<p>So I had my interview yesterday, and it went pretty well according to me. I mean we were going strong for an hour [which passed by really quick!] and then his next interview showed up, so he had to say goodbye =’[</p>
<p>No matter how much i tried to put aside the question of my racial background, afterall, it came down to it. Half way through the interview, he asked me “where are you from?”. Its pretty obvious I am an immigrant. Anyways, so we just talked about my culture and how it affects me for the second half on interview.</p>
<p>This culture background thing sure seems pretty important. Now my question to you guys is: Will it prove to be the “hook” for me? How much will it affect my admissions, if at all because I sure seem to be diverse (lol).</p>
<p>Just for info:
-I am a sikh (wear a turban everyday, never shaved/ cut any sort of hair)
-Moved to US 5 years ago.
-Have about 2100 SAT, 3.97GP, 4.82 QPA, awesome EC’s
-Wrote commonapp essay about how turban defines my personality.</p>
<p>I’m not the admissions committee but from reading what you just wrote, I am fascinated.</p>
<p>I find that family history is oftentimes an interesting thing to talk about in these college interviews. My family are immigrants as well, and I think my story definitely scored me some points in these interviews. At least, they led to very interesting conversations about different cultures. </p>
<p>I think you should view your interview as being positive above all else. Best of luck to wherever you end up going!</p>
<p>In some ways, it would be weird if the interviewer ignored that part of your identity. In trying to determine what experiences shape your beliefs, and in trying to understand the kind of person you’d be on campus, the interviewer is likely to probe those things that might prove to be unique or at least uncommmon (here, I mean . . . not necessarily elsewhere!). </p>
<p>Plus, remember that interviewers are only human, and they’re curious. Maybe it isn’t entirely right, but I’d definitely take the opportunity to learn something about a culture, philosophy or religion that was less familiar to me. And I suspect, in questioning you about your background, your interviewer learned something both about you and about something bigger than you.</p>
<p>I am an interviewer. My job is to ask you questions. If I have a student sitting in front of me wearing a turban who has obviously never shaved or cut his hair, I can’t imagine not asking about that. As Got2BeGreen said, it’s just human curiosity. </p>
<p>A hook, to be clear, is when a student fulfills one of a college’s institutional priorities. Brown has (or used to have) an institutional priority to increase the number of first-gen students, so that’s a hook. Brown wants diversity on its campus – I can say that turban-wearing students are rare to see on campus, but whether that becomes a tip in your admission is really hard to say. </p>
<p>Seems to me that you are pretty conflicted over this. On the one hand, you wanted your interviewer to overlook your racial identity. But on the other hand you emphasized it in your application and hope it gets you accepted.</p>
<p>You’re overthinking this, period. My community has tons of south Asians (probably half of my interviewees for a Brown peer college) and this year I had one Sikh. </p>
<p>You plainly wanted Brown to know about your heritage --why the umbrage that it was brought up to you by an interviewer – who is taking time away from his/her duties & family commitments to meet prospective Brown students?</p>
<p>Like the other 2 posters said: why did you hate your interview?</p>
<p>Punjabi, I wouldn’t worry about it, your background is actually going to help you in the admissions process and make you stand out. One question though, what is your family income bracket (this could play a crucial role in how the admissions committee view your application as an immigrant)?</p>
<p>You guys need to chill first of all. I just wanted a damn opinion and this wasnt intended to be and nor is a chances thread. </p>
<p>The reason I also posted this on UPenn forums is because the exact same thing happened in UPenn interview which was taken earlier this year. </p>
<p>I’ll copy and paste what i replied on upenn forums: well I wrote college essays about ethnicity because that showed I was diverse and it was a big part of my personality. But for the interview, I wanted it to be more about me and what I have done in my life, not necessarily where I come from or what my parents/siblings do. And it was okay if he just asked me about them, but for both my UPenn interview (Taken Jan 5th) and Brown Interview (taken day before yesterday), nearly half (or perhaps more than half) of the time was spent asking me about my culture in India and food and why my parents came/what they do/ what my siblings do etc etc. You know what I am saying? I felt that the focus was deviating away from me. I hope you understand the dissonance.</p>
