<p>Long story short... I'm not getting an interview for here but I can't help but wonder what one would be like. I know that each interviewer is different but I feel like the interviewers for this school would be the ones that ask you to prove your existence using a highlighter and a piece of string. lol Are Uchicago's interviewers generally casual?</p>
<p>I’ve had six college interviews so far, and UChicago has definitely been my favorite. It obviously depends on who you get as an interviewer (like you said), but I’m pretty sure they all have a typical style.
Mine was really chill, and the woman who interviewed me was super sweet. I’m going to sound like such a dork, but we had the coolest, most intellectually intriguing conversation I’ve probably ever had. We talked about everything from like, our stance on nuclear weapons to the person I’d pick to sit next to on a plane ride around the world. We covered so much (lots of really random stuff) that I can’t even remember it all.
There was of course the time at the end when she asked if I had any questions and when we talked about my specific interest in UChicago, but other than that the interview was really unique. I think a lot of other schools’ interviews are so mechanical and the interviewers are told to get said information (intended major, extracurricular activities, Why [insert school here]?) in said amount of time (45 minutes to 1 hour), but I felt that my interviewer really wanted to get to know me as a person and listen to my ideas. Or maybe not, I could’ve just talked too much or something. But yeah, no highlighter and string, sorry.</p>
<p>I’ve had five interviews, and Chicago has been my favorite by far as well. The lady was really friendly and the interview was really informal - we basically just discussed our lives. I would say to just be yourself!</p>
<p>Ugh, I had requested to get one January 2nd, but so far still haven’t gotten contacted by anyone. The site says it takes several weeks before we know if we are going to get one, but if I haven’t gotten contacted yet, does it mean I’m too late to get interviewed? :(</p>
<p>as for the wait, I’ll put it this way. I submitted my Princeton app on November 31 and only had my interview last week… it takes a while, and you just have to be patient.</p>
<p>My UChicago was THE BEST INTERVIEW EVER! I’ve had five college interviews, and Chicago was by far the best. Princeton is a close second (but only because he convinced me to go to Chicago… indirectly- not that it was bad- he just really liked chicago). MIT was an awful interview (the worst ever… just horrible). Duke was OK… not that great. Harvard was just kind of blah. </p>
<p>On a spectrum from best to worst: Chicago, Princeton, Duke, Harvard, MIT… </p>
<p>Chicago had the most interesting questions that made me think and explore, whereas the others we more conversations. Progressively more stilted along the spectrum.</p>
<p>Just approach it was a good attitude. If you’re happy and excited to be there (don’t radiate nervousness), then they’ll like you. Just figure out who they are and what they want to hear and find a middle ground between that and who you are. That’s the best way I can describe it… </p>
<p>Good luck!!! :)</p>
<p>Mine was not my best, but it wasn’t bad either. It was pretty formal, since we met in his office (he’s a lawyer), and I was pretty nervous since it was my first really formal interview. We talked about my life and school, and he told me about himself and his experiences at UChi. We talked about the Iliad for awhile, lol.</p>
<p>Brain sex.</p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>^ LMAO </p>
<p>10 charizards</p>
<p>Mine was nice, very cas. We mostly talked about Montessori schooling. At the time, I thought it was my best interview. I had had three before it, one of which was horrible and the rest of which were nice, but not as good. I’ve head interviews that were just as fun or more since then.</p>
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<p>That is pretty much how my interviews have gone, if you substitute Stanford for Princeton; I have my Princeton interview next week. Chicago really did impress me.</p>
<p>My UChicago interview was horrible. I had it awhile ago because I applied early action. The interviewer was a recent graduate who could not give me any interesting information or sustain a conversation. I am still really excited about attending the school because, well, it’s a great school. My example just proves that the interview does not necessarily reflect the school. Plus it means practically nothing in the admissions process.</p>
<p>My Chicago interview was the worst one. We didn’t have any kind of “conversation” at all, and my interviewer only asked me the common, prescribed questions, such as “what about Chicago’s academics attracts you?” He also asked me what other schools I had applied to and where Chicago stood in my list of schools, which I thought was very uncalled for. He also asked me SAT scores and GPA. =</p>
