. The 10th is just the deadline to contact your interviewer.</p>
<p>Awesome. Thank you so much</p>
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<p>No, it won’t. It will be an interview that did not take place. MIT does not waive an interview unless an interview was not possible. Now, if your EC was legitimately uncontactable (heck he/she might have died), then they MIGHT vaguely possibly waive the interview. But I doubt it. Contact <a href=“mailto:interview@mit.edu”>interview@mit.edu</a>.</p>
<p>My interview was yesterday and I must say, it was really a great experience! We talked for about an hour about many interesting topics and towards the end the EC told me about his experience at MIT.</p>
<p>I think the best way to ‘prepare’ for it if at all is to know yourself (this is really helpful - reflect about 4 or 5 years back, see what you did since then and try to remember why you did those things, what they taught you etc.) and remember some fun anecdotes from your life that bring out your personality.</p>
<p>Be polite, dress well (this is more to help your own confidence than for the EC), and have fun. Best of luck! :)</p>
<p>If you call the admissions office they’ll switch your interviewer if they don’t respond or couldn’t accommodate you. They were extremely nice about it and they got me another EC right away. And as far as the Dec 10 deadline I think you can still try to contact your EC after that but they no longer have to accept your request.</p>
<p>The interview is actually really really nice. It’s just a casual conversation and if you know yourself and have some idea on why you want to go to MIT, it’ll go smoothly. I know people say it a lot but you have to be yourself. Maybe think of a couple things you want to know about you or some anecdotes to share who you are. They’re just there to help you get in. There’s not a lot of pressure or tricky questions. They really just want to know about you. And don’t order food that’s messy or tricky to eat. It’s kind of embarrassing having them watch you tussle with your food.</p>
<p>Did anyone else have an interview that lasted anywhere close to 2-3 hours? I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’ve heard mixed responses…</p>
<p>Oh derp, my interviewer’s son is taking AP Chemistry, the same class I TA for. Not sure if that’s a good thing lol, I hope her son was satisfied with my grading.</p>
<p>Finally I don’t require an interview, I phoned MIT’s Interview Office and explained my situation to them (that the EC can’t accommodate an interview for me), and the officer said that its completely fine that if you can’t have an interview, she said that since I live in UAE, they are aware that applicants in my region have limited interviewers and so therefore are a bit considerate for applicants in my region, now I hope everything goes well! :D</p>
<p>This has been bugging me for over a month, but when an interviewer asks that (What do you do after school?), is she/he asking about extracurricular activities, or about the every-day semi-conscious doings that we commit ourselves to?</p>
<p>My MIT interviewer asked this question and I just kept spewing out a bunch of defined activities I participate in, such as running and playing card games, but I never talked about the activity that is part of who I am–the one in which I make games out of everything, be it crafting worlds out of legos, drawing up board games and card games with paper and pencil, editing the code and storyline of video games, using Pokemon cards to create a world of trainers, or drawing up worlds in Microsoft Paint–all of which my friends and cousins can explore and in which I’m the narrator. I can’t believe I didn’t speak a word of this to my interviewer, and the only reason I can think of as to why not is because it’s not a defined activity that I have to consciously tell myself to do. It’s something I do because I just like seeing others’ reactions to and enjoyment from my creations.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your particular interviewer meant precisely by that question, but your answer certainly wasn’t inappropriate, even if in hindsight you didn’t include everything you would have liked to have talked about. (It happens to all of us!)</p>
<p>A piece of advice for future interview opportunities, from my PhD advisor – when asked a question in an interview or other professional situation, don’t overanalyze the question ten levels deep and try to guess exactly what she wants you to answer and oh my god what does she MEAN by that question and clearly she has uncovered all of my most fundamental weaknesses! Just answer the question that was asked, and if the interviewer wants to ask a follow-up, rest assured that she will.</p>
<p>I usually just ask the interviewer if (s)he is referring to extracurricular activities or hobbies. The interviewer will respond saying both are fine, which is an opportunity to talk about both conventional and not-so-conventional activities.</p>
<p>^ Are hobbies not extracurricular?</p>
<p>I totally agree that the OP didn’t botch his interview. But for other people reading this, interviews aren’t like exams. You don’t have to exactly respond to the questions you get. I try to plan out in my mind, before the interview, all the key things I want the interviewer to know about me before it’s over. Then I do everything I can to work all that into my answers, no matter what they ask me.</p>
<p>I had my interview today. The guy was a real stoic! I couldn’t elicit any emotional response from him, lol. our interview only lasted like 25-30 minutes too. what have your mit interviews been like?</p>
<p>^^i told that to my dad (mit undergrad, then grad, then teacher) and he said “it sounds like he’s representing the school well” ROFL</p>
<p>Woooh my interview went really well. I’m so relieved. :)</p>