<p>And I understand the interviewer would’ve been curious… and it was okay to ask a few questions, but didn’t want him to focus everything on religion/culture. That’s why I hated this interview [for those 3 people who were b*tching]. IT DIDN’T FOCUS ON ME! I WANTED IT TO HIGHLIGHT MY ACHIEVEMENTS NOT MY CULTURE!!</p>
<p>Income Bracket: $70k-$100k. I have 2 siblings, both are working as doctors so they financially support us as well, but I don’t think colleges would know that. the 70-100k bracket was just my parent’s income. Does that help or hurt me?</p>
<p>And the reason I gave some stats like sat, gpa etc was to ask if it will in fact help/hurt in admissions process. I wanted to show I am not exceptional with 2350 SAT’s, in which case cultural background doesn’t play a big role.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I jumped to conclusions too quickly, but faux-failure is a very common d-bag move on this forum, and I thought this was an example of it. Your subject line didn’t seem to really get addressed by your post, which is a big part of what was suspicious.</p>
<p>The interview isn’t about highlighting your achievements or your culture. It’s about proving that you can sustain an interesting conversation with someone and learning a bit more about the school to which you’re applying. </p>
<p>It sounds like you passed that test with flying colors. To the extent that you ended up talking about something your interviewer was really interested in (your culture), you should probably consider yourself very lucky. Alumni interviews are not opportunities to inform schools about a laundry list of things that you weren’t able to fit on your application, and applicants should not expect to have perfect control over where the conversation goes. You probably got a good write-up.</p>
<p>If there are any questions that you felt like you didn’t get to ask because time ran out, then you should go ahead and e-mail your interviewer a follow-up, or ask your question here.</p>
<p>Well, you’re not exactly projecting that “low-income immigrant student who still managed to get straight A’s and a good SAT score despite his linguistic problems” type of image (damn this is a problematic sentence…). You still have the money to live a fairly privileged life and even afford tutors, so I don’t think you’ll get much of an “immigrant boost”, but maybe they’ll like your cultural diversity.</p>
<p>I am sorry if i came down harsh but I was frustrated at the moment. But thanks for the reply. </p>
<p>and @overachiever92, what exactly would be the bracket for those "low-income immigrant student who still managed to get straight A’s and a good SAT score despite his linguistic problems.</p>
<p>Just asked my parents, they said on FAFSA, the combined income was $65k. And btw, my SAT score breakdown: 800M, 580 CR, 730W…so theres still that “linguistic problems” issue as seen with CR. And as much as i hate to say it, this is leaning towards a chancing thread. I dont want anyone raging, so just let me know if it still creates that image.</p>
<p>My interviewer asked me what’s it like living in the ghetto, how has it affected me, and what I did in response. I think they’re attracted to unique life experiences students have lived through and their backgrounds.
I’m a first-gen college Asian and my sat break down is 710m, 510 cr, 650 w, but I don’t even think that a high score is much of an attraction. If i were to look at an application, I would glance at the scores and wonder why they got whatever scores and answer the question with the rest of their application. Sounds like a silly thing for me to do.</p>
<p>@Amazingonline, so you got into Brown with that score? (NICE btw) </p>
<p>@Punjabischolar, At least less than 60k. Your “linguistic problem” is meant to be demonstrated in your background not your scores (You’re supposed to prove that you don’t have one). So, that 580 on CR will hurt as well, because that means that you will have to take the TOEFL (you already have obviously…) and that only makes you seem “adequately” fluent in English, not perfectly fluent, unless you truly aced the TOEFL. I still think you have a pretty good chance though. Btw, they also take into account your family assets when they’re evaluating your financial status, so you might have a 65k/ year income but your assets might bring you up to a whole other income bracket.</p>
<p>I am on green card. I don’t need to take TOEFL. I’ve beens studying here for 4 years, so I am fluent in speaking, just an accent but you can understand me. LOL. i took SAT’s four times, still didnt go above 580 =(</p>