There are a lot of people who go into college or boarding school interviews with minimal or no preparation. This tends to be less the case for jobs or graduate/professional school programs. But, I have seen so many people insufficiently prepared for these interviews that I thought it would be helpful to give some basic principles to help you prepare for an interview. I have also added a special section for international students at the end.
There are a few different kinds of interviewing situations: the alumnus/a interview; human resource/admissions officer interview; and group interview. The first tends to be more casual, and the questions are of a more general nature. The alumnus/a interviewer is usually a more recent graduate and is likely to be more generous to his interviewee; that is, this interviewer does not usually throw curve balls at the interviewee. Human resource professionals or admissions officers will hit a more predictable set of questions, and you will be expected to be succinct and thorough. Questions will usually touch on all the relevant points in a methodical way, so the interview is easier to prepare for in this sense. Unlike the alumnus/a interview, you probably won’t get overlapping questions or very broad ones, like “Tell me about yourself!” which can be annoying to answer. The flip side is that the HR professional or admissions officer will be less satisfied with the general talking points many people present in an interview. They want finer details. Finally, there is the group interview. In academia, this may consist of a group of faculty; a professor, administrator, and student; or a professor and administrator. Whatever the configuration, this is definitely the hardest scenario. You will get the greatest variety of questions, and because there are different personalities involved, this is the scenario with the greatest potential for curve balls. Take heart! If you find yourself being asked to participate in a group interview scenario, you’re on a short list! You are one of only a few people to have made it this far. But you need to break away from the pack at this point. I will show you how to do that.
My tips are based on my own experience and those of my clients. I have interviewed in various scenarios from corporate interviews to university professor job interviews to academic interviews for scholarships. When I take my clients’ experiences into account, I can add still more professional and academic scenarios. Preparation is essential; of that there is not question. But it is still more essential that the answers you deliver not be those frothy, generalizing, and sycophantic answers that some people give.
Get a basic list of questions and prepare. You can find the usual interview questions easily online. But, again, you will need to prepare good answers. Whether you are doing an alum interview or being interviewed by a professional or group, below are some solid tips to give great answers that don’t just respond to the question, but that advocate for your candidacy.
(1) Tell Me About Yourself!
The most open-ended question ever also poses the greatest threat to most candidates. You need to remember what “yourself” comprises. In an academic situation, your response should hit the major points about (1) your major and what you want to study; (2) what has prepared you for this; (3) your career goals; (4) your extracurricular interests. In a professional context (corporate, grad school, or professional school) you would discuss (1) where you are in your career; (2) your career vision; (3) the values that have shaped your work experience. It is, however, unlikely that you would receive such an open-ended question in a job interview.
(2) Why Should We Choose you?
Another open-ended question. You need to be precise and concrete. Talk about (1) your skills and accomplishments; (2) challenges that you have overcome, while staying focused; (3) show that the program is a perfect match for you by referring to faculty research or special courses and show how they connect to your academic and professional goals.
(3) Why Are You Interested In Our School?
A lot students answer this with generalizations: top-program, excellent faculty, research opportunities, etc. Any automaton can produce vacuous flattery like that. What will distinguish you from the pack is to give details about the program that correspond to your particular interests. “Your biology program is excellent.” No. “I am interested in stem cell research and how it can be used in gerontology. Prof. X’s research is particularly interesting to me, as she is studying….” “UCB has the #1 English program in the country.” No. “I want a broad education in different genres and periods of literature, and Berkeley has a robust program across the board in English and American literature, and it is not dominated by any particular school of literary theory. I am especially interested in psychoanalysis and Victorian literature. There are five professors who have worked in these areas, like Prof. X….” Later, discuss extracurriculars. The more unique and special to that school the better. “I really want to get involved in Amnesty International.” No. There are college chapters of Amnesty at every school. “I am a classically trained singer, and Yale has some of the best a cappella singing groups in the country. I love the Baker’s Dozen and the Alley Cats especially. I want to aim to be a Whiffenpoof as a senior.” Detail, specificity, and thoroughness of research will separate the you from the pack on this question. Your competition will probably be droning on about how great the residential college system is—stuff that they read on a general introduction to Yale College. Your interviewer is thinking, “Sad!”
