Interview

Machiavellian once suggested that the way to succeed in any endeavor is to rely only on those resources over which you have control and not to count on those over which you don't. The interview is a process in which you control your own destiny. It is your greatest opportunity to prove yourself to a college and show that you are the right person for the school.

The interview is the crucial step in the college selection process with the highest return on investment. The little time spent interviewing, if successful, has a greater chance of landing you the position than any other step in the college selection process. It is your moment to shine, and you want to be well polished.

Some undergraduate school selection strategies will recommend doing exhaustive research on a school, finding the one that you think would be your dream school. After spending countless hours doing the necessary research and finally understanding more about the school than most of the faculty members, you are told to go and seek an interview. Once in the interview you would clearly be able to impress an interviewer with your knowledge of the school and would theoretically be a great student selection.

The best approach is the direct opposite. The research is critical and the interview is critical, but you should reverse the order in which you do them. You should already have the interview scheduled before you go and spend hours doing research on the school. The reason is simple. Why do research and potentially waste your time if the chance exists that you might not even be able to get the interview?

A great source of information in your research is the internet. First, go to the school website. Look for the programs to be posted and anything else you can quickly determine. Then go to a local newspaper site and read any recent news or articles on the school. Check out their recent school reports and read the message boards where students exchange information on the school. If you have any questions, it might be worthwhile to post a question on there and see if you get any responses. You will be able to find out a lot of background information on their internal culture. Finally, conduct some random searches using a search engine such as www.google.com and see if you can find anything interesting on the Internet. If you can’t find something specific about the school, then find what you can about the surrounding area.

All of these sites are great sources of information that you can use for research in the comfort of your home or school.

All documents on this website are copyrighted.