Top 5 Things NOT To Bring To Your College Admissions Interview

I wrote back in May about what you should bring to your interview, but that raises a question: What should you NOT bring? Students I've interviewed for their college admissions interview have brought a wide--and weird--array of collateral. Hobby items, original artwork, you name it (sadly, no brownies so far).

Here's my list of my favorite "what were you thinking?" items that students have brought with them: (I should mention that all of these are real incidents)

• Hobby samples. I had one admissions interviewee whose hobby was... wood turning. Unclear what wood turning is? Me too--but luckily he brought a sample. Wood turning is making bowls. And they were cool bowls, certainly, but they were... bowls. Points for originality. Although we looked like two weirdos having coffee with a dozen salad bowls in front of us (one might have sufficed). (Runner up: Candidate who brought juggling balls and kept threatening/begging me to let her show me how good a juggler she was. In the coffee shop. Now, if they'd been chainsaws....)
• Relatives. Every year someone comes with mom (or sometimes dad... but normally mom) who insists on sitting at the next table over. Really? You can't get more than two feet away from mom and you want to go to college? (More on that later). Award goes to the person who brought not only mom, but mom, dad and her aunt to the interview--and then couldn't keep them from speaking up during "her" interview. Maybe sometimes a four-for-one offer is a great deal, but not in this case. (Runner up: The girl who made her poor dad stand outside--in the rain--for her interview. Really, it's ok to come inside...)
• Pets. Maybe Paris can get away with packing her rat-dog in her bag where ever she goes, but you can't. Especially if your dog is a lab, who although very well mannered still got us kicked out of the shop.
• Teen angst. Every overachieving high schooler thinks they're deep and profound--and probably feels the urge to record it on paper. And if you've written something that's very good--maybe it got published--fine, give your interviewer a copy. But if it's just bad poetry for bad poetry's sake, there's probably better outlets (like here). And under no circumstance should you provide your interviewer with a 1" stack of everything you've written since 8th grade.
• Dubious artwork. As with the poetry, if you're really good, sure, bring something to show off what you do (ideally it'd be small). But if, say, your medium of choice is paper mache--and you do 3' tall paper mache sculptures? Of weird, unnatural-looking birds? Probably best to leave that to the imagination. (Runner up: Student who brought a notebook full of sketches. Of her friends. Nude. In erotic poses. Although entertaining, probably not the best thing for the coffee shop...)

As dull as it is, the best two things to bring are yourself and a one-page resume. Although I am still waiting for someone to bring me brownies... --CJ