<p>
[quote]
when a student professes a love of physics, I can ask what parts of physics attract them and why? Which parts are actually less fun?
[/quote]
if you replace physics with math and asked me that question, i wouldn't know what to say. i like doing math because i like actually being able to answer problems and can't seem to be able to do so in any other subject. but wouldn't that be a terrible answer? I like doing math because it makes me feel good. And that's the truth, but everyone can say that.</p>
<p>"I like doing math because it makes me feel good. And that's the truth, but everyone can say that."</p>
<p>To be more convincing, you should watch a Tom Cruise talk about scientology. Develop and practice a crazy laugh. Act really serious and then start doing the laugh. Then jump on the interview chair.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, I agree the guy gave a really bizarre and disturbing answer to your question.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And I guess that that goes to the heart of the point I was trying to make. Why did I ask such a strange question, when I had never been motivated to ask something like it on any other occasion? I truthfully cannot recall the exact trigger, but I asked it because the way he was speaking at the interview led me to fear that I might get a bizarre and disturbing answer to that question. That ability to probe really is the whole point. </p>
<p>I don't ask probing questions about why a student loves math, unless I have reason to believe that I am being misled; that the student was telling me what he/she felt I wanted to hear rather than what he/she actually felt.</p>
<p>Community service is an easy example. A lot of schools offer some form of community service or charity fundraising as an organised extracurricular activity. This is designed to score "concerned citizen" points with adcoms. When a student expresses real passion for charity fundraising, I am likely to push a bit harder to determine why he/she got involved, as in my experience, very few people actually enjoy contacting strangers and asking them for money. And a purely cynical "I did it to help get into college" is not a wrong answer. I cannot really fault any student for following their guidance counsellor's advice on useful EC's to join to help with college apps. But neither do I then use the interview report to rhapsodise over the student's selfless work at the telephone bank.</p>
<p>Oh, and as a postscript. When I do get candidates jumping on the interview chair to show their "passion", I tend to just transcribe their pontification verbatim to allow the admissions office as unfettered a view as possible of the candidate's passion. There are very, very few admits in such cases.</p>
<p>The summer after my junior year, I went to Girls State, and then got elected to Girls Nation. Both are organized by the American Legion Auxiliary - they're basically government-related weeklong summer programs, where there are mock elections. But I got deferred from MIT, so take this response with a grain of salt. XD</p>