(4) Curve Ball Questions
There are also curve balls that can come your way. “If you had a roommate, who liked to argue with everybody, what would you do?” “If your colleagues at the lab are taking credit for your work, what do you do?” It’s easy to give a wishy-washy answer or to go down a fox hole that suggests you have no people skills. Not being human resource professionals, most of us are not completely prepared for these kinds of situations, and if they happened to us, we would consult a number of friends and advisors to solve them. The reality is you probably won't have a great solution on the spot. So, the best thing is to always keep your goal in mind: to show the interviewer why you are a good fit for that school. Even with these questions, you can take the opportunity to remind them of this: “I realize that some people are more argumentative than others. I would learn my roommate's interests and what he cares about, and talk to him about those instead of arguing. I try to stay positive and not create drama with my colleagues because it takes energy away from my focus. I want to keep my focus on studying European history, in which there are plenty of drawn out, monumental conflicts. I also want to make sure I have time to rehearse for my piano recitals and hopefully also to be a part of the symphony orchestra.” Maybe that is not the best answer for conflict-avoidance or de-escalating a combustible situation. But you did what you could in the moment, answering the question briefly, but not spending too much time on the negative. Instead, you use the opportunity to remind the interviewer of your talents and your academic interests.
(5) Miscellaneous Questions
“Describe a perfect day for you!”
“Who is your favorite composer/author/scientist”?
“What is your favorite book/musical piece/art?”
“What newspapers do you read?”
These are questions that you should prepare ahead of time. It’s amazing how these will leave you tongue-tied and stuttering. You’ll be thinking, “I know I read the newspaper, but I literally can’t recall the name of any of them. I love literature, but I can’t remember even one author’s name. The English guy who wrote all those plays five hundred years ago?! Him!”
People waste opportunities to further their case by striking out on these oddball questions. They are, however, opportunities for you to show your focus and the depth of your commitment to your research interests or career. If somebody asks you about an ideal day, and you are applying to a music conservatory, should you really be talking about spending most of the day at the mall and then a nature hike? No, your ideal day is going to music theory class, spending time with your piano instructor, doing a work-out listening to Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, and then going to a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the opera. I had a student applying to an outdoor-based school program, who never once mentioned going on a hike or cultivating something outdoors during her perfect day. This kind of thing will not happen if you keep focused on what you are interviewing for! As far as being able to respond to questions, make sure you have a favorite musical composition, book, piece of art, sports team, scientist, newspaper, color, food, etc. And be prepared to talk about what is especially relevant to your field.
(6) Unexpected Questions
You can always use parts of your prepared questions to answer unexpected questions. Remember, you don’t need to answer a question as soon as it is posed. You can pause for a few seconds and think about what you are going to say. Somebody may ask you, for example, “Why don’t you want to go to Harvard?” when you are interviewing for Yale. I have actually received different versions of that question. It’s meant to be provocative and to ruffle your feathers. But it is an easy question if you pause to think about it. Steer clear of the Scylla and Charybdis of going negative on the competition! You can repackage your information from the question about why you are interested in that school. Or how about, “If you had to meet anybody dead or living for dinner, whom would it be?” You can use the information from your favorite composer or artist without scrambling for new—and probably not very good—material. So, pause, and think how you can use material that you have already prepared.
(7) Tips for International Students
Many international students or international executives need to understand that they will have other tasks that the native speaker does not need to worry about: pronunciation and grammar. It is essential that you work with a coach over a long period of time to make sure that your pronunciation is spot-on. Otherwise, your interviewer will get lost by a word that is mispronounced, trying to figure it out while you have moved on to something else. By the time your interviewer has caught up, you will throw them another mispronounced word. In the end, the person will have understood half of what you said, if you are lucky. If you throw in enough poor pronunciation, the interview will be a wash, no matter how good your content. You must prepare your answers and rehearse them. Have your coach write down all the words you mispronounce. Then, focus on pronouncing these every day for several weeks. It’s not easy to break bad habits, but it is essential that you fix your pronunciation.
Imperfect Pronunciation is not a minor thing, as many people convince themselves. It is major, and you probably sound much worse than you think you do. Likewise, if you are constantly misconjugating verbs and using the wrong pronouns, you need to have a coach find your grammatical problems and work on fixing them. You cannot do this in a few days. You need to practice every day for weeks. So, make sure you get started early!
Finally, if you are coming from abroad, it is essential that you hire a native speaker to assess you. In all probability, you have been learning imperfect pronunciation in your native country. Or you have been hearing imperfect pronunciation all around you, and have adopted it from there, if not from your English teacher. The coach whom you hire to assess your English should not be somebody who is afraid of offending you, but somebody whom you have paid specifically for that purpose. So, if you have hired somebody to help you with cover letters and your résumé, don’t use them to assess your language skills. They may be chary to do so for fear of losing you as a client when they tell you what a frightful state your pronunciation is in. But, take heart, you can correct many problems with pronunciation in a few weeks or months with dedicated effort!