What the interview is actually for
For most schools the alumni or admissions interview is evaluative but low-weight: it confirms that the person on the page is the person in the room. Readers use it to check your interest, your ability to talk about your own work, and how you treat a stranger. Almost no one is admitted because of an interview; a small number of students hurt themselves by showing up with nothing to say.
That makes preparation simple. You are not memorizing answers. You are building a short library of real stories you can pull from, so that whatever question arrives, you have something concrete to say.
The questions you will almost certainly get
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why this college?
- What do you want to study, and how did you get interested in it?
- What do you do outside of class that matters most to you?
- Tell me about a challenge or a failure and what you did about it.
- What are you reading, watching, or arguing about right now?
- What would your friends or teachers say about you?
- What do you want to do after college?
- Is there anything else you want me to know?
- What questions do you have for me?
What each question is really testing
- "Tell me about yourself" — can you choose? A focused 60–90 second answer about two or three things beats a resume recital.
- "Why this college?" — have you done real research? Name a program, requirement, professor, or campus structure and tie it to something you already do.
- "Tell me about a failure" — do you have self-awareness? Say what actually went wrong, what you changed, and what happened after.
- "What are you reading?" — are you curious outside of assignments? A podcast, a YouTube channel, or a subreddit is a legitimate answer if you can say why it interests you.
- "Questions for me?" — are you interested in this specific place? Ask about the interviewer's own experience, not something the website answers.
A four-step preparation routine
- Write five stories, three sentences each: a project, a setback, a leadership moment, an academic interest, and something you do purely for yourself.
- Research one non-obvious thing about the school — an advising structure, a required core course, a lab, a club you would join week one.
- Practice out loud, once, on your phone camera. Watch it at 1.5x and cut anything that sounds like a brochure.
- Prepare three questions for the interviewer and expect to use two.
Logistics that quietly matter
- Reply to the interview invitation within 24 hours and be flexible on times.
- For video interviews: test camera and audio, sit with light in front of you, and close every other tab.
- Arrive five minutes early, bring nothing you need to read from, and keep your phone away.
- Send a short thank-you email the same day referencing one specific thing you discussed.
Mistakes that cost students
- Reciting the activities list instead of picking one thing and going deep.
- Answering "Why us?" with rankings, weather, or "the campus is beautiful."
- Claiming a fake failure ("I work too hard").
- Talking about how you did not really want this school, or naming it as a backup.
- Having no questions at the end.
If the interview goes badly
It almost never decides your outcome. Alumni interviewers submit a short report, and admissions offices know that a nervous 17-year-old on a Tuesday night is not a complete picture. Send the thank-you note, note what you would do differently, and use it as practice for the next one.