Author: Ellen Hao (STC Class of 2015)
You’ve sent your applications off and you’re ready. It’s the waiting game. You’ll go take a break, chill out in the Bahamas or something, and forget about the whole university process until March. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, there’s still one more hurdle to jump — the interviews. Now, for the US, interviews aren’t that big of a deal. A spectacular interview is great, true, but it usually won’t be the difference between rejection and acceptance, simply because the admissions officers have to go off of what the alumnus’ report. However, a bad interview is a very bad thing. Colleges want to know that you can communicate with fellow students - that apart from appearing impressive on paper, you also have social skills to boast. It’s a test to see if you can meld with the student body at the college.
You’ve sent your applications off and you’re ready. It’s the waiting game. You’ll go take a break, chill out in the Bahamas or something, and forget about the whole university process until March. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, there’s still one more hurdle to jump — the interviews. Now, for the US, interviews aren’t that big of a deal. A spectacular interview is great, true, but it usually won’t be the difference between rejection and acceptance, simply because the admissions officers have to go off of what the alumnus’ report. However, a bad interview is a very bad thing. Colleges want to know that you can communicate with fellow students - that apart from appearing impressive on paper, you also have social skills to boast. It’s a test to see if you can meld with the student body at the college.
A spectacular interview is great, true, but it usually won’t be the difference between rejection and acceptance, simply because the admissions officers can only go off of what the alumnus reports. However, a bad interview is a very bad thing.
However, interviews are also probably the most nerve-wracking portion of the application process, because — unlike college essays and extra-curricular — you can’t rewrite or refine an interview. Even though we live in the 21st century, scientists have yet to devise a method to literally take back the words we have said, so interviews can be scary. I’ve had 4 alumni interviews, and each successive interview still felt like a learning experience. In my opinion, the interview process can be summed up in this way:
1. First Contact
Try not to schedule your interview too late i.e. 3 weeks after, because that shows fear and I’m pretty confident that interviewers can smell fear. Jokes. Sort of.
For me, all of my interviewers were the first to initiate communication by email. (After all, you still have to organise the actual date, time and place for the interview.)
Use the email portion of the entire interview experience as an opportunity to suss out your interviewer’s character — this can be misleading, but it always feels better going in with some information rather than none. It’s also a nice opportunity to break out the Sherlock Holmes-skills and analyse each word of the email to death. Fun times.
With the email, look to the tone of the interviewer. How formal is their vocabulary? My first interviewer had a more conversational tone, and even managed to make a joke via a few pixels on the computer screen. Others were much more formal, which was HUGELY intimidating (be still, my beating heart). One other thing to look out for is any information they give; some will suggest their fancy very serious corporate office in Central as a location, and others go for a much more approachable (and much more noisy) Pacific Coffee. (So far, I have only heard about Pacific Coffee as a location for interviews, but not Starbucks. I guess everyone realises the futility of hoping to meet in Starbucks.)
"Some interviewers will mention the year they graduated in — this is very important, because the questions you ask in an interview i.e. extra-curricular events or favourite professors, may not be as relevant in a conversation with someone who graduated in 1988 vs. 2010.
Then, the more “social-networking is erasing all boundaries and privacy no longer exists” move. Search them up. See if you can find their Linkedin or some other clue as to their current situation. This is definitely creepy and makes me feel uncomfortable, but again, knowledge is power and in a powerless situation any form of power can make you feel better (initially). Knowing that your interviewer is a professor of a certain subject, or an entrepreneur of a technological business, can help guide your preparation, so that you can at least try to anticipate the flow of conversation. For me, my interviewers included a person in the wine industry, a high-school English lit. teacher, a professor of HK studies, and a law student. (But, I’ve also been told that I’ve had a very unconventional experience, in terms of interviews.)
2. Preparing for the Interview
"... try to demonstrate to your interviewer that you’re an upstanding citizen of society with, at the very least, a reasonable amount of intellect and charisma."
My interview preparation definitely worsened towards the end. Hubris, man. The day before the interview, I found a list of example college interview questions, and made sure I could think up some answers for them. However, to be honest, if you remember anecdotes from extra-curricular activities, know what you want to study and why, as well as any future plans, you’re pretty much good to go. I guess for a feeling of extra security, you might want to make sure you have a favourite book/subject/film you can talk about.
The 2 most important things to do before the interview, I think, are to review the reasons why you want to attend that college, and make sure you have questions to ask the interviewer. Make sure you have specific information about the major(s) you’re interested in, and can expand more onto your impression of the student body, housing, extra-curricular activities etc. at the university.
For the questions that you ask the interviewer, make sure they’re relevant! (This is where all of the creepy stalking comes in handy.) Some of my friends have had 45 minute interviews composed of 40 minutes of questions FROM them, and not the interviewer. Don’t forget that interviews are a VERY valuable opportunity to get to know the school, especially if you haven’t visited!
