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Interview for College/Scholarship

You must prepare to talk about yourself in a meaningful way and project the real you. Be aware of your goals and values. Know what you want to accomplish in future and how you would like to grow. Determine which aspects of your personality are important. What specific points do you want the interviewer to know? How will you project this special blend of qualities to the interviewer? You don’t want to brag about yourself, but you also don’t want to hide the real you by mumbling or whispering. Don’t come across as arrogant or self-­important and don’t try to be a comedian or hotshot. Be honest, upfront and positive. Express your good qualities, activities and interests by highlighting your involvement and your personality. Think about the following questions when preparing for an interview.

1. What 3 adjectives would your best friend use to describe you?
2. What have you enjoyed most about your high school years?
3. How have you grown or changed?
4. What activities have you found most satisfying?
5. What things do you do well? What are your talents?
6. What strengths would you most like to develop?
7. Have any of your courses challenged you? Which ones? How?
8. What achievements have given you satisfaction?
9. How do you respond to academic pressure or competition?
10. What would you change about your school if you had the chance?
11. What do you do for relaxation? For fun?
12. How do you define success?
13. What issues concern you?

College Interviews

Do:

  • Be neat, clean and comfortable
  • Look and feel your best
  • Be prepared, prompt, and polite
  • Ask informed questions
  • Accentuate the positive
  • Be yourself
  • Write an acknowledgement note
  • Be on time
  • Make eye contact
  • Shake hands firmly
  • Stay attentive

Don’t:

  • Smoke, swear or chew gum
  • Quibble or complain
  • Be passive
  • Whisper
  • Be arrogant
  • Interrupt

Admission people enjoy talking to students who are active in their search for a college. Be sure to have done your homework on the college before the interview. Read the website and materials sent to your home. Talk to current students or alumni. This is an active process. You should be curious about what they offer their students. Bring in a list of questions with you. Do not ask questions that you can find the answers to on their website. Know your strengths and weaknesses before entering the interview. Practice talking about yourself out loud before the interview. Ask a parent, friend, or teacher to help you with this process. Be prepared to cover four areas in the interview: your high school experience, the college, you and questions you may have about the college.

Possible Questions

  1. What courses have you enjoyed the most?
  2. What courses have been most difficult for you?
  3. What is your high school schedule?
  4. What satisfactions have you had from your studies?
  5. What kind of student have you been?
  6. Have you worked up to your potential?
  7. What has been a controversial issue in your school?
  8. What is the most significant contribution you’ve made to your school?
  9. Have you worked or been a volunteer?
  10. Would you make different choices if you were to do it all over again?
  11. What extracurricular activity has been most satisfying to you?
  12. What do you do in your spare time?
  13. How would you describe your hometown?
  14. How has living in your community affected your outlook?
  15. Why do you want to go to college?
  16. What are looking forward to in college?
  17. What do you want from an education?
  18. What interests do you want to pursue in college?
  19. What are some of your criteria or considerations in choosing a college?
  20. Why have you chosen this college to investigate?
  21. What other colleges are you considering?
  22. What do you want to know about us?
  23. What is of most interest to you on campus?
  24. What are you reading right now that is of interest to you?
  25. What is the best book you have ever read?
  26. Are there any authors you particularly like?
  27. Any literary character you admire?
  28. What magazines do you read?
  29. What are your favorite movies?
  30. What play, concert, museum exhibit, or dance recital have you recently attended? What is your opinion of it?
  31. What person has had the most impact on the twentieth century?
  32. What president would you most like to meet and why?
  33. What things do you do well?
  34. Tell me about your family.
  35. What are some good decisions you’ve made for yourself recently?
  36. What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself?
  37. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
  38. What sets you apart as an individual?
  39. What is the most difficult situation you’ve had to face?
  40. What political or social issues should a young person be interested in?
  41. If you were president of the U.S. what would you do about the current controversial issues?
  42. What do you think you can do for this college?
  43. What would you like to talk about?

Always be honest, don’t be fake, keep your cool, and take a deep breath. If you don’t understand the question, ask them to repeat it. It is ok to admit that you do not know the answer rather than pretending that you do.

Job Interviews

Tough Interview Questions and Great Answers

Mental fear of the unknown is often what produces physical symptoms of nervousness. In addition to preparing yourself physically you also need to prepare yourself mentally. The best way to prepare mentally is to know what may be coming. Fear of the unknown can only exist when there is an unknown. Take the time to understand some of the “standards” when it comes to interview questions.

The following are some of the most difficult questions you will face in the course of your job interviews. Some questions may seem rather simple of the surface, such as, “tell me about yourself,” but these questions can have a variety of answers. The more open-­? ended the questions, the wider the variation in the answers. Once you have become practiced in your interviewing skills, you find that you can use almost any question as a launching pad for a particular topic or compelling story.

Others are “classic” interview questions, such as, “What is your greatest weakness?, ”which most people answer inappropriately. In this case, the standard textbook answer for the “greatest weakness” questions is to not give a veiled positive such as “I work too much. I just work and work and work” which ends up sending the wrong message. Either you are lying, or worse yet, you are telling the truth, in which case you define working too much as a weakness and really don’t want to work much at all. Think about it.

The following answers are provided to give you a new perspective on how to answer tough interview questions. They are not there for you to lift from the page and insert into your next interview. They are there for you to use as the basic structure for formulating your own answers. While the specifics of each reply may not apply to you, try to follow the basic structure of the answer from the perspective of the interviewer. Answer the questions behaviorally, with specific examples that show clear evidence that backs up what you are saying about yourself. Always provide information that shows you want to become the very best for the company and that you have specifically prepared yourself to become exactly that. They want to be sold. They are waiting to be sold. Don’t disappoint them.

1. Tell me about yourself.

Example: My background to date has been centered around preparing myself to become the very best I can become. Let me tell you specifically how I’ve prepared myself…

2. Why should I hire you?

Example: Because I sincerely believe that I’m the best person for the job. I realize that there are many other college students who have the ability to do this job. I also have that ability. But I also bring an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job-­my attitude for excellence. Not just giving lip service to excellence, but putting every part of myself into achieving it. I have consistently reached for becoming the very best I can become by doing the following...

3. What is your long-­range objective? Where do you want to be in 10 or 15 years from now?

Although it’s certainly difficult to predict things far into the future, I know what direction I want to develop towards. Within five years, I would like to become the very best your company has. In fact, my personal career mission statement is to become a world-­class in the industry. I will work toward becoming the expert that others rely upon. And in doing so, I feel I will be fully prepared to take on any greater responsibilities that might be presented in the long term.

4. How has your education prepared you for your career?

As you will note on my resume, I’ve taken not only the required core classes in the field, I’ve also gone above and beyond. I’ve taken every class the college has to offer in the field and also completed an independent study project specifically in this area. But it’s not just taking the classes to gain academic knowledge. I’ve taken each class, both inside and outside of my major with this profession in mind. In addition, I’ve always tried to keep a practical view of how the information would apply to my job.