I have an interview for Princeton University coming up and I really need to make a good impression because my grades aren’t 100% at Princeton standards. They aren’t horrible, they are actually quite good, but Princeton’s average gpa is 4.04 out of 4.0…so, yeah.
What should I expect in this interview? I am expecting questions like “Why Princeton?”, “What are you looking to study and why?” “Tell me about yourself”, but what else. I did a little research on my interviewer and they seem very nice and we have exchanged emails.
Also how should I dress? My interview is after school and about 20-30 mi away.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
You should wear something that you would wear to school. Be comfortable but not too relaxed- if you are a girl, a nice dress and flats always works. If you’re a boy, khakis and a polo or a button down works. Don’t dress up too much, but you want to look like you’re taking it seriously.
You should probably expect some questions about your family/life growing up, your school (What do you like about your high school? What do you not like? What course was your biggest challenge?) and a big focus on your extracurriculars (why do you do what you do?) Sometimes the interviewers will throw you a curve ball and ask something like “If you were a fruit or vegetable, what would you be?” although these are more rare.
What I’ve learned from doing over 10 interviews is that the best thing you can do is be yourself. Try to hav efun, and enjoy sharing your stories.
And make sure to have some questions for the interviewer!!
I just had mine today, and my interviewer did ask those three questions. I am an international student (we only got to have the interview through facetime) so a few minutes at the start was also devoted to talking about the school I go to. He also asked if I’ve looked through the websites and seen any specific offerings that I was interested in, if there were any difficulties I’ve encountered in high school, and what some of my favorite books are.
The conversation lasted an hour, although i feel that if we met in person it would have been longer-- didn’t really feel like it though!
My Princeton interview last year was actually really informal, and it was more informative than evaluative. The interviewer did ask me the standard questions like “tell me about yourself,” “what do you see yourself doing in the future,” “why pton,” etc, but most of the time was actually spent by him telling me about his experience at princeton and him answering the questions I’d prepared (definitely prepare questions to ask). Don’t stress to much about it; the evaluation the interviewer sends to the admissions committee doesn’t hold much sway unless you’re on the borderline and your interview either went well or badly.
I had my interview a few weeks ago. It was awesome! My interviewer even bought me a coffee so it’s nothing to stress over. They do ask you those 3 questions, but I was asked what my favorite TV show was and some other random questions. I also had to talk about community service since that is a very important aspect of Princeton. You really need to know specifically why Princeton out of all the other ivies, especially if you applied SCEA like me.
I wore a dress with a scarf. Casual dressy. Nothing over the top, but look like you care.
Oh! And ask questions about Princeton. Never turn that down.