Preparing for College Interviews: Dos and Don’ts

Webinar Transcription

2024-11-18 – Preparing for College Interviews: Dos and Don’ts

Anesha: Hi, everyone. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and your moderator today. Welcome to today’s webinar, which will be “Preparing for College Interviews: Do’s and Don’ts.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with a presentation and then we will open to answer your questions in a live Q&A.

On the sidebar, you can download our slides under the handouts tab and you can start submitting your questions under the Q&A tab. Now let’s meet our presenter, Megan Tang. Hey, Megan, how are you doing? Oh, I’m good. How are you? I’m good. I’m good. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Megan: Yeah.

So I am on the East coast in North Carolina where I graduated from Wake Forest many years ago, but I, after I graduated from Wake Forest, I worked in the alumni, the admissions office. Sorry. I’ve been talking a lot about alumni interviews. So I’m going to talk a lot about that tonight as well, but I worked in the admissions office and at the time, and still, if any of you are interested in Wake Forest.

There are admission interviews that are part of the process that you can select. And with that, I have done thousands of these interviews in the admission side and have been able to have the privilege with CollegeAdvisor to work on the mock interview team. And that’s really what we’ll talk about tonight of the services we can provide, but also really just some general prep of how to think through and plan for an interview.

If it is a part of your admissions process.

Anesha: Great timing to this season, as we were talking about at the start. Um, before we let you get started, we’re just going to do a quick little poll. So if you’re out there, go ahead and let us know what grade level you are in. Um, if you’re a parent or teacher out there, we welcome you.

You can go ahead and select other. As we’re waiting for some responses to come in, Megan, I’m curious, is there one key, like, takeaway that you have as far as like, Last pep talk right before her students go into an interview. What is like the one piece of advice you want them to remember?

Megan: Yeah, so I think we all have this idea that the interviews Are like this, you know, the Google search company where they’re going to give you a math problem and you have to solve it on the spot.

And it’s really tricky, but it’s not at all. These are really a conversation meant to help you prepare, share more about yourself, give more insight to all of the things that you’ve already put into your application and submitted and so. I almost every student I talked to after we’ve done some prep and then they go into the real thing, say how so much easier than I thought it would be.

And not to say it’s not a big deal, but it really is a conversation and you already know all that you need to know, which is you and about your background. And so that’s definitely the biggest takeaway I hope you all take away from this evening.

Anesha: You already know everything you need to know going into this interview.

All right, we’ll go ahead and close our poll. We have a small group tonight. 100 percent of 12th graders. Um, so obviously this is probably timely for you. I’ll stop talking, hand it over to you, be back a little bit later for our next poll. All right.

Megan: Well, as we dive in, uh, hopefully some of you. are in the process.

Maybe you’re anticipating you’re going to get invited to an interview. There are lots of different kinds of interviews, which we’ll talk about in just a moment, break them down. So you kind of have an idea of the differences between the different types, but overall, the purpose of this college interview, no matter what format it comes in is to truly learn more about you.

It is the most personal space. Obviously you’re going to get to talk. I tell students all the time, think about all the writing that you’ve done and all the the editing that you’ve done for your writing. You worked really hard on formulating a response and an answer and really presenting yourself. Well, everybody can do that, right?

But when you show up in an interview, you don’t necessarily have that space to on the spot, edit, think about it, rephrase, redo. I mean, you’re really are answering the questions live in person. And Although that sounds like, Oh, well, that’s nervous. They’re just trying to trick me and make me say something I shouldn’t say, or, you know, fumble on my answers.

But what it really does is it allows you to show the excitement, show the emotion behind all of the things that you ended up writing about on your applications. That’s really the space where we can see a student just, just, just. show their passion and show why they’ve done all of the things that they have done and are trying to present to the college.

Uh, I can’t stress enough and you will see it on multiple slides that this is a conversation. Again, no matter what format it is, there, there are some that are more of a virtual robot. We’re calling it interview, uh, for some of BSMD programs that might not be as personal because you’re going to just be responding to, uh, the computer and then it gets formulated into.

This generated thing going to the admissions office, but for the most part, and for most of you, you’re going to have a face to face conversation and it is really meant to dig out on different topics, uh, different categories of things that are related to admissions, obviously, but more importantly, related to you and Your passions, your interest and how you will be a good fit for that school.

And there’s no true answer, no true right answer or great answer for all of these questions. It really is digging into sharing more about yourself. And then furthermore, it’s also space and in many cases, alumni interviews are really what Are happening now across the admissions interviews, and it’s a time to talk to somebody who’s graduated from that campus and or if it’s someone who works in the admissions office, you have someone on the expert side who’s reviewing applications.

And but for most of it’s an alumni interview, and so you get to have a conversation with someone, whether they be. Many, many years removed from graduating from that school or they graduated last year and in some cases they have current seniors, uh, in the college campus during these interviews. So you have questions that you can formulate and ask and get to know somebody and really get a feel of what that community could be like, because here’s someone who’s volunteering their time to do that.

So. Very much so. This is a space for you to show more about yourself, show your demonstrated interest. As you can see on this slide, that’s another key part of, you know, you care about the school enough to do this extra step that isn’t a requirement for most of these applications, uh, and getting to share more about you and learn more from these interviewers.

So there’s a couple different types of interviews that are out there, and most of you, most of the, at least the students that come to CollegeAdvisor and do the prep through the mock interview team and have this practice, you’re working with an alumni team, an alumni interview team who are truly volunteers, who love the campus, who have graduated.

Again, they. just totally range the decades of graduation years. They could be 50 years out of graduating from that school and well into their careers and well into, uh, whatever their passions are. Uh, and then they could be really recent, as I mentioned, and some of that’s relevant, especially when you, we talk about the questions that you might want to ask them.

