<p>DS will have three to five interviews this summer. I've seen several threads asking particular questions and thought it would be nice if there was one-stop shopping for answers. Maybe we newbies to this part of the process can post all our questions here.</p>
<p>Here are mine (for now!)</p>
<p>1) Should the student take a resume to the interview? Ds, obviously, hasn't applied to any schools yet, so an interviewer would have no app to reference. I was thinking a resume could be used as a starting point for conversation. Good idea or bad?</p>
<p>2) If you are not sure what you want to major in, is it a problem to say you're not sure? Ds has an area he thinks he's interested in, but I'm betting it will change. He took the corresponding AP class this past year and, while he made an A, he didn't really enjoy it. He is not so passionate about it that he's looked up who has the top program, etc. I'm wondering whether it's better to say "I'm leaning toward X, but I hope College X will help me discover whether it's something I really want to pursue." Good idea or bad?</p>
<p>1) I think it’s OK to have a resume (or an activities sheet) but be prepared for the possibility that the interviewer will not ask to see it. </p>
<p>2) It is perfectly fine to have no idea what your major will be – but it’s probably a good idea to be able to discuss which academic areas you are most interested in – even if it just means talking about favorite high school classes. Many kids have no idea what they plan to study, and many of the ones who do change their minds at least once, often several times. Admissions staff know this.</p>
<p>The interviewer will probably ask a question or two about what activities your S is involved in. With my sons, neither was “sure” about what they wanted to major in but generally they talked about their favorite classes and why they were their favs. My oldest was interested in majors that aren’t directly connected to many high school classes so they talked about that most times.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about not having a major. My advice would be to go into the interview having an idea of a few classes and a few activities/ECs you enjoy and be comfortable talking about those.</p>
<p>Having a resume doesn’t hurt, but your son shouldn’t be alarmed if the interviewer says, “No thanks, I don’t need to see it.”</p>
<p>Your son should know enough about the college to have specific answers to questions like these:
Why are you interested in this college?
What do we have that you need?
What are you most looking forward to here?
What will you contribute to the culture?
Why should we admit you?</p>
<p>Academic “interests” are more important than a major, but it would be good to have looked at some of the college’s offerings and found something that appeals.</p>
<p>There’s probably some variation in interviews from college to college (or from interviewer to interviewer). At my son’s admissions interview, their goal was clearly to suss out his personality and determine whether he was their “type.”</p>
<p>My daughter took her resume in a file folder to her interviews. She handed it to the interviewer as she left, so that he/she could look over it at his/her convenience. (D mentioned that the Rice interviewer thanked her for the resume and said that it would help refresh his memory as he completed his paperwork re the interview.)</p>
<p>I’ll reiterate what I’ve posted several times. The word “interview” is misleading. I did most of the college visits with DS#1 and we’d check in with DH after each one. What all three of us quickly learned is that a parent hears “interview” and thinks about job interviews. In most cases, the college interview is really an information-gathering session (for the applicant, not the school). They are often run by upperclassmen who work in admissions part-time. In most cases, they have little-no bearing on the whether or not the applicant is actually admitted.</p>
<p>As to your questions, my first thought was that a resume seems overkill, but maybe not a bad idea given that your DS hasn’t applied yet. Re: a stated major, my guess is 90+% of hs kids have no idea what they’ll major in. If I were on the other side of the desk, I’d be a little leary of someone who claims to know at 17 what he wants to do with his life.</p>
<p>Interviews vary. For some schools they are of no importance, for other schools they are of some importance, and for still other schools (U. of Rochester comes to mind) they are very important. Just today I read about a young woman who had **three **Harvard interviews. They were clearly on the fence about her, but she was ultimately accepted. Normally Harvard, where interviews are mostly done by alumni, is considered to be a school where interviews are only a small factor.</p>
<p>As for the rest, my son brought a resume and asked the interviewer if he wanted to see it. I believe one his interviewers also had asked him to bring it or a transcript or both. They use it as a jumping off point to ask questions, ie. “I see you took Astrophysics this year, is that an interest of yours?” I think the hardest part is thinking of a question to ask. You definitely don’t need to have a major picked out, but you should probably have some thoughts about them. i.e. you could say “sociology/archeology/lingistics etc isn’t offered in my high school, but I think it might be of interest to me because I like x, y and z in high school.”</p>
