Q/A on Yale interview (compiled from CC)

I compiled these questions and answers from College Confidential, hope it will be helpful for Yale and other top college's interview. Good luck on senior's college application!

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I am a longtime alumni interviewer for Yale. The only information interviewers should (and do in the vast majority of cases) receive is name, hs, address, phone, email, whether you applied EA or RD, whether you interviewed on campus and what you put for your intended major. People seemed to be confused and have questions and I wanted to show the Yale spirit and help out.
Let me try to answer all your question.

1. How important is the interview? Since I'm not on the admissions committee, I can't say for certain. My sense is that a really lousy interview report will cause the admissions officers to look more carefully at your application before accepting you or send you to the reject pile more quickly if you were already tending in that direction. I know of at least one applicant who got in even though his interviewer had a very poor impression of him. If your interviewer loves you, that might verify everything else that's great in your file and be the last nudge you need to be in the admit pile. That being said, lots of applicants with ecstatic reviews don't get in. The interview doesn't make or break you. It is by far the least important part of the application process, but it may be the thing that pushes an applicant over the edge into the reject or admit pile.

2. What does the admissions office get out of an interview report that they don't see on paper? A good interviewer can really read an applicant. There have been lots of applicants who have said in response to my "Why Yale?" question, "Because it's prestigious." When probed, they don't know squat about the school and don't even seem to have read basic literature provided by Yale. You can tell who has genuinely thought about the college and whether it's a good fit. You can also tell whether someone is intellectual. When I ask, "What is your favorite class?" and the student says they like class X because they get good grades in it easily and, upon further questioning, don't reveal any actual academic interest in the subject, that looks bad. Interviewers may also be able to tell what extracurriculars have been inflated or are largely parent-initiated. There are also people who have behave poorly at interviews. I've had a couple of extremely arrogant, entitled students and a couple of people who didn't appear to live on planet earth (don't want to reveal details, but you wouldn't believe them anyway). I don't judge people negatively because they are liberal or conservative, quiet or gregarious, etc. Although I'm sure some people are smart enough to snow me, I think I'm a pretty good judge of character and can add another dimension to the applicant's file.

3. Out of all the people you have interviewed, what is the usual score on the 1-9 scale? How many 8-9's or 1-2's have you had? Interviewers rank students on a scale of 1-9. On Yale's scale, A 5 is for a reasonable interview with neutral result and a 9 is given to a person who is 1 in 100 in the Yale pool. Because of the rankings distinguish between good, really good and exceptional, not all "good" interviews are created equal. Instructions to interviewers note that anything below a 5 automatically raises red flags for admissions officers. I give out mainly 5s and 6s with a scattering of 4s and 7s. I think a 9 is for a once-in-an-interviewing-lifetime candidate. I doubt I've ever given more than a couple of 8s. My bet is that less experienced interviewers give out higher scores. If you interview lots of kids every year over several years, you get a sense of how competitive the applicant pool really is. If you're doing your first couple of interviews, you compare the kids to what it took to get into Yale when you were there, not realistically assessing how much tougher things are today. Because you have to back up your score with a written report, I think the admissions officers can tell where people are being too stingy or too generous.

4. Do you suggest bringing a resume to the interview? I think it's nice to bring a resume so your interviewer can refer back to it when he/she writes your report. Your resume should include extracurricular activities, jobs, academic interests, etc. Interviewers are not supposed to have your GPA and SAT, but not all interviewers know this rule, so it's hard to know whether you should include those. Yale doesn't want interviewers to be swayed by high or low numbers.

5. How should we dress for the interview? I think khakis and a collared shirt are good for boys and a nice pair of pants or skirt with a conservative top for girls. Girls should not wear revealing clothes, especially if the interview takes place in an office. That means no exposed midriffs, no exposed bra straps, no cleavage. It sounds obvious, but it isn't. I think that regardless of where an interview is that you should not be more casual than the equivalent of khakis and a collared shirt. If your interviewer explicitly says, please be casual and feel free to wear jeans, then it's OK. If not, play it safe and dress up a little. Unless your interviewer says to be casual, I'd dress up. As you can see from my comments in this thread and others, dressing up doesn't mean anything really dressy. What you wear shouldn't matter, but you never know how it plays out on a subconscious level and you don't want to be thought of as not taking the interview seriously or, in the case of revealing or otherwise inappropriate clothes, lacking common sense.

6. I have an interview at starbucks. would a collared shirt and khakis be too much? A collared shirt and khakis would not be too much at a Starbucks. What if your interviewer is coming from a meeting and has a suit on? Wouldn't you feel weird in jeans and a t-shirt?

