Official Princeton Interview Thread

<p>I was told by my interviewer that she was not allowed to see my transcript or my resume. I brought a resume, and she declined to look at it -- preferring just to talk about my ec's.</p>

<p>did they ask any questions about the short answers we had to give? Like favorite book, favorite website, etc?</p>

<p>Whoa, just had mine with the director of a program in a top local university. I must say I had quite an amazing session: it was fun, and there was this constant exchange of quips, words and ideas. Always a good sign when things are moving. </p>

<p>On the other hand I think one of the toughest questions she asked was:</p>

<p>"What do you think the (Singaporean) government has done right for the economy?"</p>

<p>I was stumped. I decided to be honest about my lack of knowledge in economics and policy. But haha, tried my hand at it anyway- - so try I did, but it was such a bad job of patching thoughtless syllables nowhere! In the end, she tweaked the question bit to ask about the government and art in Singapore, which I felt was a breeze for me to answer since I was heavily involved in the arts scene. She seemed rather pleased with my response, so I am not very worried about the really really (i hope, minor) hiccup there.</p>

<p>It was a wonderful 1 hour, and yea, it was great. Oh yea, I also came out to her and I talked about the discrimination I faced while in high school. Very, very emancipating session.</p>

<p>^ before people freak out, note that cuRRent is from singapore and not the US. No you will likely not be quizzed on random facts about foreign governments.</p>

<p>LOL, I started to freak out at first! Then I realized where he was from, lol :P</p>

<p>Heh, if everyone's interview was anything like mine, just come ready to have your ego be stroked and your head stuffed. He had me convinced I was getting in and that I would be the best student Princeton ever had. Really, just amazingly relaxed. And he even joked about how other Ivies would let me in and how I should barter with them for financial aid and play them off against each other. Lol. If most Princetonians are like him....I might really like it, heh.</p>

<p>Well...unfortunately, some interviewers take it upon themselves to ask random questions. For instance, without any prompting (e.g. a demonstrated interest in foreign politics, etc.), the person who interviewed my friend asked her what her opinion was about Sarkozy and what she thinks of his economic policies. Naturally, she had no idea. When she was unable to give a satisfactory answer, the guy told her that she needed to watch CNN more often and get plugged in with world affairs. He also quizzed her about the current president of Princeton. (That reminded me about that Office episode where Andy interviews Dwight about Cornell...Great show!)
On the flip side, my interview went very well (at least I think it did!) My interviewer asked a few off-the-wall questions, but spent most of the hour talking to me about the residential college system, athletics, and social life at Princeton, the interview process in general, and asking me about my experiences playing tennis and in a city orchestra.
My interviewer did mention that interviewers are not supposed to see our grades/test scores/GPA/class rank/etc., in the event that these factors might influence how they view us in the interview. So she made me cut them out of my resume! : )</p>

<p>Does anyone know what the policy is for scores/grades/etc.? Because, in the one other interview I had, my interviewer specifically asked me, and wrote down, my class rank, GPA, SAT scores, ACT scores, and AP scores before we even got started. Looking back on the two interviews I have had so far, in one of them, the focus was on me as a person, my activities, and what I have accomplished in school and on standardized tests. In the other interview I had (this one from Princeton), the focus was, as I mentioned earlier, on the school itself and what I would do there. Has anyone else noticed this? (Both interviews were for Ivy League schools, by the way...)</p>

<p>Different schools have different guidelines that interviewers have to follow. Harvard, for example, requests SAT/ACT/grades at interviews. Princeton's policy is that these are not to be discussed.</p>

<p>my interviewer never asked for a resume, but i plan to bring one - so... the consensus is not to include any stats in it?</p>

<p>^ I never have.</p>

<p>Cross-posted from "The Thread For College Interviews":</p>

<p>I had my Princeton one a couple of days ago. My interviewer was so nice that it was intimidating, haha.</p>

<p>The first question she asked was "Why Princeton?" which TOTALLY took me by surprise since I didn't have anything planned for just straight up "WHY PRINCETON." I mean, I was planning to like... integrate stuff into OTHER answers... & definitely could have taken it on at the end... but as a first question, I was just like "LOLWUT." So I blinked for a minute & said something lame. "I mean... I wanna do science, right? And it's Princeton. So they have like amazing resources. But... they're so good at the liberal arts too, right?! And I like languages!"</p>

<p>But it went well besides that. I mean, I didn't really like how I came across (the only thing I could think of for "What might people who don't like you so much say about you?" was "Um... people might think I'm an elitist. Like, my sister says that I don't even talk to people who aren't in advanced classes!") But it was definitely good, 'cause my interviewer was really good & I learned a lot about Princeton (which is the main point of the interview!) & I also got practice with "Tell me about [x aspect of yourself that you've never thought about]"-type questions. And at the end, my interviewer gave me really good feedback: she said that she'd be writing good things about me in my report & that I gave really good answers to her questions & good examples & stuff. So that was really encouraging. (:</p>

<p>edit: Oh, and when I was leaving, I put one arm in my winter coat & like... struggled with the other one for like... 30 seconds. Then I gave up, took it off, & pretended to look for my cell phone in the pocket & then miraculously find it in my jeans pocket. And then put on my coat smoothly. I hope she was looking elsewhere. :[</p>

<p>has anyone else not been contacted yet? i got to school in NYC. its not like im somewhere where i might not get an interview or somehting. i already went on my HYS interviews. should i be concerned?</p>

<p>guynameded, I'm in the New York area (NJ suburbs), and I got a letter from my interviewer about a week ago saying that he'd contact me soon, and I haven't heard anything yet. I guess that's an indication that they just haven't gotten around to everyone yet, so I wouldn't worry.</p>

<p>ok so my interviewer called me a little over a week ago to set up an interview, but she said that "since we both have busy schedules I think we should do a phone interview." so I agreed and we set it up for today, Jan 23 at 5:00pm. well it's 5:44pm right now and I haven't gotten a call from her yet. the interviewer should be calling me for a phone interview, not the other way around, right? also, unfortunately, I don't have caller ID on my home phone so I can't look up her number, and she's never contacted me by email or anything else, so I have no way of getting in touch with her. SO, now what?</p>

<p>woo! nevermind, I just had my interview.. it was only half an hour long and an hour later :P but she seemed pretty busy and I thought it went pretty smoothly so I am content :)</p>

<p>My phone interview is in 25 minutes agrhh!
Okay i'm off for a run now. Need to clear my head :D</p>

<p>I had my Princeton interview yesterday. I was really intimidated because the interviewer was about eight feet tall.</p>

<p>The one question he asked me that really threw me off was "What other schools are you applying to?" and since he was a MIT professor and a Princeton interviewer, that really got me confused -- I thought they couldn't ask questions like that!</p>

<p>Otherwise it was just politics like what I thought of Obama's inauguration speech, what I would do to close to Guantanamo Bay and what I would do with the terrorists incarcerated there. Mostly he went through my resume and asked random things off of it. Nothing esoteric like what fruit I wanted to be (heh) :).</p>

<p>...Although I would definitely want to be a grapefruit because they're soooo delicious.</p>

<p>Just had my interview - pretty casual conversation about stuff that I do and his perspective of the school. It was at his house, so his 2-year-old was running around a little bit, but all-in-all, it was good!</p>

<p>First five minutes of my interview, we talked about the Twilight series...no joke.</p>