College Interview Preparation article

College Interview 101

In this section we will try and provide an overview of what we thing should be major things to focus on while preparing for your college interview. While some of the advice suggested here will not be relevant to some of you high school graduates that wish to get accepted into a college, almost of the topics covered in here are worth going over and thinking about. Just after you pick your college, after your campus tour, you have to fill in applications and go through the college interview.Lets first think of a college interview, what is it really, why do they even bother to take the time and personally meet each applicant, and what kind of power a good interview has. You have probably conducted your own national college search, and already know your preferences. Colleges have interviews for one simple reason, it works, it works for them – some data shows them that the applicants they personally meet and talk with, on average, succeed in their programs and have been succeeding in their program for some time now. So they know it works. But what is “it”? - college interview is the “it”, and it is no different than a job interview.

The college interview was not thought of as a mean to intimidate potential students, to keep them away, to embarrass and humiliate the next graduates of this college, it is meant for one simple, and very important, reason – to meet and evaluate the motivation and potential of the young person applying to the college. And that’s all it is. There is nothing personal or evil in it, other from the fact these people want to know what you are made of and how serious you are. You need to think of it as a part of your campus tour.So a college interview is basically like a thoughtful conversation with someone you never met before and that wants to know who you really are, what you went through in your life and where you are heading. But when talking to a stranger about this you can allow yourself to be casual and say some things that you can not say in a college interview, you have to think of how you want to present yourself, and how not to get dragged to the pleasing “tell me what I want to hear” mode.Preparation will get you a long way, it is the absolute key in getting through the college interview successfully. There is no such thing as over preparing for this, and in fact, if you do this the proper way, you will need to tell yourself at a certain moment that its time to stop preparing.

Let’s go over some of the points in the preparation procedure, things you will want to look into while getting ready for your college interview.Try and know who your contact is – a simple thing, try and get the name (or names of the persons) that will be conducting the interview, when you will start the interview you will have a nicer way to present yourself and greet the interviewers than most applicants do. It will also show that you prepared in advance and that you are serious about getting this position, this will set you off in the right tracks. When you do your initial national college search, you can also look for the contacts interviewing applicants. No potential harm here. Only good can come out of this one.Get to know the college / university - read about the university or college you are applying to. Think of things that relate to you as you read and research, think of things you may enjoy, and things that you admire in people that graduated there, faculty members or even the sports team or programs. Research the spirit of the college, and think of how this can come up as a topic in your college interview.