Getting face-to-face with an admission counselor can be a pivotal point in your college decision process. You get an opportunity to ask those nagging questions…you know, the ones your mom told you to ask but will inevitably ask herself.
Additionally, you get to sit in the hot seat (we’ll call it “tropical” so as to not alarm you), and an admission counselor gets to know the real you. We’re not talking about the version profiled in your transcript or that unreasonably busy person described in your résumé, we get to see who you are and put a human face to the folder full of paperwork we keep stored in the back.
There are three ways this interview can go.
- Badly. You pick your belly button lint in front of the admission counselor—true story.
- Neutral. Not bad, but not stellar either.
- Excellently. You showcase just how intelligent and charming you really are; Mom’s so proud.
Assuming you can steer clear of option number one, how do you take a level two interview to a level three? Below are a list of five common things said in an interview that aren’t necessarily bad, but don’t make you stand out from the thousands of other applicants we see on an annual basis either.
1.) “I don’t know what I want to do.”
Let me begin by saying, that not knowing what you want to do isn’t bad in and of itself, it’s the way you say it. There’s a mountain of difference between “I have no idea what I want to do with my life” and “I’m not sure yet, but some of my interests are…”
See the difference? One says you don’t know and haven’t even given it thought, the other says you don’t know but you’re responsibly weighing your options because you have several possibilities under consideration.
2.) “My favorite books are Harry Potter and Twilight.”
If I had a nickel for every time I heard this in an interview, I could probably offer one lucky student a full-ride to Centre. Okay, obviously I’m exaggerating, but if you tell me you love Harry Potter and/or Twilight, you’re joining a pretty large club.
I’ve not read Twilight, but I did enjoy a little Harry Potter back in the day. The point here is that of course you like these books, but so does almost everybody else. So, what titles intrigued you that help describe your interests? (Hint: You can reference class-assigned reading, we know you’re busy and that may be all you have time for now.)
And don’t feel as if you can’t mention your fanaticism over Harry and Edward, just make sure you’re augmenting your response with another book or author…that you didn’t discover the night before on Spark Notes.
3.) “My greatest weakness is that I’m a perfectionist.”
Oh really, your greatest weakness is that you fancy yourself infallible? Okay, are you sure hubris might not be your greatest weakness instead? This answer could almost be interchanged with the definition of cliché it’s used so often. And let’s not forget, Centre attracts a lot of over-achievers. You’re not the only USDA angus beef patty in this herd of cattle.
Obviously you’re going to want to spin your weaknesses so that they somehow reflect on you positively, but please, be original. Perhaps your greatest weakness is that you procrastinate. Alright, maybe that’s something you recognize, but you’re working on because you know you won’t be able to procrastinate in college. (Which you can, it’s just ill-advised. Ask the transcripts of countless Centre students from the spring term of their first year.)
Maybe your greatest weakness is that it’s difficult for you to collaborate on group projects because you don’t trust your group members to complete their part of the assignment; you want to do it all. That’s definitely a negative, but it stems from you having a great deal of pride in your work and wanting to do your best.
4.) “I think most people would describe me as a hard worker.”
Easy there, champ. Hard workers are ubiquitous in the world of college admissions. You might be surprised to learn that not one person has ever admitted to being a lazy worker during a college interview. First runner-up to this comment is “I think most people would describe me as outgoing.”
Right after you schedule your interview, sit down and prepare at least three adjectives that paint a portrait of your personality. Even if you aren’t asked directly to describe yourself, you’ll have a few key items in your head that make you stand out, which you can refer to during the conversation with your counselor.
5.) “So, what should I write my essay about?”
I don’t know, what should you write it about? Now, you probably think that asking this question indicates that you want to prepare the best writing sample possible…that you’re doing your research. But it also indicates that you want to write something for us, not something for you.
But I’ll give you a break here, the answer to the question is this: Write your essay about something that could only be written by you. Students who try to write things they think admission counselors want to read end up writing the same things as everyone else, which no admission counselor wants to read…especially after having read their twentieth essay for the evening.
Throw undue caution to the wind both in the essay and the interview. Fortune favors the bold, as they say, and in this case…those who are most candid, are the ones who are remembered long after their campus visit. Be unique, be an individual. It’s a “tropical” seat remember? Relax and soak up the attention.
