The Hindustani College Admissions Thread #20

Student Lounge International Students
61

<p>

totally agree. The whole [most] of delhi types like that. It’s only after cc that many of us start turning up our noses at it. I dunno how this stupid trend started though. Why in the world would anyone type like that on purpose?</p>

<p>Collegebeckons: whoa, your princeton interview was something else. For my Swat interview, firstly the chap braught along two other alums who were visiting India. I didn’t mind, but their keeping on asking whether i did was annoying. Plus the guy seemed very casual, and I’d gone with certain expectations in mind seeing that swat is known for intellectuals, anticipating some good discussions on current affairs. His replies were dissappointing. Not only did he seem to be parrotting text from some college course he probably took on politics when I asked him his views on the Kashmiri Pandit situation [he stood for them at college] and didn’t answer my question well at all, he kept joking about how he ‘didnt know what he was doing in college, and just took whatever college, and that he still doesn’t know what he’s doing hehe…’ . I could only smile politely but I wasn’t amused at all. And he’s currently a photographer in bollywood shooting item numbers. After an econ degree from swat. For which he did a LOT of kashmir issue activism, and didn’t even know much about it. I was heavily dissappointed. The other two alums were better, but they weren’t my interviewers!</p>

62

<p>Hah. Thought I’d share my Princeton interview experience as well, just for kicks.</p>

<p>Firstly, the address (which was a bit obscure at first glance) turned out to be in a set of office suites in the backdrop of one of the swankiest malls in Delhi. Misleading terms in the address such as ‘a3 district center’ instead of ‘right next to the fricking mall’ meant that I literally roamed all of Saket looking for the place. Arrived 2 minutes 37 seconds late. (Yes, I’m precise)</p>

<p>Luckily enough, the guy turned up about 15 minites later. The interview was in one of the conference rooms of his business. He’s the MD of an investment consultancy.</p>

<p>Mind you, I had just managed to get over a fever, but I had such a terrible throat infection that breathing itself caused me to break into a violent coughing fit.</p>

<p>But luckily, it didn’t act up too much during the ~1 hour interview and I did <em>not</em> cover him in phlegm at any point during the interview.</p>

<p>Interview was him mainly asking me to elaborate on points I made in the introductory ‘tell-me-something-about-yourself’ killer question. I usually take the opportunity to summarize my personality, aspirations and achievements into a tight packge that leaves the interviewer with a whole host of things to ask me more about.</p>

<p>In turn, I quizzed him on specifics about Princeton that no admissions website could provide.</p>

<p>Funny thing is, that towards the end, he asked me ‘You’ve done so much over the past few years. Where did you have to compromise?’ Quite honestly, I was a bit stumped by this question at first, but then replied that the only thing I could think about at the moment was the lack of a proper full-out social life (i.e. partying, nights out, etc.) After that statment, he thought that I didn’t have many friends. Which is so not true. But a challenging interview nevertheless. It wasn’t as simple as MIT. Here, I was asked to defend some things (including my research). Instead of thd MIT interview, where he just went ‘Mmm. This is very good stuff. Tell me more about it.’, here I was asked to defend whether it was even relevant and practical. Needless to say, I did tackle those questions pretty well. A test of conviction and debating skills almost. :wink: Yeah, so I guess those were the key points of that interview.</p>

<p>My doc had advised me not to talk for extended periods of time, and since an interview isn’t much else, it meant I was nearly bed-ridden after that one.</p>

<p>Sorry for wasting your precious time on an interviEw that happened ages ago. Impulsive, aren’t I? ;)</p>

63

<p>Haha, that was funny!</p>

<p>@goodwood (what a pervy name haha) : I know how she is as a writer too.</p>

<p>@pixie: your incident was a perfect example of what you stated earlier in your post (only after cc do we turn up our noses…)</p>

64

<p>As for my opinion on the lingo issues - I’ve investigated this relatively new social convention quite a bit. I’ve analyzed the people around me who use it as well. So far, I can not reach any convincing conclusion regarding the probably personaliy type of someone who uses such lingo. Apart from being shockingly presumptuous and prejudiced, I found that several samrt friends use it well. But after I analyzed the possible causes of such sad use of the Roman script, I narrowed it down to a couple of probable factors.</p>

<p>Firstly, it’s obviously stemmed from pre T9 dictionary days. Back when QWERTY keyboards on everyday mobile phones was a laughable concept. So, every key press mattered. So, that’s ‘wre lodz f us strtd typng lk dis’. Add to that that this new English was actually phonetically making sense, and the generation found a new language. Even though most FB logins aren’t from mobiles, this has become an inherent part of ‘typing’ as a skill, for some of us. Nevertheless, repetitive character overuse to emphasize a point (e.g. ‘haaaaappppppyyyyyyyy bbbbiiiiiirrrrrtttttnhhhhdddddaaaaayyyyyy’) remains a clear indicator of how happy that person is and how important it is for the rest of FB to know that…</p>

<p>Me? I’m even averse to 'lol’s and 'rofl’s because I feel they rob laughter of the ‘haha’. So much so that people have replaced laughter with a small ‘lol’ while conversing. That’s usually when I wish I had a crossbow…</p>

65

<p>What dyu mean by ‘analysed’? What observation pool did you use? I think you mean after observing your peers and thinking a little, you drew said conclusion?

