Hey guys, Greg here, and today you’re going to learn how to ACE your college interview.
I’m serious-- if you apply the tips that I’m about to share with you today, it does
not matter WHO your college interviewer is, it could be someone that has nothing in common
with you, it doesn't matter, they will love you. In fact, you’ll probably end up having
hour-long conversations with several people from several different schools.
This advice worked so well that my Princeton interviewer, who was an electrical engineer,
ended up talking with me, a ‘theater’ kid, for over an hour and a half when we scheduled
just a 30 minute interview! Well, luck was certainly involved-- he didn’t have much
to do, and he really liked Panera Bread. But on a much deeper level, I got him to get excited
about me-- and today I want to share with you how you can do the same.
Now, before I go into how I aced my college interviews, I want to let you in on a little
secret. In the grand scheme of things, the college interview does not matter that much.
That said, it can certainly hurt you and I know that if you’re ambitious enough to
be watching this video then I know that you want to maximize your chances at getting into
an Ivy League school, Stanford, MIT, whatever your dream school is. So, it’s still very
important that you do well.
That said, most people consider ‘doing well’ to be having memorized long lists of extracurriculars
and prepared answers. While these things can help, your interviewer is not your admissions
officer! Think about exactly who is signing up to do these interviews. Alumns, alumns
that are SO excited about their school, that even though they have super busy schedules,
they set aside some time every week to interview high school kids for FREE if it means that
they can give back to their school. For the most part, these are busy, successful people
but they make time for you and me, these anxious high school seniors. And all because they
LOVE their school.
How did I put smiles on each and every one of my interviewer’s faces? What’s the
big secret? Well, I showed them that I was truly excited about the opportunity to study
at their school. The interviewer isn’t there to ask how many track championships you’ve
won. They are there to attract successful and smart kids to THEIR school so that they
can boost their school's status, their school's rankings. In reality, these interviews take
place mostly to gauge your INTEREST in that school.
I hope you can get the idea by now-- in order to have your interviewer falling all over
themselves for you, all you need to do is demonstrate a vested, detailed interest in
their school, and you'll get a glowing interview report.
Now, before I get into the step-by-step process on how to get your interviewer to absolutely
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Okay, so I’ve released the secret of college interview success. Well now, it’s time to
do some research on the college, and I'm not talking about looking at the US News rankings.
You want to know the school’s available majors, location, mascot, strongest departments,
anything there is to know about the school that can be Googled online. That way, if any
of those things come up during your interview, you won’t be embarrassed to talk about them,
because you'll know what you're talking about. And, knowing a lot about the school will indirectly
let your interviewer know that you’re seriously interested in going to that college.
You can also use your knowledge about that particular school’s strongest departments
when you’re inevitably asked “Tell me about yourself.” For example, Princeton’s
undergraduate Chinese program is potentially the best in the entire United States, so when
my Princeton interviewer asked me this question, I went on for about 5 minutes about this study
abroad program I got to do in China. My interviewer knew that Princeton was especially strong
in the Chinese department and so they were able to connect the dots and know that I actually
did research on the schools I was applying to.
Now, possibly the most important part of the interview is the “end.” And no, I'm not
talking about the strength of your handshake. What I mean by the “end” is, when the
interviewer asks YOU to give any questions that you may have about the school. A lot
of times, students will just say "nah, I'm good," and that's the end of the interview!
This is a big mistake, because this is when the interviewer can open up and start having
a real conversation. They're done with the questions that they have to ask every student.
Now it's time to demonstrate your interest in the college.
That said, do NOT ask questions just for the sake of asking questions. Examples of BAD
questions are: “Can you double major?” “Is there Greek life?” These are all really
important things to know about before applying to a college, so why are they bad? Well, you
can look all of these up online. Wasting a real person's time on answering these questions
is sort of disrespectful. Also, it shows that you really haven't done your research on this
school.
So, when you’re coming up with questions to ask your interviewer, and you're not so
sure if they're good or bad, ask yourself this one question: Could I find an answer
to this question, on Google? Examples of good questions would be: “I’m a really social
person, but I'm not that interested in Greek life. I know that ⅓ of students at your
school participate in Greek life, but if I’m not in that ⅓, can I still have a really
nice social life?” OR, something like “I know that you guys have a really strong economics
program, but it seems that a lot of your graduates go straight into the workforce-- is it uncommon
for a graduate of your school to go into graduate school for economics?”
You should try to prepare maybe 2-3 of these sort of questions for each interview, and
once the interviewer starts responding, think of follow-up questions, so you can start a
conversation. The goal is to start talking about something that BOTH of you love, which
in many cases, will just be the college that you’re applying to. When you’re on this
topic, the positive energy will flow, which, in turn, will allow your college interviewer
to get super excited about YOU and your enthusiasm!
I hope you guys enjoyed this video, let me know in the comments what you’d like to
see next: Ivy League Myths Debunked OR Building the Ultimate College List? I've already written
the scripts for both of these videos, it's just a question of which one I get to filming
and editing first. Also, if you want more videos, hit me with a LIKE: it really helps
and keeps me up late at night writing, recording, you name it. Thanks!