<p>my D has had two on campus interviews so far this summer, one more scheduled for tomorrow. The first was by an admissions officer, second by a student. Both were low key and more of a conversation about interests and her background. The student interviewer today had some questions like “if you could have dinner with anyone famous living or dead, who would it be” She has come out of both happy and thinking they went well with no questions which threw her off guard. She didn’t bring a resume although she did have transcript info with her at the first one if it would have been useful. I think it was better for her to be able to talk about her interests and background than to produce a paper which would take limited time away from the face to face conversation.</p>
<p>As I said in the '10 thread, in both cases the interviewer introduced him/herself to me and asked me if I had any questions.</p>
<p>Since my son didn’t drive I dropped mathson off at interviews and then came to pick him up. The MIT guy didn’t talk to me at all, and asked me to wait in the hall while he finished up with my son (he’d told me to come back in 45 min.) The Harvard guy invited me in and continued to chat a bit with my son and to me (I’m an alum too, so we talked a bit about how the school has change from his time, to my time to today as I recall.) It was low key and perfectly enjoyable, but yes, you should be aware that you might get a chance to talk to the interviewer briefly too.</p>
<p>^ Second this. The parent isn’t involved in evaluative interviews, although you may have an opportunity to ask some questions or chat a little when the interview is over. geek_son did have one “interview” I was invited to participate in, but it was more of a sales pitch, not an evaluation. Our overall impression of that college was that it was more a continuation of high school, with the students considered more as old children than as young adults. Very nice people, but not the environment he was looking for (the college will remain nameless here ;)).</p>
<p>not that mathmom or geek_mom implied this, but just to make it clear that as a parent I wasn’t involved in either of my daughter’s interviews, except at the beginning and end. I waited in the admissions building waiting area and for the first one the interviewer spoke with me at the end. For the second interview, when he came out to greet her, he asked her if she had come with anyone and then came across the room to where I was sitting to introduce himself and then came back to chat with me afterwards.</p>
<p>Just wanted to mention this as a possibility in case others have the same experiences. I kept my distance and daughter checked in at the desk herself, I just went in and sat down and didn’t expect to meet the interviewers.</p>
<p>^ My experience too, at the interview that counted for my son. After the interview, they came out to the lobby and the admissions officer asked whether I had any questions. That was the extent of my involvement. Bottom line, there is a range.</p>
<p>My daughter mailed her resume to the alumni interviewer because it was about two weeks from the time she made the appointment to when she had the interview. He had it and had highlighted it to ask her questions. She had something on there about international travel and that’s part of what they talked about. </p>
<p>It seems as though many schools encourage students to explore before making a decision on major. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all.</p>
<p>Our D brought a resume to each of her interviews since the interviewer only had her name and cell phone number. She gave it to each interviewer shortly after shaking hands. She had a copy for herself as well. The interviewer for U of Rochester actually rolled his eyes while he looked at it. He said something to the effect of “I see you play the guitar. So tell me what made you want to play the guitar?” her response “Have you seen the movie The School of Rock?” In surprise he responded “you don’t play classical guitar?!” D’s response “No way. I rock a Fender!!” About an hour later, they came back to the hotel meeting room where her father and I were waiting. He was positively giddy and couldn’t say enough good things. I think she was actually embarrassed because there were several families in the room waiting their turn.</p>
<p>She had interviews with Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Yale and Harvard. Each of the interviewers looked over the resume and asked questions based on the resume and their own questionnaires. We only went to the Rochester interview because it was halfway across our state and she was a new driver. The others were conducted in our hometown so she drove herself. </p>
<p>Whether or not to bring a resume is up to your student. Ours is a bit of a control freak and wanted to be sure she covered all the things that were important to her since she was nervous. She brought a list of questions which she asked and took notes. We were concerned that she would appear like she was trying too hard or had used a college consultant. It’s what she was comfortable with so we went with her gut.</p>
<p>As others have said, there’s a lot of variation in how much colleges count interviews. There is also a great deal of variation in how much training they give interviewers, especially alum interviewers. </p>
<p>I’ve recommended that kids be admitted who were rejected and suggested rejecting someone who was admitted–so I know my opinion doesn’t matter that much.</p>
<p>However, the worst is when a kid says something HORRIBLE in an interview. I put it in quotes and put it in my report. You would NOT believe the things some kids say!!!</p>