简谈美本面试

快7月了， 进入19届申请的准备阶段了，除了文书，现在该安排的是第三方面试了，因为现在去预约，据说已经到了8月底， 如果你觉得不满意想再面试一次，中间需要间隔一个月， 也就是说如果考虑两次面试，现在就必须预约去，否则ED、EA申请可能会来不及递交。

除了第三方面试，还有校友面试，招生官面试，下文是18届高手学姐的文章，亲身经历，观点清晰，绝对赞同。学姐可是通过面试获得全奖的大牛，同时学姐还提供了下面链接，标明是面试入门级必问题：

https://blog.prepscholar.com/college-interview-questions-you-should-prepare-for

大家自己跟着练习吧。

College Application Interview Overview 

By Lucy Zhu

2018.6 Types:

InitialView/Vericant: InitialView is a general interview conducted by a third party company and sent to colleges you pick. It’s about 10-20 minutes in length, video-recorded in full, and has a newly introduced writing component. You may send your results (a video and your essay in scanned PDF, no score) to an unlimited number of schools. You also get two virtual stars to give to your top-pick Regular Decision schools. Also, InitialView is super expensive ($200+!) so do try to nail it on your first take. I feel like colleges will use this to check whether your English proficiency actually lives up to your standardized test scores, in both colloquial and written terms, but this has not been confirmed officially. Considering the number of applications colleges receive, I doubt colleges watch/read your whole InitialView file. The good side to this is that they may not catch specific places where you made a mistake; the flip side is that you’ll have to make every snippet they might watch as passionate and fluent as possible. Last year, the virtual stars were still in their trial period and I really don’t think they made any positive impact to my admission result. InitialView asks very general questions and is not designed to grind you at all. Random questions may be asked, (eg. Who do you admire most?) but none will test knowledge of academics/current events. Just know yourself well and you’ll do fine. Rest assured that it will be chill--- it should only be your first interview of many to come! I’ve only done InitialView, so I won’t be able to provide you with any advice about Vericant.School-specific interview: a. Conducted by alumni Most commonly, alumni will reach out via email to offer you an interview. For certain schools eg. Northwestern, Vanderbilt and some liberal arts colleges, you’ll have to apply online for alumni slots. Being offered an interview DOES NOT mean the school has looked over your application and are seriously considering you-- many schools follow a random assignment basis. These are usually informative, allowing you to get to know the school better by having a conversation with your interviewer.● Definitely try to relate to your alum! Search him/her up on Linkedin or stalk on social media if possible. (Remember to erase your tracks.)

● Prepare a resume that you can offer your interviewer if you meet in person.

● Also bring a pen. Some interviewers rush out of their office to interview you so they might forget to bring one.

● The style of interview you get reflects the school’s personality. My Brown interview was super chill and my Penn interview had a slight uptight Wharton/business feeling to it though I didn’t apply for Wharton.

● Don’t fight for the bill if your interviewer decides to treat you. You can buy yourself a drink if you get there early and have to wait a while.

● If it’s a coffee chat, I advise you against getting food because it’s impolite to talk while chewing. Free your mouth to talk during the interview and eat after it’s over!

● It would be great if you know more about the school than your interviewer. When your interviewer starts to explain something about the school that you already know, only tell him/her you knew that already half the time. Pull a mesmerized face the other half. You should leave the interview looking like you fell deeper in love with the school than when you started.

● Get their contact info and send a thank-you email within 24 hours. Ask Google if you don’t know how.

● If your application file is brilliantly amazing academically (I’m talking about multiple international awards here), you want at least a “no red flags from this applicant” result. Otherwise, you seek their absolute adoration!! Gotta make the interviewer want to adopt you as an underclassman. b. Conducted by admissions officer AO interviews will most likely be through Skype, though some schools do send a few AOs over to China. These are definitely evaluative and play a decisive role towards your result.

● Your AO may or may not have seen your application already. Ask if you’re really curious but it’s likely that they’ll tell you before the interview whether they’ve read it or not.

● AOs are still humans!! They can laugh and have emotions too.

● The main difference between AOs and alumni is that AOs are more judgemental. You don’t want the “no red flags from this applicant” feedback, you want your interviewer to love you enough to convince the majority of AOs to vote you into the accepted pile! Regardless of how stellar your academics are, a “meh” conversation will get you rejected.3 Things to keep in mind: 1) Impressions outlast words.

● Speak clearly.

● Be enthusiastic.

● Make them laugh if you can (but not at your childishness/stupidity.) Who doesn’t like to be amused?

● Make eye contact (but don't stare lol)

● Show interest in what they say.

● Be confident about what you present. There’s no wrong answer.

● Silence your uhh’s and umm’s. Pause if you’re still preparing what you’ll say

● Occasional grammatical mistakes are fine as long as you get the point through. Don’t mess up he/she him/his/her though, it may be quite confusing.

2) Stories win over resume-style accomplishments. Learn to tell stories. Logicality and uniqueness is key.

3) It’s good to know some short academic fun facts / stories related to your intended major that will be understood by a general audience. Show your interviewer you know the subject well but don’t test their intelligence by getting too deep into it.

4) A picture is worth a thousand words. Feel free to take out your phone and show them photos of your artwork / experiment results / memorable experiences.

5) Talk about tough experiences positively. Explain how you overcame them.

6) You can ask for clarification when you’re unsure of how to answer. Confirming what their question is can buy time for you to think. Don’t overuse this!

7) Your interviewers will be nice. If they don’t show professional conduct that dramatically influences your performance (eg. ask you out on a romantic date / insult you), email the school and explain the situation. You’ll probably be assigned another interviewer.

8) Ask for advice and recommendations. Since you’ve already made conversation, you might as well gain some takeaways from people older than you. Also, psychological studies have shown that asking for advice increases your likability.

9) Prepare a few questions to ask when the interview ends.

10) Respect their time. Don’t be late. Let them be the one to judge when the interview should finish.