Beyond the usual “why are you applying here?/what do you hope to achieve here?” questions. I spoke to someone who used to conduct interviews for a local state school and he said that he also asked very casual questions such as what the applicant likes to read, subjects they like outside of their intended major, hobbies, etc., along with the more serious questions.
Does anyone here who has either been an interviewer or interviewee have any suggestions as to what kind of questions I should prepare myself for? I understand that it’s very important to simply be yourself and answer the questions honestly, but I get pretty nervous and just want to know what I’d be in for if I’m contacted for an interview.
Hi - I do interviews for Duke. The interview is very informal. There are no standard set of questions, but each interviewer will have his/her own style. I tend to ask broad open ended questions like “tell me about yourself” and “why do you want to go to Duke”, and then let the student do most of the talking.
It sounds like you are a bit nervous. Have you considered doing a mock interview with your parents (or another adult family member)? This might help ease your nerves.
@sgopal2 Thanks for the information! And a counselor from my school has offered to do a mock interview with me so I can get a feel for the way it works.
As additional background, many alumni interviews are what is called “informational” rather than “evaluative”. This means the interview is more of an outreach attempt on the part of the school, rather than a screening. You can find out by calling the admissions office of colleges inviting you for interviews and asking.
And while you may be nervous about the interviews, try for a moment to see it from the viewpoint of the colleges. Interviews are a hard thing to standardize so colleges don’t put too much weight into them. Your typical alum interviewer is going to only meet with a handful of kids so they don’t get a fair sample of the entire applicant pool to judge how any given applicant performs. Furthermore it takes a lot of training to be an effective interviewer, training they can’t afford to give alums (nor do alums have the time to do it). The bottom line is that even for evaluative interviews their impact is more of raising questions if something appears off. A kid that comes across poorly (argumentative, no social skills, admits they are applying only to see if they get in, etc) will raise concerns in admissions, but as any experienced alum interviewer on this board can tell you they have seen little boost for the kids they rave about.
I ask:
What courses they are taking this year
What is their favorite teacher
Then we talk about their ECs
Do you consider yourself a leader and what is your leadership style
What ECs do you want to continue in college
Tell me about your family…did your parents go to college
What got you interested in our college