Are US admissions interviews always this informal? In the UK, I was interviewed by two professors, and no way I would have dared to talk to them about their families.

Name: Student story: Admissions interview
Uploaded: 2014-08-12T15:57:06Z
Description: Ace your college interview with these tips! Research your college well, surprise the interviewer with your knowledge, and make a connection. Remember, it's a chat, not a test. Talk about your studies, hobbies, and what you love. Practice makes you better!

Well, yes and no. On the one hand, interviews are formal in that you have to dress up a little nicer and that the interviewer has a report to make and send to a college. Therefore, you will have to prepare yourself. On the other hand, you can see a US interview as a normal conversation. The interviewer is not a interrogator who wants to reject you. You should regard him or her as someone who wants to know more about you and your interests. Feel free to tell your interviewer about them in a way that really represents 'you'. And, as in all conversations, don't hesitate to let the interviewer speak at times. Ask him questions that you always wanted to know about the school (no questions where you can find the answer on the school's webpage, however), and what his or her experience was. And then you might as well digress to more personal topics like family. Hope that helps!

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Course: College admissions > Unit 4

Lesson 5: Admissions interviews

Student story: Admissions interview

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Ace your college interview with these tips! Research your college well, surprise the interviewer with your knowledge, and make a connection. Remember, it's a chat, not a test. Talk about your studies, hobbies, and what you love. Practice makes you better!

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Flanny
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Flanny's post “Are US admissions intervi...”
Are US admissions interviews always this informal? In the UK, I was interviewed by two professors, and no way I would have dared to talk to them about their families.
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(16 votes)
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- Maarten de Vries
  Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Maarten de Vries's post “Well, yes and no. On the ...”
  Well, yes and no. On the one hand, interviews are formal in that you have to dress up a little nicer and that the interviewer has a report to make and send to a college. Therefore, you will have to prepare yourself. On the other hand, you can see a US interview as a normal conversation. The interviewer is not a interrogator who wants to reject you. You should regard him or her as someone who wants to know more about you and your interests. Feel free to tell your interviewer about them in a way that really represents 'you'. And, as in all conversations, don't hesitate to let the interviewer speak at times. Ask him questions that you always wanted to know about the school (no questions where you can find the answer on the school's webpage, however), and what his or her experience was.
  And then you might as well digress to more personal topics like family.
  
  Hope that helps!
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  (17 votes)
Alecia Petridis
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Alecia Petridis's post “is this real interviews o...”
is this real interviews or just scripted and planned interviews?
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(2 votes)
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- cant tell you that sry
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to cant tell you that sry's post “wut. i would leave just t...”
  wut. i would leave just that as a comment but it wont let me leave something so short. this never happened.
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  (1 vote)

Video transcript

- I love being interviewed, I'm a people person and I love letting people know about myself. So when I was presented with college interviews I was really excited. And the biggest factor for me for preparing for those interviews was definitely getting to know my college. I didn't want to go in there, not knowing what it was about, and being presented with a question that was really embarrassing and me not answering. So, I definitely researched, looked into the things that maybe the interviewer wouldn't think that I would know. Some of those tick-tacky things that would surprise him and definitely make an impact. And going off on the impact, it is really important to make a connection with the interviewer. Definitely when you make a connection with someone they remember it more and it definitely makes the report that they're going to write about you really easy. For instance for me, when I was being interviewed by one college, I had a two hour converation with the guy, at one point we became friends. Simply because I made a connection with him. He starts talking to me about his family, I start talking to him in Arabic, it was awesome. And that's something, I really connected with him and he connected with me. So I know for a fact that he definitely wrote a good report because by the end of it, it was great. So it's definitely important just to make a connection. I was really inspired by what he said sometimes and through that you learn a lot about the interviewer and he'll learn a lot about you, which is really important.