And we’ll get to that slide later on, but in an alumni interview, um, This isn’t a person who is formally working for getting paid for making admissions decisions. They’re part of the team because they’re going to get to talk to you, report back, share information about who you are, but that kind of hopefully creates for you a level of, it’s a little bit more casual.

It’s definitely, I’m going to say it again. The buzzword is conversation. It is for you to be able to, uh, ease into talking about yourself again, not asking you questions that are just really. trying to trip you up. Then there are some schools that have admissions officers or their staff that are hosting it.

And so they’re, they are making admissions decisions. Now, they may not be making a direct admissions decision on your application. Every school has their own system of who’s interviewing, who’s making decisions and how that all overlaps. And by and large, everybody who’s having a conversation with you, has their own system.

Takes that information, writes up a report and kind of adds that into your application. And it’s an add on. It’s a positive add on for almost all students. And I can say that very confidently of all the interviews I’ve done most of the time. And there were a few that maybe didn’t, but most of the time, even if a student fumbled on a question, it was an add on and a positive to their application.

And then you also have some of those scholarship interviews and a lot of the scholarship interviews that we’re seeing now are whether they can be face to face in person, but we’re. Kind of seeing these robot interviews as well, and a lot of the bigger scholarships that have multiple rounds. And these are all things that we can help you prep for and have practice.

And that is a little bit of a different interview. And there’s different sets of questions that you might see a come across. But it’s another space for you to share more about yourself, show your connection to the school, the scholarship, whatever it may be, the specifics of what you’re applying to. And then kind of on top of that, just be aware of what type of interview you have, at least what interface will be, is this going to be.

A virtual over zoom over the computer and thinking about that as you prep, uh, it’s good to have practice with just seeing half of your face versus the whole body language that you have of a person. I’ve said a couple of times, the robot interview, that could be really awkward to talk to a screen. I’m doing it right now.

And I don’t see any faces. Uh, so I just have to look up at a camera. Cause I don’t want to look at myself. And so there’s little tics. tricks that you can learn through the mock interview to present yourself in the best way possible in that space. And then the in person interviews, which is hard for us to do when we’re doing the mock interview prep, cause we’re going to do it virtually, but the conversation, and honestly, I think, uh, A virtual format is harder to do.

And so if you’re practicing on a virtual space, you’re going to be that much more prepared for an in person interview and thinking through the questions that might come up of where your, your interview is being held. So some of the do’s and don’ts of the preparation. Now we’re going to talk about questions.

We’re going to talk about answering questions. This is really just the, The prep. So you have been offered an interview or you have selected on your application that you’re interested in an interview. And so you think that this is going to be a part of your application process. So you should start prepping.

Um, if you have submitted your application and you’ve marked on there that you’re interested in, know that not every single student is offered an interview and each school has completely different reasons, completely different. Strategies of who’s getting asked for 1 oftentimes. It’s really just comes down to logistics of how many alumni interviewers do they have?

Are they in person or virtual? If they’re in person? Well, then they’re definitely limited to who is on their alumni team and can offer these interviews. So don’t be alarmed if you don’t get offered one and don’t be alarmed if you do, because you’re worried, Oh, that means they want to learn more about me because they’re not ready to accept me.

There’s sometimes there’s just no rhyme or reason other than just pure logistics. But back to the, kind of the regular point here of the prep, when you, um, Are intending on having an interview. I would encourage you to kind of think through some of this prep. So some of the dues, uh, this is when you formulate answers to some of these questions later on, the best piece of advice that I give in thinking through what you want to talk about is know your values, know the highlights of what you put into your application and your essays.

I save anywhere between five to eight things, kind of lock them in your brain of these are the things that. Are really important to me and I want to make sure I can talk about. And because there’s a question usually at the end of what else did we not talk, what did we not talk about that you want to share more about?

And you can kind of log through your mind of, okay, these are the five big things, research, my community service, my academic achievement, all the things that you are really important to you and that you’ve worked so hard on making sure you hit on those points. Um, The interview is a space to add more. Now you’ve put a lot into your application with the activities and the essays and many of these schools have multiple essays so there’s a lot that you were already able to share.

So to say don’t talk about anything you’ve shared already would not be very helpful because there are certainly things that hopefully you are just really passionate about that you want to write about it, you want to talk about it, you want to make sure the whole world knows you’ve participated in this.

But the key here is When you’re doing this interview and you’re sharing something that maybe you’ve already brought up on your application, what’s new information? What is additional information that you can provide to kind of give more context or, you know, it’s 600 words in the essay. So you didn’t really get to get to everything or your whole life, or maybe the decisions that you may led you into the things you’re interested in.

So for thinking through the add on piece is know what you put on your application. So you’re not like verbatim repeating, but also know, like, what you can do to enhance some of these questions. Highly recommend asking peers that have gone through the interview process to think about. You know, they had the questions they experienced, but it was like, and I’m a guarantee they’re going to tell you it wasn’t as hard as they thought, uh, that there were different different and certainly specific categories that the interviewers were asking about.

And so you can prep for that and we’ll talk about those categories. But just kind of getting a feel for it now, right over to a don’t is don’t try to then take those questions that your peers got. And maybe they give you what the questions were exactly. And then you go prepare for that. And then you try to copy their answers.

I mean, not that you want to copy things, but don’t try to get locked into, well, I read on the internet on Reddit that these were the types of questions, uh, use it as just a framework. To kind of get a general idea of what types of topics come up and what are some answers that you could provide to those topics.

That would be a good way to begin that prep. Some of the don’ts, this is not a space where you’re going to have a script and you’re going to memorize and you’re going to just repeat exactly what you had. You’ve already done that in the essays, not that you memorized your essays, but you read them probably enough that you nearly could memorize it and repeat them.

This is a space to, to think on the spot. of answers, you can prepare and consider some topics that you definitely want to bring up because they’re important to you, but this isn’t a space where you want to feel really formulated because it’s going to come off that way in the interview. Um, out of the tons of interviews that I’ve done, I could regularly tell who had done some type of prep and it wasn’t because they had better answers or they were better at talking about themselves.

