We're getting into the thick of college interview season---soon, coffee shops all across the country will be hosting awkward conversations about Faulkner between well-intentioned-40-somethings and petrified high school students. (An aside: If you're the overachieving type and want to get comfortable with what a college interview looks like before sitting down for yours, spend an afternoon at your local Starbucks--you're guaranteed to see a couple in action.)
My interviews have been fine--but every one of my
candidates has made the same mistake: They weren't proactive in their interviews!
As I've written about before, the interview is a great opportunity--can it hurt you? Sure, if you're a total jerk. But 90% of college interviews are "fine"--the applicant is interesting, has done a couple of cool things during high school, doesn't come across as a total schlub... but also doesn't set the world on fire.
But the opportunity in your college interview is to set yourself apart as someone who clearly should be admitted. How do you move yourself from "good" to "great"?
Easy: Be proactive.
Instead of walking into your interview ready to throw yourself at the mercy of your interviewer (who may--or may not--ask you the right questions to learn what a stellar candidate you are), know why you're unique and what you have to offer your prospective school--and make sure you go into your interview ready to share that with your interviewer.
Then, take a cue from politicians, who are great at using any question as a way to segue into what they want to talk about--use the open-ended questions you get from your interviewer to talk about what makes you a particularly unique candidate.
(Remember: Your interviewer probably has to write up a report of some sort about you post-interview--they're looking for something to write about. Your job is to give them that something.)
Example:
Say you're extremely into community service--you founded a local soup kitchen and do volunteer work 3-4x per week.
Question: So, tell me about your extracurricular activities. Do you play any sports?
To pause--first, sure, the question on the surface is "do you play any sports?", to which your answer (if you're not proactive) would be...."no". But what you're really being asked is more general: "What do you do?" Your college interviewer is fishing for activities to talk to you about--give him what he really wants.
Answer: "I used to play soccer, but I had to give it up when I got more active in community service. Freshman year I started volunteering a few nights a week through my church, but when I saw the level of need in my community, I started giving all the spare time I had to helping others. Last year, I helped raise money from local businesses to start a soup kitchen to..."
The point: You should know what distinguishes you as an applicant before going into your interview. With that knowledge, you'll know before the interview what you want to cover--then it's just a matter of directing the conversation to what you want to talk about.
By taking charge of the conversation, you'll be able to cover what makes you a stellar candidate--and move yourself from the "good/fine" pile to "absolutely must accept". And isn't that the point of interviewing? ----CJ
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