Even more college interview interview tips

College interview season is upon us! Read these essential tips to give yourself a head start.

If you’d like help workshopping your responses or a mock interview, send me a message to schedule a coaching session.

Photo by Alex Green (Pexels)

Tips on how to prepare

1. Bullet point your responses to common and tricky interview questions. Try to keep each bullet point to 2-3 words only.

   1. Do not write your responses in paragraph format, otherwise you can come across as reading off your responses and sound unnatural

2. Record yourself giving responses to the commonly asked questions listed below. Watch the recordings to give yourself feedback

3. If you need time to think through your answer, you can always ask your interviewer,

   1. “That’s a great question. Could I have a moment to think through my response?”

   2. Or “Could I have a moment to collect my thoughts?”

4. Send your resume or activities list to your interviewer in advance. It’ll be a great resource your interviewer can reference during your call and while writing the report

5. Prepare at least three questions to ask the interviewer to express your interest in the school. Here are example questions:

   1. What advice do you have for an incoming freshman like me?

   2. How did you pick your major? What were your favorite classes and why?

   3. Tell me about your career path. How did attending [college] help you get to where you are now?

   4. What was campus life like? What clubs were you involved in?

6. Figure out three points you absolutely want to convey in your interview

7. Don’t talk only about the what. Focus on the WHY

   1. Don’t: I won three research competitions and am Co-Captain of the Chemistry Club.

   2. Do: I’m fascinated with chemistry and love exploring the composition of different materials and thinking of ways that we can recombine elements like puzzle pieces to create something new. I explored this further in my research project [XYZ] and won an award at the Science Fair.

8. Do limit your responses to 2 minutes max

   1. Let the interviewer lead the conversation

   2. Example answer:

      1. I’m fascinated with chemistry and love exploring the composition of different materials and thinking of ways that we can recombine elements like puzzle pieces to create something new. I explored this further in my research project [XYZ] and won an award at the Science Fair.

      2. The interviewer can now ask follow-up questions like these:

         1. Tell me more about your research project.

         2. How did this experience influence the major you selected?

         3. What was it like at the science fair?

         4. What else do you enjoy besides chemistry?

Commonly asked questions

• Tell me about yourself.

• Why [this college]?

• What do you want to study and why?

• What kind of contribution would you like to make to [this college]? How do you see yourself getting involved in the campus community?

• What’s your favorite class, and why?

• What’s your least favorite class, and why?

• How would the following people describe you? Parents, best friend, rivals.

• Tell me about a time when something didn’t come naturally to you, or a particularly difficult experience in the thing you love.

• Which extracurriculars are you involved in?

• Pick one extracurricular and tell me more about it. How did you get involved, and what’s your role?

• If you could meet anyone person in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?

• Tell me about a time your team members disagreed with each other, or you disagreed with them. How did you navigate that?

• What was your favorite book you read this year? (for fun, not assigned to you)

• What’s a failure you experienced and how did you grow from that?

• Besides your family, who do you admire?

• What do you do in your free time?

See these two articles for more guidance on how to specifically answer some of these questions:

Good luck! If you’d like help workshopping your responses or a mock interview, send me a message to schedule a coaching session.