But what kind of came off is that they were able to just confidently talk about themselves and kind of get over the nerves of, well, this is kind of awkward that I have to brag about myself for 30 minutes to a stranger. Uh, so they kind of got those nerves out of the way and they were able to slow down.

They were able to kind of think through the things they wanted to talk about, but Then there were some that felt really, really scripted. Uh, and the unfortunate part is you don’t know what kind of questions you have. And so if you’ve got this kind of memorized, logged in scripted thing, and you try to force it into a question that I asked that doesn’t really answer that question, it’s just not going to work as well.

So that’s just something to kind of think about, um, as you prepare, because you can never start too early in this preparation process. So real quick, want to Take a quick poll on and I’m going to hand it back over here.

Anesha: Yeah, so we just want to know if you’ve had any interview experience. So go ahead and let us know where you think.

And I know some folks are not sure if they’ve had interviews. So if you think so, let us know and we can perhaps as we go deeper into the presentation clarify for you. I really appreciate what you shared about talking to other students. That’s 1 piece of advice that I haven’t. openly shared with a lot of my students is to reach out to their friends, but I think it happens organically.

Um, and I appreciate you emphasizing conversational. I think I remember my own college interview. It was just a conversation. I actually really enjoyed it. It was fun to me. Um, I think because I was first gen and I did not know what to expect. And so I just kind of went into it. This person wants to talk to me.

So I think the more you can. Lower the pressure on yourself. The easier it is to just kind of engage and have a thoughtful conversation with an alum.

Megan: Yeah,

Anesha: absolutely. That’s

Megan: wonderful advice. It’s, it feels really high stakes in the moment. Cause it’s your college application. I get it. We all get it. That’s why you do an, uh, do a mock interview so you can kind of get those jitters out and then walk away and saying, Oh, I can talk about myself and I can do this because it’s even more casual when you’re.

Anesha: Yes, all right, we’ll go ahead and close our pool. 100 percent of folks who responded said, yes, they have completed an interview. So, um, perhaps some folks are just looking to get some tips looking on how to improve or to prepare for the next round. Right? I’ll stop talking and I’ll be back a little bit later.

Thank you. All right. Helpful.

Megan: Thank you.

Anesha: All right,

Megan: so let’s dive into what are some common questions and I really am going to frame these in different categories. categories or topics, because there are so many questions that an interviewer could ask. And because it is a conversation, there’s that word again, it hopefully is kind of an organic formulation of questions just because of the things that you bring up or you answer, but you kind of, you know, Leave some low hanging fruit.

And so I want to pick on that in the sense that I want to learn more about it. So I, again, it’s a conversation. So we’re asking questions back and forth. So I might have five questions that I need to ask because that’s just how the report that we would have submitted, but I might ask them in different ways.

You might tell me that you’re interested in this major. And so I’m going to try to bring out aspects of that major or aspects of your passions that allow you you. To show those interests. Uh, you’re not going to come to me and say, I’m interested in engineering. And then I say, well, tell me about the arts and some of the projects that you’ve been involved in.

That’s not going to be productive, but what I can say is with engineering, well, tell me a time you’ve kind of made something or created something little, small, big. I would love to hear about that achievement or that curiosity moment. So the categories generally fall into academics, they fall into extracurriculars, community involvement, and this can be community service.

It can also be the big question, a little bit different than just community service, but what community are you a part of and how have you contributed to this community? So a little bit of an identity question. Leadership is another big piece. And then your goals. So your goals for, uh, Your major, your goals at that particular institution.

Although the next slide, we’re going to talk about questions about that school specifically. So that is another category, but we’re going to have a whole slide dedicated to it. So those kind of are general topics you should expect to have questions on, even in a conversation at some point, you’re going to kind of be done with a particular topic and move on to the next.

But also again, that interviewer needs to provide certain information to kind of. It can’t be perfectly, you know, your answers compared to this student’s answers because you all have different things you’re talking about and the conversations will vary. But if you have general topics, we can at least get some basis of comparison between students in this piece.

But I wouldn’t even consider it that way. This really is more of just An add on to your application to say, yes, we definitely really feel the conversation we had here and got to see their curiosity that they would be a good fit at our institution. So, I mean, you can read some of these questions on here, but I think 1 that usually sticks out to me is.

the academic side and being able to talk about school. Um, one thing to note, especially on the alumni interview team, they don’t have a ton of your application in front of them. In fact, they may have nothing. Uh, they may just have a little bit of information about where you’re located, what high school you go to, and maybe some activities and extracurriculars to talk about.

Um, on the admission side, I would just have a sheet. Well, this was before we would have more electronic version, but we would get a stock card with. It would have your current class schedule that you submitted when you requested an interview. We would have some top activities that you submitted when you requested an interview.

So it had nothing to do with the application. Um, and, and I was working in the admissions office, so we could have access to your application, but we had none of it in the interview prep part. And I stress that because that’s where you kind of want to know, what did I already share in my application and what can I enhance?

And maybe Because this person doesn’t know me at all or the things that I’ve done. Do I need to explain anything? Like, if I give an acronym to my activity that I’m so proud of, are they going to understand what that is? Or is it going to go over their head? Not because they aren’t, aren’t smart enough, but like, maybe you have a specific local, uh, Organization you’re a part of.

So what clarity do you need to provide in your answers? Uh, and just like in your essays, I think all without over-explaining and taking too much time on defining everything you’ve done, giving enough so they can have an understanding of, Oh, okay, this is community service. That is a. Exposure to medicine, working at a clinic and they worked in this particular group, but it might have a specific name that doesn’t mean a lot to a person who’s not in that area.

Now, in alumni interviews there, they are really trying to pair you with someone who is local. So sometimes you can get away with, yeah, the hospital down the street. That’s where I’ve done a lot of my work and worked in this particular department, but just, that’s where you kind of need to know a little bit about your audience.

