<p>a sweater and a semi-formal skirt. is that alright?</p>
<p>thats probably what im wearing, in any case. or nice slacks if i cant deal with a skirt, lol</p>
<p>I'll end up wearing a skirt suit, I think. I'm a forensics girl, and that's what I normally wear to meets. It works there, at any rate.</p>
<p>I don't know how helpful this will be, but this is the story of my interview. I was interviewed by one person, a Cornell senior and former TASPer, in his parents' house, so the vibe was probably much more laid-back than any multi-person office interviews would be. I wore a nice skirt and collared shirt and got there on time (hurrah!). </p>
<p>It was a difficult interview, yes, but I want to encourage the non-debaters out there. His questions for me were much more speculative, non-argument-based questions. (Example: "I see you wrote one essay about museums, and another about science fiction. What do these two things have in common?" even though I had never postulated such a thing.) Also, I have a very self-referential, story-telling-based style of speaking, and it didn't seem to hurt me any. He had a few argument-based questions on my gay rights essay, but I didn't answer the questions right away; I said "That reminds me of a neat story..." and told the neat story until, miraculously, in the middle of it, I thought of the answer.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean you can get away with "neat stories" with no purpose... my "neat stories" tend to be really brainy and art-related. </p>
<p>We also talked about my fear of the word "debate," and of the word "argue," again, I just want to tell non-debaters that there's hope. Even though I told my interviewer that "I have a strong aversion to the concept of a debate," I still got in. (I did have A REASON for hating debate, which had something to do with Quakers and a speech I made in tenth grade and St. John's College and sponges.) </p>
<p>I'm pretty sure my interview was atypical, but that's what it was. Tips:
1) Be yourself.
2) You do need to sound brainy. Maybe not dry and boring and brainy, maybe not science brainy or debate brainy or even current events brainy (I admitted that I knew little about a current events question he asked me, too) but some sort of brainy.
3) Seem friendly. Like someone I could live with for six weeks.
4) Re-read your essays but don't be frightened if not a single question is essay-based.
5) Go to UT Austin.
Good luck!</p>
<p>guys i got the letter for being a finalist however i didn't get any kind of call for the interview, should i call tasp instead?</p>
<p>same here, im just going to wait a bit longer and then call</p>
<p>because they do say, "in the next several weeks"</p>
<p>I'm still waiting for the interview call, too! =</p>
<p>Also, I got my call literally a week before the end of the interview period. Which is quite a ways from now. Maybe you have my interviewer? If so, you're made.</p>
<p>Is anyone who is getting an interview this year or has had an interview before from the South Jersey/Philadelphia area? If so, have you been contacted or what was your interview like?</p>
<p>EYYOOO fellow finalists, </p>
<p>What are y'all doing to prepare? I really-super-really-really-really much want TASP so I'm trying to get some hardcore interview preparation going. I'm going to re-read my essays, re-skim the books I listed (maybe), finish a book I said I was in the middle of (just because I KNOW they'll ask if I've finished it and I don't want to say no!), figure out my current events, look up every tough word I used in the essays just in case they test me or some such (!!), and, ahh, I guess that's all I can do.</p>
<p>What are YOU guys doing? (besides surfing this thread of course...)</p>
<p>And, past TASPers: using your stellar TASP-quality deductive reasoning, what do YOU think might separate the wheat from the chaff at the interview stage? All of us are plenty clever and awesome, because we're finalists right?, but what might be some final deciding factors do you think? For instance, could you come up with some sort of description for finalists who do get in vs. those who don't? </p>
<p>Ok enough questions, I'd better start parsing those essays!</p>
<p>yeah, how much do they get into that book list? i cant really recall some of the finer details in some of tehm...</p>
<p>I made copies of my essays for three of my teachers (two of them wrote my recs for TASP and one helped me w/ my analysis essay) for them to read over and give me a mock interview based on those. I'm going to go over the themes in each of the more serious books I listed and pick out a few funny stories in the less-serious books I listed. I also am going to go to the library and re-read a lot of periodicals. I talked a lot about modern art in my essays so I am going over modern art and artists. I need to re-watch the movies I've listed too as well as to re-research Austin. </p>
<p>I've got a lot of work to do, but my interview is on April 9th, so I'm not terribly worried about not having enough time to prepare. A friend from my school also got accepted as a finalist and her interview is this sunday, so I'll definetly ask her for pointers.</p>
<p>If you don't remember some of the books exactly, just say so.
They're human, and I don't think even the brightest of them expect you to recall every book with perfect clarity. Besides, they're not going to be running through the list and being like "Ok, you have thirty seconds to summarize. Go!"</p>
<p>I got my interview. I have some time to prepare, although not as much as I hoped. This might sound like a very childish question, but...are the interviewers nice? I'm anxious about being interviewed by three people who aren't easy to get along with.</p>
<p>Would you say it's a good sign that they don't have any interviewers in my area? I'm in Oklahoma and I called Telluride on Monday (actually got to speak with Ellen Baer) and she said they're trying to find someone in Dallas, but no luck so far. She said they'd call me when they figured something out. Maybe they want geographic diversity, so a kid from Oklahoma looks good?</p>
<p>are TASPers chosen by region at all? because i live in a pretty competitive area</p>
<p>just got my tasp call...were having it at the local barnes & noble, which i see as a good sign considering its where i spend most of my free time...</p>
<p>I got my interview call yesterday. It'll be in Dallas (a 3-hour drive for me, but no big deal) at the cafe of a hotel. My interviewer sounded really young and friendly. His name is Ezra. He said to dress anywhere from 'respectable casual' to 'business casual'. I think I'm gonna go for a pair of black pants and a nice shirt. To past TASPers: did any of you have Ezra? If so, any tips?</p>
<p>I was going to e-mail TASP on this coming Monday because I still haven't gotten my call, but seeing now that you guys are still getting calls, I am debating whether I still should. (I don't want to jump the gun.)</p>
<p>What's the latest you guys are willing to wait for the call?</p>