Distinctive

By Victoria Tillson Evans, Ph.D.

Movies, like Mrs. Doubtfire, The Internship, Stepbrothers, and Good Will Hunting, play on our innate schadenfreude to turn stressful circumstances, like a bad interview, into comedic gold. An interviewer asks an impossible question, or an interviewee says something unbelievably ridiculous, and suddenly you’re shaking your head laughing at the poor fools, because now you know exactly what not to do when you find yourself in a similar situation.

While examples of bad behavior abound, it’s a lot harder to know what to do to ensure you have a successful interview, especially for college admission. But have no fear – five of our favorite tips are here!

1. Do Your Research.
Nothing says, “I don’t care if I don’t get in,” more than showing up to an interview without having prepared first. Colleges want to know why you wish to go to their school and why you think you’re a great fit. If you can’t articulate that very simple idea by looking up information in advance, you’re probably not going to do well on an interview.

To help you figure out where to look for information, we like to recommend the following:

A. The Mission Statement. This is the one place where you will quickly and easily find out what matters to a school. Pick up on the keywords, and integrate them into your answers. If a school repeats “community” five times, you better take that as a hint to drop “community” a few times in your conversation!
B. The Departmental Website of Your Major Choice. What you wish to study is basically the core of your entire application’s argument. It expresses clearly who you are and what goals you have. To use this to your advantage in an interview, google the academic department and see what makes its approach to the field unique. Is there a professor who does cool work? Is there an interesting class? Knowing this type of information will definitely help you stand out!
C. Your information session and tour. If possible, plan to do an interview after you wrap up your campus visit. That way, everything that has stood out to you in the information session or tour is fresh in your mind!
D. The Fiske Guide to Colleges. In less than ten minutes, you can read one of the most respected reviews of a campus. If you don’t wish to carry that tome around in your backpack, you can find the Fiske Guide descriptions in your CustomCollegePlan account.

2. Brag about Yourself.
This is one of the areas that most students struggle with. After all, American culture encourages us from a very early age not to brag about ourselves. While that’s great advice for making and keeping friends, it won’t help you stand out in an interview.

The whole point of an interview is for admissions officers to get to know you. If you aren’t willing to tell them your strengths, they won’t know! So, don’t be afraid to talk about your accomplishments, interests, and ambitions in concrete terms. Using factual examples of achievements, like, “I won first place at Nationals,” rather than value statements, like, “I am the best player on my team,” will only impress the person sitting across from you.

And if you think you’ll freeze up in the middle of an interview and forget about that time you raised $15,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, bring your résumé with you. It’s like a cheat sheet that you’re actually allowed to use.

3. Be positive.
“What would you change about your school?” “Is there anything you don’t like about this college?” “What’s your biggest regret in high school?” Sometimes it feels like an interviewer is trying to get you to be a Debbie Downer. Rather than get caught in a wave of negativity, focus on your positivity and never say anything negative!

To handle questions attempting to elicit a negative response, choose to take your answer in two possible positive directions. The first entails changing the conversation: “There really isn’t anything bad. Let me tell you what I really like instead!” You can then refocus the discussion on something you actually think is great and show how enthusiastic you are about attending. The second entails saying something trivial: “Well, I couldn’t believe the coffee shop’s espresso machine is broken. My mom needs her morning latte!” That way, you make light of what could be a heavy conversation and allow your interviewer to see that you have a sense of humor. Many students might not be able to pull off this approach, but at least it’s an option!

4. Think in Threes.
The number three is magical. It appears everywhere in religion and popular culture, from The Holy Trinity and The Three Little Pigs, to The Three College Fates and The Three Stooges. We bet you’re going to be looking for it everywhere now!

But what’s even more magical about the number three is that it’s the perfect number of points to remember when you answer open-ended interview questions. When someone opens with, “Tell me a little bit about yourself,” give the top three things you’d like someone to know about you. Don’t provide your autobiography from your first steps to last week’s math test. Conversely, don’t provide single point answers either. “I like to write and that’s it,” doesn’t give your interviewer enough to go on and figure out who you are. The same holds true for questions that you ask. Always go into every interview with three. It shows that you’re being thoughtful about the process.

You should also enter every interview knowing the top three things that you would like for a college to know about you. This will allow you to answer those out-of-left-field personality questions, like, “If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?” Your ultimate answer is not as important as the reasons why you have made your selection. Additionally, if your interview is wrapping up and you still haven’t had an opportunity to share any of those three points, you can quickly interject and say, “You know. There’s just one more thing that I would like for you to know about me.” You can then walk away from your interview with no regrets!

5. Mind Your Manners.
Being polite and following up with a thank-you email after an interview is essential. Just remember that that missive needs to go out within twenty-four hours. So what do you do if you don’t know how to write an effective thank-you message? Well, here are some simple rules to follow:

Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. (Interviewer’s Name),

Sentence One: Thank your interviewer for taking the time to speak with you.
Sentence Two: Reflect on something interesting that your interviewer shared with you about the school.
Sentence Three: State something interesting that you shared about yourself during the interview that shows why you’re a great fit.
Sentence Four: Thank your interviewer again.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)

Four sentences and you’re done. Easy, right?!

The best part of college interviews is that many of them are meant to be just conversations, opportunities for you to get to learn more about a college. So try not to fret! Even if you’re an innately bad interviewer, just bring a smile and do some practice, and you will be alright.