And they give you a A little bit of details about your interviewer to do that. Um, so these questions are pretty self-explanatory, and I think they’re, this is where, at the very beginning where I said, you already know what you need to know for this interview. I mean, these are the things that you’ve done.

Uh, and they, because they don’t have a ton of your information in front of ’em, they’re not gonna say, well, tell me about this one obscure activity that you’ve done that you listed on your activities. And you said you did it 50 hours. What was it again? They’re not trying to trick you. It, it. Really will be open ended in that sense of what is a project that you were a part of with your peers and how did you work through that activity?

How would your peers describe you as working in a group setting? So those are kind of some of the questions that could come up and they just, they totally vary. Uh, these are pretty consistent with questions I would ask in these different topics. Uh, and just thinking through some of those. Answers as you go along.

So now some questions about the college, because one of the The things that I mentioned, the purpose of this interview is to show demonstrated interest. So you are choosing to do something extra to add to your application. And this is the space to say, I love this school. Uh, I will read what it says here.

Even if this is not your top choice school, your responses should give the impression that it is a top contender. Uh, so that means Try not to talk about other schools that you’ve applied to in the interview. And this is coming from, I have experienced it and heard it from students. You don’t need to tell me that you’ve applied everywhere else and that we’re your second choice because we, you didn’t get an ED somewhere.

Um, I know none of you would do that, but that’s just, you know, Don’t do it. Um, and you want, be truthful. Like you do not need to say this is my top choice school and I love this school and it’s my number one. If that’s not the truth, but respond in a way that is positive, that is giving excitement about the school.

I mean, if you’re taking the time to do this additional interview, then there is something about the school that you like, right? You’ve applied to it. You’re interested in it. But I also know that if you are applying to certain caliber of schools and they all offer an interview and. It’s highly selective for all of them.

It’s to your advantage to go through as many interviews as possible, whether that is your top school or not. And so just give them the feel that it is at least a top contender. Um, so the big questions of, I mean, and these can be really verbatim of why do you want to attend this institution? I think one, Part of that that’s more helpful is, and how is this institution going to serve you and your goals for the future?

That’s one that I would always ask, like, how are we going to meet your needs as well as why are you interested in us? And just like that question that many of you have answered in the essays about why this school, you want to give a little bit of some specifics. Not just, well, you have a great psychology department, and I love that I’m going to get to study that particular degree.

Thank you. Okay, well, psychology is everywhere. So what makes our institution for you in this department? And so that could be this professor who has done this research and it has to be genuine to you. Why are you attracted to this school? And it doesn’t have to be all about academics. Although I do think that that’s an important part because that’s the major, uh, Point of why you are applying to these institutions to study to learn to get these degrees.

Um, so when you’re kind of thinking through how you want to respond to that, give some specifics about the school that will just deepen the demonstrated interest that you’re showing of like, wow, they really do know the school and what it can provide to them. They’re not just applying to us because they want to apply to the top 20 schools.

And we’re 1 of them. Um, and other parts of how will you be a good fit, how will you contribute to this community, and some of that might be what community are you a part of and what community may you continue to be a part of at this school. I mean, these are big parts and big questions just to get to know more about you, but then also kind of see how you would fit.

And these alumni interviewers, the admission staff, whoever you may be speaking to is really trying to assess What I want them to have been a peer of mine, but I’ve wanted to take in class with this student and all of the questions kind of will point to that. But definitely in the questions that you have about this school.

So more challenging interview questions. I know in this do and don’t webinar, and I’m sure several of you may have signed up to hear that. What should I answer? What should I not say or what topics should I avoid? And on that, which isn’t necessarily this slide, I would say. I don’t want to tell you don’t talk about this.

Don’t talk about that because it’s taboo and it will be bad. Um, if I was a political science major and it was one of my deepest passions as a high school student. And, uh, it, uh, so I wanted to talk about, so to say, don’t talk about politics because it was something that, you know, you might not know who you’re talking to, but there is truth on, you don’t know who is on the other side of this interview.

So whether it is, you’re talking about a very Personal subject matter, or you’re talking about your peers or you’re answering a question about other people. You, you want to just be aware that you don’t know the background of the interviewer and that you aren’t overgeneralizing with your answers, um, or making a statement that maybe another, a person might have a different viewpoint and see the world in a different way.

So just knowing that you’re, or presenting your idea As not the only idea, if that makes sense, you know, speak your truth and your opinions and, and the things that you believe in, that’s important. But knowing that, You want to be respectful of the people who are on the other side of this interview and are making sure your word choices are not being insulting, demeaning, um, any of those things.

So that’s kind of something to consider, uh, with responses, but some of the more challenging questions and how to prep for them, the biggest is tell us about yourself, which is a hit or miss on whether advisors use it as an opening question. Uh, there will be some kind of version of this because it. Would be hard to just jump in right into academic.

So tell me, you know, what about your major interests you, you kind of want to gently get into an interview for me, tell us about yourself or at least tell us about yourself and your background. That’s how I would have specifically asked that question is really for you to give me a little. pointers in that answer that I can then pull back into the interview to make sure I bring up because in your first response about tell us about yourself, you have alluded to these different topics.

Now, if you are saying, Hi, my name is Megan. I am 17 years old and I go to East Forsyth high school. There’s not a whole lot I can do with that. So giving just a little bit with that response can be very helpful. Uh, so I think the background piece that I usually add in that question. Is helpful because then you can think of it.

Well, what community am I a part of? What is my background? Maybe what are some important things that I’m a part of? Maybe there’s an athletics that is really important to me or research that I’ve done that I’m working on right now or community service and serving others. And maybe you want to just kind of point to your major and the.

the studies that you have, the goals that you have for your future. Now, you don’t, you’re not going to cover everything in that answer. So that’s the other hard part. That’s why this is a hard question, because you either fall flat and give nothing, or you spend 15 minutes answering the first question and the interviewer is like, Oh, well, where do I go from here?

