<p>Is there a set of questions that all alumni interviewers must ask? Is there a standardization of procedure? It is only fair if each interviewer is told to ask similar questions or else one interview could be more difficult than another. To all the people that have been interviewed, can you tell me what they asked you?</p>
<p>PS What do you recommend I do if the interviewer asks whether I am applying to Harvard and Yale? I am but I do not want my interviewer to think that Princeton is my third choice as this is not the case.</p>
<p>The one overarching question will be...
Why Princeton?</p>
<p>Mine was basically a conversation of how I learned about Princeton, what I liked about Princeton, etc and my interviewer's memories, experiences, likes/dislikes of Princeton.</p>
<p>If you show that you are truly enthusiastic about the school and really know your stuff, the interviewer will most likely gather than Princeton is your top choice.</p>
<p>My interviewer did ask what other schools I had/was going to apply to, but I made it known that Princeton would be my first choice no matter what.</p>
<p>1) Two of the Princeton applicants from my school got contacted for an interview. Three did not. Why?
2) What if your interviewer does something you're COMPLETELY not interested in: Mine's a dermatologist. What do you say, "Yeah, I like skin too..."
3) This is going to sound really stuck up, but how do you answer the "why Princeton" question if it's not your only top choice (and more accurately is one of your equal top two choices.) I got in somewhere else EA, but I'd already mailed my Princeton app, and I withdrew my others (but not Princeton), which shows that I'm definitely considering it. But I don't want to tell them I'm considering somewhere else and make them not admit me, but I don't want to lie just to suck up.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What do you recommend I do if the interviewer asks whether I am applying to Harvard and Yale?
[/quote]
i read somewhere that interviewers are asked to refrain from asking that type of question. i think it's unfair because it is bound to create some degree of prejudice. </p>
<p>as for me, what i did was ask my interviewer if i can refuse to answer that question. he said it was perfectly alright. but i don't know how that will affect though.</p>
<p>My interviewer asked me where I was applying, and I included Harvard and Yale in the list of colleges I'm applying to. I don't think it's too much of a problem if you can explain clearly why you like Princeton. They admission people are not dumb; they know that a majority of their applicants are applying to H and Y.</p>
<p>"1) Two of the Princeton applicants from my school got contacted for an interview. Three did not. Why?"</p>
<p>Princeton doesn't contact its applicants by school, but instead by where you live. I applied to Princeton, so did a friend of mine, but we live in different cities. We ended up getting contacted at different times by different alumni. My interviewer also told me that admissions told him that he was the closest interviewer to where I live.</p>
<p>"2) What if your interviewer does something you're COMPLETELY not interested in: Mine's a dermatologist. What do you say, "Yeah, I like skin too..." "</p>
<p>That happened to me, I plan on being a science major, but my interviewer was interested in something way different and knew very little about science. It didn't get in the way of anything, and I don't think it'll be a big deal.</p>
<p>I had my Princeton interview yesterday and my interviewer didn't ask me many questions about myself. He basically just talked about his princeton experience and asked me if i had any questions about princeton. He was a doctor and told me about the premed experience at princeton. It was a pretty stress-free experience.</p>
<p>I don't know, but my interviewer said it would be 1/2 hour, and it turned out to be exactly that. I think it's mostly between 1/2 hour and 2 hours at most.</p>
<p>Mine was about an hour, and he didn't even ask me the "Why Princeton?" question. He just wanted to know if I had any questions, and he spent most of the time rambling about his undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>I just had my interview. It was AWESOME. The guy and I talked for 3 hours. He was really interesting. We did the standard pton stuff and discussed my extracurriculars, what i'm interested in at pton and etc. At the end we started talking about funny stories. I told him about how my family had to swim to shore in the dominican republic during a storm.</p>
<p>He said that while I was a good match for pton, I would succeed anywhere(in general people who are motivated can succeed anywhere, even UCR) but, he said he would do what he could to try and help me with regards to pton admissions</p>
<p>At the end of the interview I left LOVING PTON. I am now SO enthusiastic about pton that I feel that I would start dancing on the hood of my car if I got home and there was an acceptance letter in the mail. </p>
<p>My interview was HORRIBLE. My interviewer asked me the following questions with four max follow-up questions in between.</p>
<ol>
<li>Why Princeton.</li>
<li>Anything you want to ask me?</li>
<li>Tell me about yourself.</li>
<li>Tell me about your family.</li>
</ol>
<p>That was IT. For an HOUR. It was me talking at her. She was really friendly, but it made me really uncomfortable that I wasn't really conversing with her. She didn't really seem interested in what I had to say, but then again I think that just was her style. It was really scary though. I tend to be nervous in situations like that, and the fact that I didn't really get to talk WITH her freaked me out. It was mainly her writing notes. Oh well. 3.8% accepted RD ... I could have a stellar interview and I'd still get rejected. </p>
<p>I don't know though. I feel as if one isn't supposed to come away from a school's interview feeling like they're more certain about ANOTHER school now. (Sorry Princeton loyals.) But my friend interviews tomorrow. So we'll see if this is true only to me. </p>
<p>It's like National History Day. One year, I came out of my nationals interview thinking "Wow, that was really cool," but the next year, my thoughts were more along the lines of, "They hated me. #%#$." I loved my topic, but I just didn't bond with them, and I got a bad vibe.</p>
<p>I don't think that was necessarily horrible. Different people have different interviewing styles. My Yale interviewer hardly responded to what I said and only took notes, but I knew that after the interview, the admissions people would know so much more about me. As long as the whole note-taking thing didnt' make you freeze and unable to answer the questions, it probably wasn't as bad as you thought it was.</p>
<p>How did you all (icymoon in particular) know the profession of your alumni interviewer before the interview? I don't mean to sound like a stalker but is there any place you can go to to gather info about an interviewer?</p>