I had an interview with the dean of admission of Reed, Mr. Marthers. Semi-casual. Ironically, we met in the University of Penn’s bookstore. LOL.
Anyway, he didn’t really ask the standard questions. It was more like him just giving me a chance to sell myself so to speak. He also seemed to be selling Reed to me, but I told him at the end that I was already applying early to Reed. He later sent me a letter and wrote something on it that was clearly handwritten. HOWEVER, I had forgotten to send him a letter. Big no no. REMEMBER TO SEND A FOLLOW UP LETTER.
I have an interview with a Grinnell alumni tomorrow. Casual. I don’t expect to hear those standard questions then either. I’m only attracted to the unorthodox colleges, so I suppose they do unorthodox interviews.
Sorry to double post, but…would it be inadvisable to bring a book to the interview? I am hardly ever without a book. I even read while I’m walking. I mentioned that in my essay, but I don’t wanna look pretentious or desperate.
Why would you bring a book to your interview? It’s not as if you’re going to read it there. You don’t need a book in hand to talk about a book during your interview.
Bringing a book won’t hurt you, but don’t bring a book that you’ve picked just to try to make an impression. A student whom I interviewed for Harvard brought in an obscure book that he said was one of his favorites. It ended up that that obscure book was one of my favorites, and I also had heard a presentation by the writer, and personally knew the editor of the article that had led to the book.
And it ended up that it was very obvious that the student had never read the book. No, the student didn’t get into my college.
“Is a short interview (30 minutes) a bad sign? I’ve read how some people have long interviews.”
The time depends mainly on the interviewer’s schedule and whether they’ve had enough time to get the info they need.
Before I learned that no matter what the interviewer does, some students won’t open up in interviews because they are so shy, uninterested or passive, my longest interviews were with students whom I assessed as being the weakest applicants. I kept trying various questions to try to get them to open up.
I had my Holy Cross alumni interview today at Starbucks (the interviewer ended up being 20 minutes late because he couldn’t find it). It was surprisingly really casual…I kinda forgot that I was being interviewed until he would look at his paper for a question and I’d be like “OH YEAH!” and sit up a bit straighter. lol
He asked me the standard questions: what’s your favorite class, extracurriculars, hobbies, why Holy Cross, etc etc. And he spent quite a bit of time talking about the weather in Massachusetts, asking if I was ready to switch from sunshine-everyday-CA to freezing MA…
Hey, a while back, my mom made the decision (without my knowledge) to setup an account for my Northwestern application under my name, but her email. Today she says, oh yeah, you get an email about scheduling interviews for the school, but she seems to have deleted it and its not even in her recently deleted etc.
If anyone knows if there was a link in that email or information as to how to set up an interview itd be greatly appreciated if you could share it
When an interviewer says near the end of an interview “You know, I don’t ever tell this to the candidates I interview, but I’m going to say it to you. I am going to give you my absolute highest rating, and I think you would fit perfectly at College X,” is it genuine? This is an interviewer who started off acting very bored and irritated to be there, and ended with enthusiasm and trying to sell this top-tier college to me.
I am scheluded for a Vassar alum interview a week from now. Has anyone had an interview with vassar alum yet? how did the interview go? any helpful tips?
Hi! I know this might be a stupid question but I’m really new to the whole college thing and I haven’t really talked to my counseler about this. I’m wondering: When people say they made a resume, what do they mean? Is it a list of extracurriculars and your classes?
Hey fenderfrk10, I also applied to Northwestern but I never got an email about scheduling an interview :S. Maybe it’s because i live in canada but i would like to know this too. Has anyone received an email about northwestern interviews?!
swetaaa, my friend had a Vassar interview last week, she said they asked her what one thing she could change about her school would be. Other than that, I think she had a pretty easy time.
good luck!
swetaaa-
I just looked over the “Handbook” for alum interviews. It is really pretty basic. There will be no surprises. And yes… the question JPan mentioned is listed as one suggested question! The handbook gives general guidelines for the kinds of questions to ask. Just be yourself, be prepared to talk about what it important to you-- your likes and dislikes; know some things about the school that make it a good fit/choice for you, and have a few questions to ask your interviewer. Good luck! I am sure it will go well! We alums don’t bite- I promise.
I had my Cornell interview a few days ago, and it was pretty much terrible. The interviewer asked me only two questions the whole time: “What made you apply to Cornell?” and “Do you have any questions for me?” All of my other schools have evaluative interviews, so I was perturbed that I couldn’t say anything about myself.
Also, my interviewer had only one or two good things to say about Cornell. She said multiple times how glad she was to be done when she graduated, how she had no time for sleeping or a social life, how she and everyone around her were always so stressed, and how friends existed at Cornell just as moral support when they all felt like giving up, “but at least it’s gorgeous!” Seriously, the only good things said about Cornell during the interview were said by me. I was very put off by her negativity towards her alma mater.
swetaaa-
I think you are worring a bit too much. As long as you don’t say something like " I wish they would let us bring assault weapons to school" as a response to that question, you’ll be just fine!
Eravial08, I had the same expirince with my Brown interview today.All he did was ask why Brown (and cut me off so I couldn’t elaborate) and kept asking if I had anymore questions. I had some, but his answers were so short that I had nothing to feed off of. I was hoping he would go off on some sort of tangent so I had something to feed off of, but, nope. And I didn’t want to be the one to go off of ina tangent because thats not my place. AHHHH. Worst of all, at the end he said he was there to find out something about me that Brown might not know from my app. UH, HELLO! How the hell are they gonna know anything about me if you didn’t even ask me anything to tell you??? I was so ready ta answer any questions he had for me, and he asked none. Why Brown??? Uh…I kinda answered that in my essay. Horrible. I hope this doesn’t hurt the little chance that I had. Brown is my dream school.
“. And I didn’t want to be the one to go off of ina tangent because thats not my place.”
Actually, it is your place to use the interview to sell yourself to the college. Alumni interviewers are volunteers who come from a variety of fields, and many do not know how to conduct interviews well. So, don’t wait for the interviewer to ask you the right question. Take control of the interview so as to highlight your strengths.
Passively waiting for the interviewer to ask you the right questions may not give you much of a chance to show what you have offer.