Uh, so think of like, One to three things that you want to highlight in this tell us about yourself that are like the core top values, top activities that would be helpful and practice this. I mean, this might be one to kind of work out, tease out, write out however you want to do it. Don’t be scripted when you respond to it, but just kind of think of some answers you could have for that first question.

Um, I think a hard question is what is the biggest challenge that your community faces today? And What I’ll say to that question, if that feels really intimidating, and you are also worried about saying the wrong thing, and one, you don’t need to be, but, but if that’s a fear, and that can be a real fear, think small, you can bring that answer to your school community, or maybe an organization that you’re a part of, and it could be something really, um, uh, really just something that could, you could quickly respond to.

And that’s kind of the same with some of these other things. When they feel like really big questions, kind of bring it down into a smaller space, more local to you, more about your school, so you can have a more. Tight answer to that. Uh, and then I already brought up the what else is important to you. And I think that’s the piece that you can do in the preparation of knowing more, um, final kind of tips on answering difficult questions.

Don’t be afraid of the pause. If you get a question that you are worried about in responding, or you’re not sure how to respond, or you’ve got a lot of things running in your mind, as soon as you hear that question, um, we’ll start with, you got a lot of things running in your mind and you don’t want to just kind of gurgle a lot of.

Sounds out of the interviewer. Take a pause. Um, say that’s a really great question. Let me think about that question and then give your answer. Once you’ve kind of formulated it, if you’re getting really nervous and they ask a question and you’re like, I don’t know what the interviewer just said, like I heard half of it, but I didn’t hear the second part.

Don’t be afraid to say, could you repeat that second part of the question just to make sure you’re asking this and this, um, those are some good ways to clarify. So, you know, you’re answering the right question. Um, and answering it in a way that’s going to be effective to the conversation. Uh, keep your answers tight.

Uh, if you feel that you are rambling. Just know that you’ve answered it. I think that’s the other part is have confidence that I’m sharing what I need to share about myself and I don’t need to continue on now. You don’t know what kind of interviewer you’ll have. I’m an interviewer where I give you a lot of positivity.

Like you’re going to think that this is a great interview, whether it is or not. Cause that’s just the energy that I bring to the conversation, but that’s probably helpful because you kind of think, okay, she’s getting what I’m saying. Whereas I’ve had peers that I’ve worked with that they’re way more stoic.

They don’t give you any feedback. Uh, they’re just kind of sitting there like they won’t even shake their head. And in that space, you may feel like, Oh, I haven’t answered the question. And so I need to just keep going and going and going. So you have to be confident in your answers, knowing who you are, knowing about yourself to say, I’ve answered it.

Um, and be comfortable in that pause that that interview will move on with asking you a clarifying question, or they will move on to their next topics that they want to bring up. And kind of finally, what makes a good response, and I’ve really covered this in a lot of different areas of just. Making sure you are emphasizing who you are, your values, what you want to study, what you’re passionate about, and then also connecting that to the institution and how that institution is gonna provide you those things and get you to those goals.

That’s definitely a, a big part of what you need to present on your application. And then furthermore, how to add on to this interview in. Why the school is a great fit for you. Uh, be specific with examples. Being generic isn’t going to add a whole lot of value if you’re not getting into the stories or, um, the specifics of the activities you’re a part of.

Instead of just saying, and this is the same goes for your essays, instead of saying, you know, I was a part of this community service and I really enjoyed it and it was meaningful to my life because I learned, uh, How others experience the world. And I want to continue that in college. Well, not a bad answer, but how could you give the viewpoint of why your mind was shaped?

Why, how did you learn that? What about the experience in community service, a specific example in that service opportunity? Did you learn to be able to, uh, learn that information and move forward better into the world around you. Uh, and so it’s, it’s very much the same as the essays, just thinking about specific examples.

Now, a lot of the questions will point to that, but the more you can get into the why and the insights that you can provide, the stronger your answers will be. Um, try to avoid yes, no, most questions aren’t going to really allow you to just answer with a yes or no. But if you could, I guess essentially the advice is don’t, uh, go deeper.

I mean, this is a conversation, so you, you want to have a conversation back and forth. Um, avoid being self deprecating in the sense that like, well, you know, sarcastic, I think would be a better way to avoid sarcasm. Um, that might not. That might be misunderstood from the interviewer. Again, they don’t know you and they don’t know how you generally present yourself and show up.

And so if you’re kind of joking about a lot of things, and in that sense, then being self deprecating about yourself, it’s hard to kind of tell, well, are they just not confident? Are they really not actually going to be successful here? So be confident, um, and know that it is, it, We don’t normally walk around saying, Hi, I’m Megan.

Here’s all my accolades. Let me tell you about them. But this is the space to definitely do that. And then I’ve mentioned it a little bit already, but the piece I’m being really technical, uh, and this really goes into research. It goes into maybe some specific work that you’ve done, projects, assignments, that whether it doesn’t make sense because the person doesn’t live in your area, so they don’t know your area, Or it’s not their background.

Um, and the alumni interviewers are all over the place with their careers and their backgrounds. And sometimes you’ll be paired with someone in the field that you’re interested in. Most of the time, again, it’s the logistics and the convenience of who they can match you with. So it doesn’t have to do with your field.

And so if you’re talking to a lawyer, but you are a biology scientist and you’ve done this very specific molecular research, and you’re just. Spitting out all of these big words. They may not have any understanding of what you’re talking about. Um, so that how would you explain it to your peers kind of thing would be the way you can best answer that question.

