what questions should i prepare beforehand? Does princeton instruct their interviewers something specific?
I’m curious, why do you believe an interviewer for any of the most-selective undergraduate schools would be willing to accept or to use either a prepared script or standardized questions? Aren’t alumni from universities like Princeton better able to glean and provide key information by tailoring each interview to the participants and the circumstances?
My kid had one last week, when I asked what they talked about, she said “stuff.”
She did say it seemed to go well. To prepare she brought a copy of her resume, and reviewed the reasons why P is her first choice, and prepared a bullet list of questions she wanted to ask about P.
I hope that helps.
I do interviews for Yale and I doubt that Princeton ones are much different. Each interviewer has their own tried and true set of questions that they ask. Mostly, the interview ends up being a conversation and less of a question and answer period. If my interviewee just answers questions with yes or no answers, that is a red flag for me. Some of my best interviews were with students where the conversation just flowed. Most can last more than an hour. If my interview with you last less than 1/2 hour, it did not go well.
I do not look at resumes, transcripts or any other documents. The admissions committee already has all of that. I am there to interview the applicant - to get a sense of the real person so that I can try to portray them to the admissions committee in the best light possible.
I think interviews vary, but mine was pretty standard I think
First, he just straight up asked me to talk about myself and what interests me, my hobbies, EC’s, my family, what my favorite class is
Then he asked why I was attracted to Princeton and let me ask some questions
No unexpected questions really, but the whole “tell me about yourself” thing was pretty vague, I thought
Reading this is super interesting. My interviewer talked a lot about himself and his experience. I felt like I was listening more than talking…but it was fun to learn more about the school!
Out of all my interviews, Princeton was the least structured, and one of the most interesting. I barely knew anything about the school and I learned so much about it - Princeton is now one of my top choices.
The interviewer flat out told me that there are no specific questions to answer. She said she Googled me and found that I’m a video game critic/journalist. She was really interested in that, and I just talked about my EC and stuff. It was very unstructured and free-flowing.
Even though it was a Skype interview, it was one of my best!