hmm? I didn’t get what you meant. Of course I’ll turn up my nose at a swat interviewer who majored in econ and is now doing item songs, and doesn’t even know half the intricate details about an issue that concerns his ethnic group, an issue that I am sure he manipulated for the sake of his own admissions essay, and the same issue he took funds for from swat for ‘creating awareness’ as my googling him before interview revealed. CC has nothing to do with it.</p>

<p>I do have a lot of funny interview anecdotes stored up though. I’ll post them in the funny interview thread after boards.</p>

<p>Btw, i think short forms are very useful when im in a tuition class and the tutor is going hundred miles an hr. Im sure we’ll all end up writing like that while taking notes atleast once during college.</p>

66

<p>^ lulz.</p>

<p>I nderstnd y ppl wud type lyk dis. It saves time – a strong rationale. What I DON’T understand is why would someone type “thankx” instead of “thanks”. Or type “whot”, “nyce”, “knoe”, “kewl” etc. I mean, you’re removing one character, and adding another. Hmmm (??)</p>

<p>Thank-X. Just sounds so stupid. :|</p>

<p>And stuff like “mah” instead of my, “mayn” instead of “man”. You’re actually usuing an EXTRA character here. :|</p>

<p>And don’t even get me started on TyPinG LyK Dis</p>

<p>PS: @Pixie
agreed,we shouldn’t judge people. :stuck_out_tongue: j/k</p>

67

<p>haha. I agree with your points. ALL of them. :wink: I’ll edit it out, but i bet I’m right.</p>

68

<p>Hush! Let’s talk about college before the thread is locked.</p>

<p>As for note taking, you really should have a look at my class notes right from class 9th onward. Our social science teacher just gave lectures. That’s it. And I’ve filled several notebooks with near illegible scribbles, which are actually a vivid description of the extra stuff she used to share. So yes, the note making shall continue unabated in college. ;)</p>

69

<p>^ hehe. Now that everyone is talking about their interviews… This is college-related stuff right?</p>

<p>My Princeton interview was pretty nice. I don’t live in Delhi, but had to travel to Delhi for it. My interviewer was a super-qualified IIT to Princeton (double doctorate in Econs and Psychology) fellow. He called me up and asked if I wanted the interview to be at Barista or “Big Chill”, both places at Khan Market. I had only heard about Big Chill in passing, and being a non-Delhite, I went for the safer option. </p>

<p>So I reached Barista 15 mins early. It wasn’t anything like I imagined. It actually was very posh and swanky, and served lots of alcohol. Anyway, I scanned the place, tried ALL the sofas and chairs in the place, trying to find the perfect one :P</p>

<p>I had to wait another 15 mins, since he was running late. So he finally reaches… along with his 8 year old son. We exchange pleasantries, and he orders food. LOTS OF FOOD. Tortillas, sandwiches, burgers and what not. We ate food at least worth a 1000 bucks :expressionless: </p>

<p>At the end of the interview he also hinted that Pton admissions aren’t TRULY need-blind. He said that he thinks that dean of admissions usually has a fixed budget, and he/she has to recruit his/her class within that budget. Though this is a very, very debatable thing. :|</p>

70

<p>haha, that’s hilarious. Big chill is good. More expensive than barista, but good stuff. It’s small though.
Couldn’t he have done skype though? My pton interview was on phone with a guy [delhiite] in boston doing mba from HBS.</p>

71

<p>@pixie actually he asked me whether I wanted it to be on phone or in person. But since I had to go to Delhi for the Subject Tests,(yeah, no SAT center in my city. Sucks right?) so I thought I’d do the interview on the same day as the test.</p>

<p>Pton + HBS …</p>

72

<p>^ That’s true. People (like me) living in a metropolis like Delhi accidentally take quite a lot of things for granted, including SAT centers…</p>

73

<p>^^ Actually, my interviewer was IITD + PTon + HBS. :|</p>

74

<p>oooh, I wanted to ask, are any of you taking APs?</p>

75

<p>In retrospect, I wish I had. It would’ve helped bolster the app. If I’d just given the exams. But to be honest, I got to know that we could even give them in India a bit too late actually. I knew that schools offering courses were few and far between, but I wish I knew about the exams. :(</p>

76

<p>I think she means whether we’ll take the exam in the future. </p>

<p>And yes, I’m planning on taking a few APs after the entrances.</p>

77

<p>Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that angle. Now that you mention it, I might look into it. Otherwise I was planning the post-board period for a lot of other stuff I wanted to do, like learning the guitar, cooking, driving, working on a couple of short films. ;)</p>

78

<p>What is the point of taking APs NOW ?
It would’ve helped in the college admissions process but now what.</p>

<p>I really don’t know how the AP system works. First time I heard about them was when USIEF sent me a message about the deadline being Mar 25 and the exams being held in May.
I most certainly would not study PCM till may to give those APs</p>

79

<p>Because APs are exactly what they are, I think. ‘Advanced Placement’ exams. I believe some (not all) colleges give you credits for successfuly completing certain courses with certain minimum scores. This means you can skip those elementary classes in freshman year. But do correct me if I’m wrong.</p>

80

<p>^ you get credits for them in college. I think.</p>