Very similar advice to how you would have written these essays, but now you kind of have to think on the spot. And so that’s really where this practice can kind of come into play. Very, I mean, I’ve mentioned a couple of times what’s happening after the interview. It’s very much depends on the institution and how they have their structured, but most of the schools will have the interviewer put some quick, uh, Right up of the conversation, some major points, maybe there are specific questions they had to ask, and they’re going to provide those answers in more of a rubric or some type of report that gets sent to the admissions office.

And that’s tacked on to your application. And so when they’re reviewing your application, that’s. A part of, um, everything that they’re going to see, uh, and be able to kind of give more context to all of the other details that are already on your application. So maybe you present something new, or maybe you give more details to a project that it wasn’t necessarily understood because it was just on your activities section.

All right. And then just final advice of slow down. No, I don’t do that very well. I’m a fast talker and when I’m excited, I get even more fast. And so if you know that about yourself, take a breath, start off slow, uh, especially when you’re going to start off nervous and, and That’s just kind of going to be natural because this is a part of your application.

That’s nerve wracking and it’s a big deal. Even if we’re saying it’s a conversation, we understand that it is a big deal and it’ll feel like that. So start off slow. And as you get to talk about the things that you’re passionate about and excited about, maybe you’ll, Pick up your pace, but at least you’re not starting off super fast and then trip up on some of your answers and that makes you nervous and then you have to dial it back.

Just take a breath when you start to feel that overwhelm and that fear. Odds are you’re going to get into the conversation. You’re going to understand that it is truly just. Talking to someone to learn more about them, for them to learn mostly about you and that you could do this and that you’ll be able to have that conversation and it’ll be positive.

And then the biggest thing is taking advantage of the mock interview and the resources that are available to you for that practice because you can get those jitters out that first time before the real thing. All right, so I’m going to hand it back to you and you should

Anesha: thank you again. So that is the end of the presentation part of the webinar.

I hope you found the information helpful. I learned some new things, which I appreciate it. Remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handouts tab. We’re going to move on to the live Q and a the way that it will work. I will read through the questions that you’ve submitted in the Q and a tab, paste them into the public chat so that folks can see them and the read them aloud to give making an opportunity to respond.

If you have any challenges submitting questions to the Q and a double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not There are webinar landing page. You might have to log out, log back in. So our first question, you kind of addressed it, but I felt like it was valuable for some of the introverts or folks who need more processing time, um, to circle back to.

And it’s do interviewers mind or negatively view it when students ask for a moment to pause, um, or think about their answers.

Megan: I think when a student has that, the confidence to, and then maybe it doesn’t feel like confidence, but really I see it as confidence when a student says. That’s a great question.

Let me think about my response. It just makes that student look so mature. Uh, it didn’t happen very often. Most of the time we do what we all do and we just start going and then finally we’ll find our answer, but you kind of waste some time at the beginning before you get there. So no, they definitely will not think less of you.

Um, I, I really can assure you it is a more mature, a positive look to be able to ask for that time.

Anesha: It’s a maturity thing. I’m a good type of person who can just talk. Extemporaneously, and I really should pause and think about questions before I get into them. So I agree with you. I think it’s a, that’s a better trait than we give it credit for being.

Um, the next question for you, um, is how do you dress for an interview? That’s a great

Megan: question. So that is where it depends on the interface that you’re having. So, well, it does depend, but I also will say, It’s always better to dress to impress. And so if you feel most comfortable in a suit and a tie, that’s not what I’m saying you have to wear, but if you feel really confident in a suit and a tie and a nice dress, whatever, whatever makes you feel really strong and confident, then definitely start there.

I think business casual is probably a baseline of a recommendation because it just shows some professionalism. Now, some of these alumni interviewers can be in a more public space, a coffee shop, a lot of these cafeterias, these cool cafeterias that are in some of these bigger cities. And so it, it’s just a more casual environment.

So you certainly can dress how you feel most comfortable. That’s another piece of advice, but kind of air on the side of just a little bit more professional than just maybe your. I don’t have a pulse on what students are wearing even to school, but probably dress it up a little bit from what you’re wearing to school these days.

Oh, uh,

Anesha: am I, you were for a second, but, um, uh, I wanted to ask, uh, sorry. Oh, someone asked, how should I handle a question? I don’t know the answer to.

Megan: Yeah. So, I really don’t think you’re going to be in that space because this is an interview about you, and there are going to be questions that are generic enough that most students can answer whether you’ve done this activity, like your activities are going to vary.

And so the. Questions are general enough to allow every student to answer it and provide something about themselves. So very rarely are you not going to be able to answer it, but let’s say they do ask you, they kind of make an assumption that you have done research because you’ve got this, all this on your resume and maybe you haven’t.

And so that might be one where you’re like, Oh, I don’t know how to. I didn’t do it. Um, and don’t try to force an answer out of that, but just say, you know, I haven’t had the opportunity to do research now in my high school career, but I do have a lot of questions. And here’s 1 that I would love to ask at this college campus, which is exactly why I’m applying here because of the.

Professor connection and the research that I can carry out. So if you don’t have an answer right now, maybe it’s something specific about you, what you’ve done. Think about what you hope to do. Like you can always kind of say, I plan to do that. I haven’t been able to do it, but I do in the future. But again, the questions should really be generic enough that you’re not feeling pegged into, Ooh, I haven’t done it.

And I don’t have an answer for that question.

Anesha: Our next question is are there any questions that interviewers like to be asked?

Megan: Yes, that’s one part that I didn’t get into as much of the last thing you should do in an interview. They’ll say, do you have any questions for me? And you definitely have to have a question, whether, you know, that school, because everyone in your family has gone there, and there’s not a single question that you have about the school.

You want to ask a question to that interviewer. For a couple of reasons. One, you want that interviewer to end on a positive note, being able to talk about themselves and the school. And that just gives that positive energy of, Ooh, I get to talk about this place that I love. And also it just shows again, that maturity piece that you’ve thought about respecting their time.

