What do they ask in the interview?

<p>Does anyone know what the interviewers will ask me during my interview. I hope to prep for the interview so I wont be clueless during the interview since its my first one.</p>

<p>I've had 3 interview so far (for Yale and Georgetown), and both interviewers have asked me the same questions:
1) Tell me about your family.
2) Tell me about your school.
3) What do you want to major in/what are your career goals?
4) Why X University?
5) What other schools did you apply to and why?
6) What else would you like the admissions committe to know about you?
7) Do you have any questions for me?</p>

<p>Just know your basic info for all of these. The rest of the interview in between all the questions will be conversation. It's pretty stress free. Good luck!</p>

<p>thank you so much</p>

<p>No problem. I would advise you to "prep" the most for the Why Princeton question. You want to give them true, convincing reasons why you want to go there and why it would be a good fit for you. Don't just spit out random bits you got from a trite brochure. Make sure not to over prepare, though. You don't want to sound like a robot with pre-programed answers. Know what points you want to touch on, but let your mind wander during the interview and be a bit spontaneous with your responses.</p>

<p>I've interviewed for HYP and Georgetown, and only Yale asked really a "list" of questions. Mostly they just want to know about you as a person, your stuff outside of school, stuff like that. Do make sure that you know something to say for the "why Princeton" question, like CoffeeAddict said, because they will surely ask you that. My Princeton interview was super laid back and we just talked about me (like, random things such as politics, ECs, Arabic, Italy, they asked Why Princeton, stuff like that.), so that's simple enough (because you surely know yourself quite well! ;]). Don't overthink it too much - they're prolly just trying to see if you're a normal person :]</p>

<p>Well ive had 5 interviews and they were all fairly similar. princeton one asked me why princeton, what i think is the biggest challenge for russia in the next 10 years (since im russian), what i do for extracurricular, what i think about the death penatly ( not just out of the blue btw! it kind of led up to that as we started talking about the law and the judiciary system xD), about my family in general... but it depends really i guess on the interviewer and what he wants to know. none of my other interviewers asked me about the situation in russia for instance, but it was all quite similar. and it depends on the answers u give. i told him i practice karate so he asked me to tell him about that and why i started doing karate..</p>

<p>I never got asked the "Why Princeton" question. My interviewer was intelligent enough to realize that whatever answer I gave would be total BS. Like most people, I applied to Princeton because of its reputation: if it wasn't so prestigious, I would not have applied. Period.</p>

<p>To offer some advice to the OP, I'd say the most important thing to remember is that the questions are starting points for discussion. Don't give no-nonsense, serial answers like you would at a job interview: use the questions as springboards from which to relate your life story. Don't speak in terms of "I do, I read, I lead" because the adcom knows all this from your application; speak in terms of "I am."</p>

<p>I did get the why princeton question, but the interviewer was trying to figure out what made me different from the other 30,000 applicants in the hunt. I gave the bs answer, and in the middle of it he stopped me and said, "You're rambling. Get to the point: what makes you unique and different from everybody else? I need to know that." So we focused on those things and he started writing and when i was done he said, "ok now i can write a recommendation. no guarantees, but i will do my best to get you in." it was great!!</p>

<p>[I never got asked the “Why Princeton” question. My interviewer was intelligent enough to realize that whatever answer I gave would be total BS.] Mustafah78 </p>

<p>LOL so true</p>

<p>Word on the street is that Princeton has decided to adopt some of the UK University interview policies. For example, they will begin to ask you about your intended field of study. As in, they will ask you to solve quantum physics problems if you indicated you wanted to study physics.</p>

<p>Such is the Oxbridge system. A real interview, perhaps.</p>

<p>I believe P’ton allows interviewers to ask whatever they want, with a few suggested questions, and a few banned questions. </p>

<p>Mine: Why Princeton/How did you hear of Princeton, words your friends would use to describe you, why do you like X EC, etc. And it was pretty casual.</p>

<p>The first question was “Why Princeton?” and the rest seemed to stem off of my responses. I don’t think there were many that she “had” to ask, except that first one and maybe what I wanted to major in and why.</p>