ALSO two things they may say are “Tell me about yourself” and “What information do you want the admissions committee to know, that might not be clear from your application?” Make sure you have answers that can lead onto more information about yourself, e.g. linking to any extracurricular activities you do, or goals you may have.
In terms of appropriate clothing, I’d go for smart casual. Wear something that you feel comfortable and confident in, and strive for the Covergirl slogan -- be easy, breezy, beautiful. There’s no need to go dressed in a full suit and tie, but try to demonstrate to your interviewer that you’re an upstanding citizen of society with, at the very least, a reasonable amount of intellect and charisma.
In terms of appropriate clothing, I’d go for smart casual. Wear something that you feel comfortable and confident in, and strive for the Covergirl slogan -- be easy, breezy, beautiful. There’s no need to go dressed in a full suit and tie, but try to demonstrate to your interviewer that you’re an upstanding citizen of society with, at the very least, a reasonable amount of intellect and charisma.
3. You’re Here -- Now What?
"Basically, the interview is a blind date without the romance."
If the interview is scheduled at a public location, like a cafe, I like to arrive at my interview location 5-10 minutes early, and then I play the waiting game. Basically, the interview is a blind date without the romance. When the time for the interview nears -- say 2-3 minutes earlier -- I like to do my best “I am about to be interviewed and am searching for my interviewer through this aimless crowd” face. I’ll put my phone down and scan the area with a slight look of concern. (Although the look of concern is not necessarily affected…) This also depends on whether or not you’ve taken a seat with high visibility. If not, make sure you’ve offered your phone number to your interviewer so that they can find you!
4. Time to Say Words
Don’t be rude; be ready to shake your interviewer’s hand! Make sure you speak clearly, and try to act casually. You want to demonstrate that you have a character that would fit well with the school!
I’m not sure how much advice I can give for the interview, though, because the majority of my interviews have been quite… unconventional. Most sites will tell you that the interviewer will avoid politics, but my first interview quickly went on a very focused path down that line. I was asked about Occupy Central, LGBT rights etc., before the gears shifted very swiftly to motherhood and ideal partners. It was definitely a rollercoaster ride of an interview. I’ve been told that this is unusual, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure you’re up-to-date with a few current affairs.
If you’re asked about somewhat controversial subjects, I think it’s fine to be somewhat ambivalent. Ultimately, if I were the interviewer, I’d rather see evidence of thought, analysis, and reflection in a student’s answer, rather than a superficially held, extreme point of view. Interviewers know when they’ve asked challenging questions -- once, I was asked “What truth do you yourself know, that others do not?” (After sending a ‘Thank you’ email to my interviewer, she replied that I had “coped admirably”...)
"When you’re interviewer asks you a question, it’s okay to pause a bit before giving your answer for more challenging questions. If you pull this off with a degree of acting skills, you’ll simply look as though you were deeply pondering the possibilities, rather than scavenging through your brains, searching for an answer in a mad rush of panic."
I generally try to appeal to the interviewer’s sense of humour as well, simply because I think I’m funny, and I think other people should know that I’m funny as well. But don’t force this. It’s good to get a laugh in, but this will also depend on the interviewer you get. I’ve had an interview where we spent ⅓ of the time just laughing, but I’m pretty sure this was an EXTREMELY lucky match because our sense of humour meshed so well. For the majority of my interviews, they’ve been quite discussion-based, and so I usually try to ‘dot’ the conversation with humour.
Once you’ve met your interviewer, you can truly get a sense of the type of person that they are. One interviewer who appeared incredibly intimidating in his emails was, in fact, more like a very gentle giant. Another interviewer who had credentials like Harvard and Stanford was the one I shared a lot of laughs with. On the other hand, my good-humoured, wine industry interviewer was the one who grilled me about politics. Through the conversation, you can get a sense of the topics they prefer discussing, and try to angle the conversation in a way that you think they will enjoy. One of my interviewers was an English Lit. teacher, so I definitely talked a lot more about my passion for and experiences with the arts, simply because I knew that there was common ground, and that my references wouldn’t be lost to deaf ears. In my interviews (besides the politics-oriented one), I’ve had conversations about art, architecture, “third-culture” kids, academic culture in Hong Kong, comparisons between China and Hong Kong, and USA and Hong Kong, and so much more.
A Final Note
Try to have fun during your interviews! On a personal level, I think the interviews are really helpful in exposing you to not just the university, but also a variety of people of different ages and careers. It’s good to be ~social~, and I’m convinced that I now have a very serious chance at making it in Hollywood, as some interviewers have told me that I seem very extroverted, and that they could never imagine me being timid in class. I wear these comments as badges of achievement, for I have survived the interviews, and you can too.
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