Update: I am writing again. Yes after 3 long months I have decided to come back to my abandoned blog. This feels nice. So for my grand comeback, I plan to talk about something more useful. Something that YOU, dear viewer, may be interested in.
I had my first college interview two days ago, with the number one party school in the United States. I am also planning to apply to the uni (because it is free), so I won’t go into too many details (? Idk if this will get me disqualified but I don’t think so). This will mainly cover the background info, preparation process and tips I have during the interview. Now I am not an expert, nor am I 300% sure that I will be accepted due to my very glamorous GPA, but hey I believe that I did pretty well for my interview. Felt pretty good afterwards and the admissions officer looks super happy. Of course, they always look happy but I think my performance was pretty good.
So, background info. Basically, this university likes to set up interviews with all of the interested candidates so they can offer dean’s list scholarship to these students, I think. Anyway, I thought this was going to be a great experience anyway and I genuinely thought this school was pretty cool. So, naturally, I signed up for an interview. Absolutely free.
I started preparing two days before the interview. Basically, I conducted a lot of research on Google and on YouTube, watching campus tours, why students chose this school and what they specialised in. There was also a page on the university’s website where they briefly talk about the interview etiquettes and questions, so make sure you check these pages out before the interview. They listed some questions to be answered, and also tips on how to prepare. That was pretty cool.
Now, onto the nitty-gritty tips stuff. First of all, no matter what speaking examination you are doing (SBA, speaking exam, interview wtv), never read directly from your script. You can, of course, prepare one (that is very smart to do), but never read the words aloud from the paper without processing that in your brain. Asides appearing very unnatural and rehearsed, your thoughts would not align with your brain and sometimes you might get stuck in-between thoughts. And that might be one of the worst things that could happen to you during an interview, so always, think before you speak. I prepared a notecard on my screen about a few of the questions to be prepared, but I never looked at it cause the points were all inside my head. The goal of doing research/ preparing IS to gather those useful points in your head, so be sure to familiarise yourself with the material.
The first few questions asked during the interview were pretty standard, if you go in prepared that should not be any problem. What caught me off guard though, was some of the follow-up questions the interviewer asked right after my answer. We talked about my favourite/ least favourite books, and tbh I did not prepare my least favourite book. I said A Streetcar Named Desire right on the spot, but I did elaborate (because I don’t find Blanche’s character that compelling), so it was good. The goal of the interview is to let the school get to know more about the candidate as a person, not as a scholar. By that I mean, all your academic achievements are in your personal statements and transcripts already, what they are interested in is to get to know YOU. So yeah, tell them everything (nice) about your life, what you’re into, what major you like, and that’s all you got to do for a standard interview!
One more tip: when the interviewer asks you if you have any more questions, that is usually the most important question. This is the time you show that you are interested in applying and that you have done your research. So don’t ask them good questions, like the culture of the school, life at the location/ campus, admissions and stuff. Don’t ask them standard things you can Google. Show your genuine interest in the school, and the officer will try their best to answer them.
So that’s all I have for you today. This is clearly not a storytime article as expected, I figured out that it would not be sincere/ cool if I just put my entire interview transcript here, I am going to apply so not gonna disclose much. But this has been a fantastic experience, I think I did even better this time compared to my job interview. Cool, there you have it, folks. Thanks for reading, hope this helps.
P.S. Currently working on an (amateur) analysis on a song, stay tuned for that.