Um, so on the, what do they enjoy answering? I think anything that ties it back to their experience. And this could be someone who it’s been 50 years since they’ve graduated, or it was last year. And Asking about what did you enjoy most of your experience on a college campus? Uh, if that doesn’t feel like a question you want to hear a response to, I mean, that’s okay.

You could say something about, you know, how has the institution supported you as an alum and how have you been served in your career? So again, that, those are generally for the more dated, a lot of retirees do these alumni interviews. And so to ask what was the college dorm like, um, Might not be a great question because they, it could be very different campus than when they attended that institution.

And so kind of gauge where they are, uh, what their graduation year for those, some of those questions, but anything that allows them to talk about them, their, their experience at the school.

Anesha: Are there any topics I should avoid in an interview?

Megan: Yeah. So kind of, as I mentioned, I don’t, I wouldn’t say an absolute don’t talk about this.

Don’t talk about that because again, if this is a really important part of who you are, uh, You don’t want to diminish that part of yourself just to present yourself to someone else. But I think the more important part is just being aware of how you respond, how you show up talking to someone else that you don’t know.

You don’t know their background. You don’t know their beliefs. And so whatever you share about your opinions, In any sticky subject or really any answer, to be honest, just being aware that you don’t want to say it in an insulting way, um, to the, to the receiving end. And I think if you focus more on how your responses are presented, you could talk about any subject and be able to.

provide a solid answer.

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That’s on the screen during the meeting. You’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out. By the end, you’ll also learn more about CollegeAdvisors Premium 101 packages and be paired with an expert who can help support you in building your college list, editing your essays, much more, in addition to connecting you with our amazing interview prep team, um, in advance of any of your interviews.

All right, we’ll get back to the Q& A. My next question for you is, um, someone asked, how can I request accommodations if neurodivergence that would make it difficult for me to complete, specifically, a virtual admissions interview?

Megan: Wow, fantastic question that I will be honest. I have not. I’m confident that that this has happened.

Um, but as by the time it got to my desk doing an interview, I’m sure all of those logistics had been worked out. Um, so I will offer some just general advice that. I would give to a student, I’d be advising, but I do think that the, really the general advice is to speak to the admissions office directly.

Um, if you are interested in being offered an interview, I would, I would wait until you have been offered the interview. Uh, I wouldn’t go and call and say, this is something we need accommodations for now. And what could happen as well, then logistically, they can’t make it happen. So they’re not going to try it.

But once you’ve been offered one, then you can just kind of, you know, Speak to the admissions team, um, state your case of what your needs are and how to create the best type of interview for you know that it might just logistically not be available. And what they’ll say there. And in that space is that.

And almost every admissions page is saying this. We just can’t offer an interview to every single student who has requested one and know that this is an addition to your application, but you’re not at a deficit or not going to be hindered by not doing an interview. Um, so on one hand, I think it’s also being aware of maybe an interview is not the best thing for this application.

And I’ve had students where we’ve done some practice and I, the thought is this makes you so nervous. So And this makes you so uncomfortable that you’re going to present yourself in a way that is not true to who you are, because I’ve gotten to work with you and you’re just showing up very different in this call.

And so maybe an interview is not something you should add your application because it just isn’t going to add on and you’ve got enough already in there. So that could be one additional thought, but I think the best space is to speak to the admissions office directly and to kind of formulate a plan, state your case and see what they can provide.

Anesha: I missed my interview. How will that affect my application?

Megan: Oh, um, well, hopefully it was one of those logistics of life, right? Um, and that happens. Uh, and I’m also hoping that you’ve already reached out to your interviewer and you’ve shared. Whatever that excuse may have been or, um, that situation. And naturally they may be able to just help you plan another time because again, life happens and, and if they’re understanding of whatever that circumstances, then they may be able to schedule another one.

How will it hurt your application? I mean, it’s not a, uh, The best thing that you missed your interview. Um, but I think if you get on top of it now, um, speaking to the interviewer and then also contacting the admissions office, if you have an admissions rep in your area that you have their contact information or can find it on the website, I would email them immediately and let them know the circumstance and one to just get ahead of.

any assumptions being made. Um, you don’t want to not share whatever the excuse or the reason is because that’ll hopefully alleviate the, well, they didn’t care about us. They, they missed it and didn’t show up. So

Anesha: do you have any tips on how I can make a positive first impression?

Megan: Be yourself. And I know that’s really cliche, but Seriously, be yourself and 1 of I, I enjoy interviews so much. That was the best part of my job because I got to see a student talk about their passions and their loves and on their face.

I could just see how excited they were and. That made a good first impression. I walked away thinking no matter how this works out for this student, they’re going to be successful. They’ve got these passions and their goals. And I’m excited about the interview I just had. And that was going to be a positive note.

That’s why I say it is general, almost most of the time, an add on to your application, a positive add on because you get to show your passions. In your energy and your body language to the interviewer, I

Anesha: guess, um, common mistakes that students make in college interviews. What are what are some of the mistakes that students might make?

Megan: Yeah, and I don’t know if it’s necessarily a mistake, because it can be rectified. It doesn’t ruin an interview, but not reading the room. Essentially. You’re not reading my language of kind of like, okay, I got it. And I don’t want to interrupt. So I’m trying to let you go. Um, but you just keep going and going and going.

And some of that is just. Nerves, or maybe you’re not confident in your answer. So that’s why I give that advice of knowing that you’ve answered it and stopping and letting the interviewer move on. And. That’s probably one of the most common mistakes is just, I don’t want to say talking too much because you should be talking the most, but talking too much about one answer, um, or ping ponging between ideas where it’s really hard for me to follow where you’re going with an answer.

So maybe you have a little bit of a squirrel moment and you go over here to this activity and then you come back to another activity, um, try to keep it. Again, tight answers that are specific to the question.

Anesha: Someone asked, is it okay to bring notes or a resume to reference during the interview?

Megan: So notes, I’m going to put a pause on, I would say maybe not.

