RISING SENIORS: Many of you might be interviewing with your prospective colleges this summer or during the first term of your senior year. While interviewing isn’t the norm, it is not uncommon among selective colleges. For example, Harvard, MIT, Yale, U. Rochester, Georgetown, Lehigh U., & Princeton all still used an interview for undergraduate applicants this year, just to name a few.
For those institutions that require or recommend interviews, this represents a great opportunity for you to share more about yourself, communicate both demonstrated interest and fit, along with the chance for you to learn more about the institution.
How to arrange an interview, who will interview you, and how the interview will be used, will all vary as per the college in question. This summer, make sure to check the websites of your prospective colleges and attend information sessions to find out those details. You don’t want to miss the chance to interview where you can, or to have an interview sneak up on you unprepared!
In the Document Resources section of your Naviance account you’ll now find a pdf from Smith College includes some basic but helpful tips for the college interview process which should prove helpful. Also, check out the links below.
https://www.scoir.com/blog/college-admission-interview-tips
https://thebiz.bentley.edu/how-to-ace-a-college-interview/
https://admissions.rochester.edu/blog/6-tips-for-college-interviews/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp5av-bwAHI&t$s (this is MIT specific, and ignore the dates cited, as it's from 2017. But the overall info/advice remains great and much is applicable beyond MIT)
Make sure to read the section on the college interview in Chapter 3 of the NACAC Guide to College Admission. You’ll find that guide in the Document Resources section of your Naviance account within the College Office folder.
And if you need ideas for good questions to ask of your interviewer remember to revisit the NSSE guide we emailed you about earlier this semester.
Some colleges now offer a short video introduction option in lieu of (or addition to) the chance to interview. Bowdoin College, Brown University, and UChicago, are just a few such institutions that are popular with our students. Duke and some other institutions offer students the chance to submit a short GLIMPSE video. If a college offers this option, it is a good idea to use it.
Brown offers some useful tips for the video intro on their website. You don’t need to hire a film crew or create a super polished film production; in fact, spending extensive time and resources on the video intro is likely to be counterproductive. They’re not looking for something overdone. The voice-over, montage style that you might have seen or heard about is not the best way to approach this, and there is a lot of bad information on YouTube. This step is supposed to be an easy way for any applicant to share something authentic about themselves. Unless you are genuinely adept and incredibly creative with this sort of thing, don’t be afraid to simply be yourself and talk to your phone.