7. Could you give us a few examples of questions you've asked before? From your experience, do you prefer it when the interviewee guides the conversation or just sits back and answers the questions you've pre-selected? Tell me about your most important extracurricular activity. What is your favorite class and why? What are some of your favorite books? I ask really generic, predictable questions and follow up on whatever the student says, so each interview is really different.

I would NOT like it if the interviewee tried to control and direct the interview. It's fine to be confident and to have things that you want to discuss but it's not your place to guide the conversation. Your best bet would be to let the interviewer do his/her thing in the beginning. I ask applicants if there is anything they want to discuss mid-way through the interview, so they can take over and direct things at that point if they want to.

I do discuss pop culture and stuff that isn't traditional interview conversation if the conversation veers that way; I don't think the interview has to be serious.

8. I feel that i would mesh with the people at yale more than Harvard. the only drawback is it's not in Boston? New Haven is not a drawback. Not being in a major city means that the on-campus social life is exceptionally vibrant as opposed to bars and clubs in the city being the social focus.

9. What the interviewer writes in the report? Depends on the interviewer. I try to back up the adjectives I used to describe the applicant--intellectually curious, arrogant, etc--with examples of what they said during the interview. I usually include a sentence or two indicating why the person wants to attend Yale, but I'm sure not everyone does that.

10. I'm sort of uncomfortable with giving my list of schools (I'm applying to 9 others, and it's sort of awkward to just rattle off the whole list), so what should I do if my interviewer asks where else I'm applying? Yale interviewers are told not to ask what other schools you're applying to. I'm not saying some don't ask it anyway, but they're not supposed to. If you do get asked, no need to rattle off the whole list. Your "some other schools in the NE" is probably fine.

11. if someone you interviewed googled you and told you, how would you react and feel? During two interviews it was obvious the applicants had googled me. I thought it was weird. It's fine to google the person so you have a sense of who they are, but letting them know you did it can feel stalker-y.

12. Can you describe an interview write-up? My report all depends on the interview. I comment on the person's personality, their intellectual depth, their engagement in their extracurriculars (not whether they've given me a laundry list but whether they seemed genuinely interested and committed to their ECs), whether they seem to have valid reasons for their interest in Yale, and whatever random stuff came up.

13. What were the most common questions? academic interests, extracurriculars interests, why Yale, then bounce off those answers. Every interviewer is different.

14. What can the interviewee do to bump it up, and what have you seen that bumps it down to 4? First, an interviewers don't have any info from Yale about GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, etc. This means that it's not like the person looks like an 8 on paper and the interview brings him or her down. You may understand this, but I wanted to clarify to make sure.

I can't think of nonobvious ways people hurt themselves. The people who have really killed themselves have been unabashedly arrogant or had bizarre social skills. People who have done zero research (like not knowing about the
residential college system) may not get marked down, but I will note it in my report. Flagrantly inappropriate attire (mainly girls who dress VERY provocatively) may earn a mark down for lacking common sense. One sentence or one word answers to every question are a problem. But that's all obvious stuff, right?You can't be anyone other than who you are in an interview and it's either going to strike a high, low, or middling chord with the interviewer. Here's another one, albeit rare: interviewees who don't even feign interest. Two years ago, I interviewed an accomplished young woman who had gotten likely letters from both Yale and Harvard. It was eminently clear that H was her goal -- I almost asked her why she bothered to take up my time.

15. If asked why Yale, I have a number of reasons, but should I still bother mentioning the common ones? Ex: I LOVE the residential college system, as I like the idea of being an individual and having a larger, communal identity. But, they probably get a million people saying that, so should I still bring it up? Common answers to "Why Yale" are fine. The residential colleges are a huge draw and it makes sense to include them if they excite you.

16. Is it okay to ask for a minute to think? Or would that look poorly upon me that I can't just spit out answers to questions? The interviewer shouldn't ask you very tough questions. It's fine to take a second to collect your thoughts, but I would find it odd if I asked, "Tell me about your favorite extracurricular activity" and the applicant really took a whole minute to formulate a response. The interviewer will lead the interview, probably asking you a series of questions, then asking you if you have questions for him/her. You are not responsible for setting the tone or the pace of the interview. The best thing you can do is to think up one or two questions to ask the interviewer so there isn't the awkward moment when the interviewee has no questions and feels stupid.

17. If my interview lasted only 20 minutes, is this a sign that it didn't go well? It all depends on the interviewer's style. 20 minutes would be a sign of a bad interview with me, but other interviewers may have a shorter list of questions and a more direct style than I do. What's done is done and the interview is by far the least important part of your application. I've had applicants with terrible interviews get in, so it won't kill you if the rest of your package is strong.