Um, because I wouldn’t, you can, what I would say is bring a, you could bring a blank notepad. And if you are the type that you want to jot down something that maybe in conversation you hear them say, and you want to bring it up later, like that looks really mature. That looks professional. Don’t do it. If that’s not something you are comfortable doing, don’t, you don’t need to do it.

But if you’re a note taker and you want to do that. Sure. Bring a blank notepad, but you don’t need to bring notes because again, that’s going to come off in a more scripted response. A resume though, if it is an in person interview with an alumni team or even in the admissions office, it’s not going to hurt you to have a, Nice copy of your resume printed and in hand to give to this interviewer.

They may do nothing with it. It may go in their shredder, but again, that’s a professional look that you have it, you’re handing it over and that makes it look more of like that job interview. So definitely would recommend having a resume on hand. Even if you emailed it to them, it doesn’t hurt to have a physical copy with you.

Anesha: He’s a funny that I sometimes tell my students that they don’t ask. Don’t bring it. I don’t want to hand people paperwork that they don’t want, but I think good to have a nice copy ready to go. Just in case. Yes.

Megan: Yes.

Anesha: How can I effectively talk about my weaknesses without impacting negatively impacting my chances?

Megan: Yeah. Well, that’s that common age old interview. Make it a weakness. That is kind of a strength and that’s just is what it is. Um, and all of us who, if you’re there, any parents on the call and you’ve done a job interview that, I mean, that’s just, you’ll get that question and that’s how you do it. You say, I am really hyper focused on details and sometimes I just get too in the weeds on the details.

Okay. Well, that’s kind of a pro because you do marketing and we need you to care about the details. So think about what really is a positive out of it. And so sometimes you can start with the strength and think, well, how can sometimes that strength be a weakness to me? Um, and spin it that way. It’s hard to spend a true weakness of I’m a procrastinator and it takes me a really long time to get my work done.

Well, that’s doesn’t spin positive, right? So think about how, how, how it has a positive spin.

Anesha: Okay. If we could find a way to spin procrastination, I think we’d solve a lot of, a lot of problems. I want to think about it now. Um, but okay. Someone said, what should I do if the interviewer seems uninterested or distracted?

Yeah, that’s hard.

Megan: Um, so that’s where you’ve got to have the confidence in the distracted piece. I would hate to hear that because that’s unfortunate that you’re getting a distracted interviewer and not a whole lot that you can do. Like it, it wouldn’t be good etiquette to say, excuse me, I can see that you are probably on another screen while you’re interviewing me, but just know that.

And if it really is obnoxious and it’s really distracting, I wouldn’t. Suggest that you go talk to the admissions office and kind of say, I, at this interview didn’t show up in the way that I was hoping they would show up for me in my interview, but I think what you probably will get is maybe their, their energy isn’t what you were expecting and so they’re just a little bit more chill and they’re not giving you a lot of feedback.

That’s where you just have to have the confidence of I’ve answered it. I’m confident in my answer and I’m going to give the pause. And that can be awkward. You might be done and they’re still looking at you like, Okay. I’m just waiting for you to keep talking. Let them kind of feel that awkward energy of, Oh, well, okay, they’re done.

Um, that’s on them for not giving you whatever energy that would have helped you move on to the next question.

Anesha: You have, or how do virtual interviews differ from in person interviews? And is there anything particular folks should keep in mind depending on the type of interview they’re having?

Megan: Yeah. As far as the interview itself, like the questions are going to be the same, you know, the conversation, all of that, the feel of it will be the same.

I do think in person is definitely the best because you have the full body language of the person. It really is like a conversation. It feels more personal because you’re sitting face, you really are sitting in front of them. But with the virtual interview, those are just logistically easier to do. So more often.

The biggest things are probably be more aware of what your surroundings are. So get a background behind you or blur your background or like we have a beautiful background here in Asia. You have beautiful pictures behind you. Um, like just be aware of what’s behind you. Um, if you’ve got a lot of clutter and you’re in your bedroom and it’s a big mess, like that’s distracting.

So be aware of what they can see behind you. Behind your face. Um, if you have something really cool you want to talk about, that could be something. I am in a room with all kinds of Wake Forest stuff. So if I’m going to do an interview for Duke University, I don’t need to be showing all these pictures behind my head.

Uh, because it looks like I have an allegiance somewhere. Right. So again, just kind of some awareness of that. Um, it is harder in a virtual call because you don’t have the full, you know, if they’re never moving their hands, you just have a talking head. And so again, it’s that confidence piece that you’ve answered it.

It’s you’re confident in your response and ready to move on what

Anesha: might be our last question. How can I follow up appropriately after the interview to leave a good impression?

Megan: Fantastic question. So you, the best etiquette is to give them some type of thank you. I’m from the south. And so thank you note goes a long way in the mail.

Everybody loves mail, uh, but you may not know their address. So if you don’t know their address, don’t worry about mailing something to them. You should have their email because that’s most likely how they’re going to originate their communication to you. So Feel free to send an email. I would do it the next day.

You don’t need to do it immediately after you get off the call. Like give it some time. You can kind of think about some responses of it was so nice to speak to you. And that will log their memory of who you are as you get on to the next day. Um, as they’re thinking about that. So it really will do.

Nothing to the interview or your application, but it can go a long way if they’re writing their review another day, and it’s just good practice to have that. Thank you. Right

Anesha: so we’re going to go ahead and end it there. Thank you so much Megan for your time for this today’s presentation really, really helpful.

Um, so that is the end of our webinar. We hope you deepen your understanding of how to prepare for college interviews. Also, we do hope that you’ll join us for our future webinars tomorrow, November 19th. We’ll have insights on, “What Makes a Strong College Application,” and we’ll close the month with a session on “Boosting Your Application With Strong Letters of Recommendation,” on November 25th until next time.

Take care and have a great evening. Everybody.