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

OK, so you now know better than to ask about where near campus you can buy beer without an ID, or to ask your Dartmouth interviewer what it was like to live in New York for four years. What should you focus on?

Ways to ace it:

• Show your familiarity with the school. Every interview for every school (even your safety school) needs to be treated like it's your top choice. What makes the school different or unique? What do their graduates say sets their alma mater apart? Are there specific programs, departments, courses or other (hopefully academic) opportunities that led you to apply to the school in the first place? If so, that's where your questions should focus. Why? It shows that you've thought seriously about why you want to go to school there (as opposed to applying somewhere based on ranking or where your friends are applying) and underscores again why you're unique. Example: If you think you want to study marine biology, you decided to apply somewhere because of their marine biology department, you should ask something about their marine biology program.
  
• If you're worried about something, ask. Others would disagree, but I'm impressed when a student asks about something that they've heard about my school that worries them--it shows me that (again) they're familiar with my school and have done their homework, but also that they're really thinking about their decision and weighing their options. Have you heard that the school is a pressure cooker? Overly focused on its football team? Has a social life dominated by the Greek scene? Ask--just do so politely (ie "I've read that students at your school are competitive. In your experience, was that the case?" not "Aren't students at your school hyper stressed out and ultra competitive?")
• Ask sincere questions. What do you really want to know? You're read the website, the viewbooks and catalogs. You've filled out the forms. You've written essays. Here you've got someone who had the experience you're applying for--surely there's something you're really dying to know. If it's something you're sincerely curious about, ask.
• Ask open-ended questions. You want to get a conversation going with your interviewer--instead of asking them a yes/no question, ask something open-ended. For instance, if you're interested in community service and how the university interacts with the surrounding community, instead of asking "are relations with the surrounding community good?" ask "what is the relationship with the surrounding community like?"
  
• Get your interviewer talking. Your interviewer loves their school--that's why they're volunteering dozens (or more) hours every season to meet with and interview potential students. Get them talking about their experience, their favorite times and get their advice. "What was your favorite experience at the university?" "Why did you decide to go to this school?" Added bonus: asking for personal experiences and opinions--in addition to be ingratiating (most interviewers like to talk about themselves)--can never be factually incorrect. If you're talking about how your interviewer loved playing rugby, it doesn't matter that you've blanked on which state the school is located in....
  

Possible questions:
(ignoring school-specific questions, these are both the favorite things I've been asked, as well as questions I'd ask were I being interviewed)

• What sets your school apart and makes it unique? (alt: How would you compare it to other top institutions?)
  
• How did you decide which schools to apply to and which to attend?
• What was it like to move across the county (or state, region, etc) to attend school?
  
• If you couldn't have attended your school, where else would you have been interested in attending?
• Looking back now, how has having gone to this school helped you? (particularly good for older interviewers)
• What was your favorite class or subject (or professor)? (Alt: Which class/subject/professor do you remember most?)
  
• What surprised you most about going to this school?
  
• What was a typical day like for you?
• What's the biggest weakness of your school?
  
• If you could do something differently in college, what would it be?
  
• If you had one piece of advice when you were my age, what would you want to know?
  
• What memory stands out the most from your college experience?
• What do you think is better about your school now than when you attended? What's worse?
• How much opportunity do students have to improve things on campus and leave their mark?
  
• How did going to your school change you as a person?

Again, don't have a dozen questions--if you have that many questions, find a current student or another alumni to ask--instead, have 2-3 good, solid questions. If your interviewer says something that invites a followup question, ask it. This is a pretty informal portion of the interview, but should last 15-20 minutes tops.

Finally, a good final question to ask (just before you stand up, shake hands and leave): Is there anything else I can address or answer for you? The answer will be no (if your interviewer wanted to know something else, they'd have asked--they're not shy), but it's a polite ending. ----CJ
(Oh, one more thing--if you need to have your questions written down so you don't forget, reading them off your notepad to your interviewer isn't the end of the world, but it'll look more natural (and go over better) if you can remember them without looking.)