First of all, don’t be scared! Try to let go of the nerves too. Don’t be intimidated; your interviewer loves Penn and wants to share that passion. Your interviewer doesn’t want to trick you or set you up to fail. The interview is only a small part of a much bigger picture. A terrible interview won’t sink a strong applicant but a perfect interview won’t be enough to compensate for a weak application. Alumni interviewers do not have (and do not need) information about your grades or your test scores. We’re given your name, your contact details, the school you are applying to, and your intended major (if you indicated one). The interview is about you as a person, not about you as a numerical statistic. Review the information on the Penn site about interviews to get an idea of what to expect. http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/interview-faq and http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/freshman-admission/interviews
I handle my interviews as a conversation rather than as a job interview. My goal is to find out what a student is like, what they like, and how I feel they’d be at Penn. I find I get a better sense of that from a conversation than I do from a Q&A. Generally I’ll start out by ask about senior year: how is it going, what’s your favorite class, what electives to you enjoy, what books are you reading for English, and other questions like that. That generally is enough to get a conversation going - and where it goes from there depends on the answers.
Be prepared to talk about what you are passionate about, what you’d want to be doing when there are no other pressing constraints on time, and what excites you outside of school pursuits. Your interviewer will want to know why you’ve chosen Penn and what you’re looking forward to when you get there. An interview is a great opportunity to talk about things that didn’t quite fit on the Common App or in your personal essay. I always ask “What do you want Penn to know about you?” I also ask “Is there something you wanted to talk about that we haven’t addressed?”
By all means prepare questions. Ask the interviewer about their experiences and why they made the choice to go to Penn. A while ago @T26E4 posted this great list of questions to ask:
What made you choose Penn?
What features about it stood out from your other choices?
What good thing did you expect to find at Penn but didn’t?
Any bad things you expected to find at Penn but didn’t?
What’s your opinion of the biggest improvement at Penn since you graduated?
The biggest disappointment?
Knowing a little about me, what challenges do you think I’d encounter at Penn or similar schools?
Any advice to mitigate that?
Do you think any of my per-conceived notions are off base?
Don’t count on your memory - it’s fine to have things written down so that you don’t forget to ask or talk about something. One other thing, if you are an international applicant, you may be asked to bring some additional documents with you. If you’re not, it’s not a bad idea to have a resume handy. We’re not meant to ask for them, but some alum, especially older alums may like to see one and it’s just less awkward to have it ready to go. I never ask for one, but I will always take one if a student offers it (although I will not only thank them but also explain I don’t really need it).
I don’t think my son’s went too well. He got an MD for an alum and he’s applied to Fine Arts and is interested in music, which she also knew nothing about. Also, his blood sugar was really high, so his energy was quite low. She did say she understood about his blood sugar and he did say she was nice enough. Interview only lasted for 1/2 hour as they really didn’t have anything in common.
Is not ideal maybe, but it’s not awful. I’ve conducted interviews that were 30 minutes that were just fine.
I graduated from the college but I interview students who have applied to all the schools and to all sorts of majors. Some I know a lot about, some I don’t know as much about. That’s not really relevant to the interview which is meant to be more about what the applicant is like and what the applicant is passionate about. It is sometimes relevant to the questions a student asks, but if I don’t know the answer, I tell the student I’m not sure and I direct them to someone who has the answers. I’m pretty sure most other interviewers do the same thing.
I am very sorry that he wasn’t feeling well. Don’t worry too much - just make sure he writes he a nice thank you note.
Should that be in the mail or via email? She was mostly responsive to texts. He did send a thank you email to both her emails. Should he do something else? He really did appreciate her taking time since she’s a busy doctor. Just want to make sure he did it right.
@sbjdorlo - I think that the email is just fine; he got it right. There’s nothing else for him to do - and he doesn’t want to come off as stalkerish. Try not to overthink the interview. It really won’t be the deciding factor in the decision.
Thanks, @plmdin. I just asked my son again and he felt the interview went just fine. It was just more him asking questions about Penn and her experience than her asking him about “Why Penn?”
Hi guys: I just got an email saying I have an “unaccepted interview” in my Interview Portal. I logged onto my Admissions Portal (the only thing I have access to) and could not find anything there? Where am I supposed to look? How did you receive your invitations? For all my other colleges, they’ve come through email. And yes, I checked spam folder. I just emailed this email address back; should I also email the Admissions Office?
Hey everyone! Thanks @plmdin for the help. My interview went great (At least I think so). The interviewer was really kind and answered all my questions about Penn. The duration was 40 minutes. I chose to end it because I thought asking too many questions might bore or offend the interviewer. The interviewer asked me these questions:
Tell me about yourself.
Why Wharton? There are other business school. (From which the question arose: What do you like about the Leadership Ventures?)
What do you do in your free time?
If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would you be?
We talked about computer games, my trip to USA (I’m an Indian), his business, classes in Wharton, best experience, worst experience, and so on.
I think it went well. I told him that I am a keyboard player. I’ve won some competitions. Learned the art for 7 years. Been to national soccer competition. Been to a national singing competition. Anchored on several occasions in school. Like computer games, movies, and sometimes, learn new concepts in physics and solve math problems (sometimes!). I guess that’s about it. But one of the main things that I forgot to tell him was that I went to USA ALONE when I was just 17 years old, and that on the day of the interview I had come alone 700 Km away from home. I think that would have just given a nice impression. Anyways nothing I can do now.
I also sent a thank you note.
Can anyone predict my result?
TOEFL 104, and Math Level 2 750, Physics 760.
Class rank: 1
GPA (converted from % using, GPA= [(%)/20] - 1): 3.56
SAT: M 690, W 550, R 590, Essay 6 (BAD!!! I KNOW!) Total 1830. M+R 1280.
I’m the Head Boy of my school, which I also forgot to tell the guy (KILL ME NOW! PLEASE).
ECs already explained above.
Of course he can call, especially if there is a number listed in the e-mail. I always contact my interviewees by phone. Most times they don’t answer and I leave a message. You know how teens can be about answering calls from numbers they don’t recognize. Once they listen to the message, they always call back.
