College Interviews

[cosinator]

Hey, I've got a college interview with MIT coming up and I was just wondering what they're like. Is it just like the application, only orally? What type of questions would they ask?

[Osud]

There was a Math Jam a while back about college interviews. Why not start there? http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Community/AoPS_Y_MJ_Transcripts.php?mj_id=71

[yenlee]

Interviews depend on who the interviewer is. They can really ask you just about anything, but you should at least be prepared to answer the generic and obvious interview questions. (Why do you want to go to this school? What are your interests? Etc.) You should also try to have at least one question to ask the interviewer about the school.

[t0rajir0u]

[cosinator]

I had my interview just a couple of hours ago. I didn't worry about it too much, and the conversation just flowed naturally. The questions were pretty generic, as yeniee said i.e. why do you want to come to MIT, what do you do outside of school, describe your family, etc.

[yenlee]

I'm glad to hear that things went well, and also that my powers of ESP have not failed.

I also wanted to add that t0rajir0u's advice is pretty much spot on, except that there's nothing wrong with having a few stock answers. If you were asked why you want to go to MIT, and you looked like a deer in headlights and stumbled, "Uh... gee, I never quite thought about that. Let me think about that for a minute," then that might not go over so well. There's no inherent conflict between being prepared and being genuine. It's *phony* canned answers that people might not like.

Another point: While it may be (probably is?) true that MIT interviewers have access to your application, I know for a fact that Harvard interviewers do not, and therefore rehashing your application verbally may or may not be part of the interview process.

Again, every interview is different, so I would avoid making generalizations.

[Ravi B]

My wife is an interviewer for MIT, and she does not have access to the student's application.

[worthawholebean]

My interviewer for MIT told me at the beginning that she didn't want to hear me give my application - she just wanted to hear about me as a person. Obviously, it varies from person to person.