<p>Mine was alright, but it was my worst one. While my interviewer liked me, we didn’t really share any interests. She didn’t know anything about philosophy or economics so I just talked about my familial, personal background, and extracurricular activities most of the time (aka it was pretty boring). My best interview was def. my Yale one. She was a linguist and we talked about all kinds of things. While I don’t remember everything clearly, I remember me critiquing her linguistics research on dialects, something about Heidegger, something about how to approach academic literature so that you don’t get sucked into the ‘framework’ that the author attempts to set up (so that you can deconstruct it, etc.), me giving an economic analysis of the past half-century of the region we both live in (and, somehow, relating it to something about political discourse in our region, I forget exactly what), something about critiquing the Chicago School of Economics, and something about questioning the viability of empirical evidence in the social sciences. I think there was more, but I don’t remember. Overall, though, I remember it was pretty awesome. For my Harvard one I talked about political theory and student motivation in school and for my Duke one, we just talked about Duke (and, for some extremely odd reason, we discussed roommates for forty minutes lol). Comparatively, I was disappointed with my Chicago interview and, to be quite honest, I expected more from it but meh.</p>
<p>From best to worst I’d have to go: Yale, Harvard, Duke, UChicago.</p>
<p>IMHO, interviews don’t matter.</p>
<p>I had my alumni interview a few weeks ago, and I had a blast. My interviewer was very interesting and had done many things in his life that I one day hope to accomplish. It is obvious that this does not play a huge role in admissions (if any at all), but I did find out a great deal about Chicago and found it to be extremely valuable. Judging from my interview, I would say it consists of why Chicago interests you, what you hope to accomplish there, and then you can unleash a furious wave of questions. Also, a few scare tactics were used in order to ensure I knew what I was getting myself into.</p>
<p>Maxxwell, why exactly do you say that? We already know that some admissions offices are swamped with applications and that they have too many applications to get through with too little time. Considering the fact that the AO only reads the interview report (assuming it is an alumni interview), then that interview report is, well, read. Assume, then, that you’re given an admissions office with 24,000 applications and assume, for the sake of me not having to get a calculator or do much math :), that ~2/3 of the applicants get interviews (so, ~16000 applicants get interviews). Assume, on top of that, that a single admission officer reads 1/8 of the total applications outside of committee (that fraction is completely random just to let you know), so ~2000 applications that the AO reads have an interview report. Assume, yes another assumption, that each interview report has three paragraphs and each is approximately 300 words long. That means that, on top of everything else the AO has to read, the AO has to read 600k words purely from interview reports. If the interviews TRULY had NO say whatsoever, then why would they be part of the application process? If they didn’t matter, then would it be different if, instead of an interview, the application asked that each applicant play an optional game of Pacman and have a screenshot of the score attached to one’s application? If it would be different, then why? Surely, one’s Pacman ability should have no say on whether or not one is admitted to an institution of higher education and hence would have no say on the admissions process. Of course, so you claim, the same is true of the interview. Surely, though, you would agree that an interview report is more useful to an AO than the score of the aforementioned game of Pacman and hence must be of some significance (assuming the game of Pacman has zero significance). </p>
<p>I seriously doubt that any admissions office, especially that of the University of Chicago or any other elite institution of higher education, would have a part of the application that was completely useless and of no significance that also took a considerable amount of time to read and adequately comprehend.</p>
<p>@motion12345 I sincerely believe that interviews don’t matter for admission. I didn’t say that they are useless. I do know that you can admitted without an interview. What I am trying to say is that there is no reason to get tense or panic about these interviews. That’s all.</p>
<p>^^ I have no idea about the value of interviews in terms of helping admission, but I will say that a good reason for universities to have alumni interviews is to keep the alumni involved and donating.</p>
<p>^ Yup, I was admitted w/o an interview.</p>
<p>Interviews are often more of a marketing effort for the school than a screening tool. They put a human face on the institution, let the applicant ask questions, etc. Certainly interviewers do report on their experience, and an applicant who behaved in an obnoxious or inappropriate manner might get dinged. It’s unlikely, though, that an average to very good interview will be a factor one way or another.</p>