Guaranteed Softball: Asking Questions About the School (Part I)

After about 45 minutes of talking about his favorite high school classes, some volunteer work he did in the community and a little bit about current events, I was ready to wrap up. He was a pretty good interview--maybe not the best ever, but definitely solid, and he'd impressed me with a couple of answers. Now it was just the easy part left.

"So, enough questions about you," I said. "Tell me, you must have a lot of questions about my school. Do you have any questions I can answer?"

"Oh. Um...." Deer-in-the-headlights look. He was about to whiff on the ultimate softball question.

"Well, I was thinking about studying business, or maybe journalism," he said. "How are those majors?"

"Well, first, we don't have either an undergraduate business or journalism program..."

Ding.

Advice:
First, be aware that virtually every admissions interview will end with time for your questions. On the surface, this is a great opportunity--here you've got a graduate from a school that you're interested in attending, and you can use them to find out anything you want to know about that school. And while that is true--within reason--be aware that there's a reason you're being given the chance to ask questions:

First, the interviewer wants to see if you're serious and if you've done your homework.

How familiar are you with the school? If you ask something obviously wrong, something that could be gotten from the website, or something else that shows a lack of preparation, there's only one takeaway your interviewer can have--you're not serious about going to this school. And if there's one way of guaranteeing being put in the "Reject" pile, it's telegraphing to your interviewer that you're not that serious about going to their school. Everyone knows every applicant has applied to a dozen schools--but no one is going to be excited about you if they think they're number 12 on your list.

A second reason interviewers want to hear your questions: Bright students also tend to ask bright questions. Like other parts of the interview, this is a chance to show that you're a more mature thinker than other applicants.

So, what to do? Easy--have 2-3 good questions lined up for your interview. Ideally, you'll learn more about the school and engage your interviewer in an interesting conversation. Worst-case, you'll demonstrate knowledge of the school, underscore how serious an applicant you are and end the interview on a high note.

Ways to screw up:

• When asked if you have any questions, say "no". It shows either a lack of interest or curiosity on your part (both bad). Most interviewers also like talking about their schools--they're volunteering to interview, after all--and if you don't have questions, they don't get to talk about their favorite topic.
• Ask something best answered by the school website. This is an opportunity for you to get your interviewer's opinions and perspective, and potentially connect with them on shared interests. Don't quiz your interviewer on facts that can best be looked up elsewhere. I don't know what the current teacher:student ratio is, don't ask.
• Ask something factually wrong. This should be obvious, but I've still had students ask about programs my school doesn't have (the example above), confuse the location of campus, and a host of other missteps that showed they know almost nothing about the school they were applying to. When in doubt ("do they offer journalism or not?"), just don't ask. Or, if you must ask, try to soften it ("I can't remember if your school offers an explicit undergrad pre-law degree or not, but I'm interested in going into law and clearly a lot of your graduates go into the legal world. What sorts of classes do they typically take, and is there any formal program or support for them?")
  
• Ask something controversial. This can be a little tricky--if the school you're interviewing for has been in the news for something bad (say, an NCAA recruiting violation), it's fair to ask, if you do so tactfully. Alternatively, asking a one-off question related to something controversial may make you stand out--for instance: "your school's been in the news for recruiting violations related to the football program. Since I was hoping to play lacrosse, do you think that will have any impact on other athletic programs?" Just keep in mind that this can be touchy.
• Ask questions that make it sound like you're just looking for a four-year beer fest. In general, asking quality-of-life-related questions ("What's the on-campus social life like" or "How does the social life at your school compare to others") is fine, just don't make it your only question.
• Ask something inappropriate. No matter how casual it is, no matter how young and cool your interviewer seems, some topics are always off limits. Don't ask about the campus sex life. Or drugs. Or anything else you wouldn't be comfortable asking your grandmother about.
  
• Ask something you don't care about. Few things are worse than being asked a question by someone who doesn't care about the answer. If you're hyper concerned about how an interdisciplinary program works, by all means ask--but if you're just asking a question to try to earn points, don't ask.
  

Next, post, I'll cover how to ace this section of your interview and offer specific questions you may want to include ----CJ