There is so much time that has gone by. Who is this Matthew? Who is this blog contributor? Where is he?

I’m always finding that out. Even right now. Before your eyes in 12 point font as I type this and reflect.

I find talk with little action supporting it odious. I have been ever so busy writing applications, essays and working with my counselor. Yet, if that is all there was to detour me, you would have seen many updates from me. What I had envisioned is not what I have expressed and demonstrated to you.

You may have experienced quite the lull with my absence. Yes, I was quite busy working on all these college goodies. I can now even say I’m at the exciting part of my life in which I’ve submitted applications. How cool. I’m finally at the point in which I only await the review of the admissions offices. The most exciting journey that has begun since I signed up for this very blog is only a continuation.

Wait! I made mistakes with you and me. I don’t make enough of them actually. Some of the finest learning, its very origin, is the experience of the mistake. A mistake is coveted and should be prized. If you are able to  take away from it what to do differently next time, it is fantastic.

Where did I fall down? Everywhere. From signing on too much responsibility to dealing with many personal issues, I had made many mistakes this year unlike ever before. I had always been far too afraid to make mistakes. I just… learned how?

I had envisioned this blog to something beyond what everyone saw potential for yet I was my own worst enemy in that I was not part of its fruition. In the grand scale of things, my senior year is quite the success. It is everything it should be: the year before college which challenges me in every facet. I have, without realizing it, finally found ways in which I could offer myself such a challenge. I have already grown so much yet to be able to challenge yourself is so very important.

I want to most of all, though, apologize. I thought at first that it would be far too difficult to find a real solution to all of this. All I could say was that I have a genuine interest in this project and I want to help, but perhaps I have fooled myself and all of you under the circumstances.

No — no I haven’t. I’m just learning outside of the classroom. I was busy working, you’ll have to understand. I didn’t intend to try to sign up for the course, but I did anyways. I didn’t even know who would be teaching it. Oh, me.

Thanks.

I’ve always thought of sophomore year as the weirdly ambiguous in-between stage of one’s high school career. The first hurdles of adjusting to a new school in freshman year are over, and it doesn’t seem to have the same rushed, super important feel as that of junior or senior year (Yikes! Transcripts and college applications!). Make no mistake, though- this particular year still holds much weight in planning for college.

So why specifically is sophomore year so different from freshman year?

• It’s just harder- This is really a no-brainer, but I’ll dedicate one of these awesome bullets to it anyway. Teachers are less patient when it comes to late or incomplete assignments; the “…but I didn’t understand it!” excuse rarely works anymore. Be prepared for a really significant increase in workload if you’re enrolled in AP or honors level classes. While I breezed through most courses last year with straight A’s, I’ve had to put a lot more effort into my work this year.
• Busy, busy, busy- Even students previously involved with activities outside of academics may note how these can pile on during the year. Add a sport into the mix (I’m a cross country runner) and you have an effective method for complete insanity! Don’t worry, though. All of your efforts will pay off when you dazzle colleges with your superb repertoire of involvement!
• More opportunity for leadership- Fortunately, all of the activities mentioned in the aforementioned bullet allow for more leadership opportunity. No longer a shy and awed freshman, it’s easier to step up to positions that require speaking out and organizing amongst peers. I worked up the courage to apply or run for positions in smaller activities and even ran for class president.
• Extra planning is required- At my school, our guidance counselors are often swamped with schedule requests and planning for seniors throughout most of the year. Especially with SATs and scholarship contest deadlines approaching, I’ve had to learn to research elements of the college planning process on my own. As I approach the halfway mark of high school (time flies, doesn’t it?) I hope to be on top of planning and researching for college.
• Freedom at last!- It makes sense that the older one gets in their teenage years, the more freedom is rewarded. A few teachers of mine actually allow extensions on deadlines when planning ahead, and pressure is minimized. I enjoy making decisions on my own rather than constantly having an authority figure hovering over, and I’m sure this will only improve as high school progresses.

Despite hectic days and difficult work, I really am enjoying my sophomore year and how it differs from previous ones. It’s not quite as easy as being a freshman, but I also hope to enjoy this period of time before the more challenging times ahead. If you’re a sophomore at the current time, I can only advise you to work as hard as you can while cherishing your high school time as much as possible… I’m sure the rest of high school will fly by.

It isn’t like that for everyone.  My older sister for example applied Early Decision to New York University and was accepted.  She is currently an undergrad there, but sacrificed a lot to be there.  Not only did she close her doors to other opportunities by signing a binding document before knowing the results, but she lost the potential to receive scholarships and aid from other schools.

I was accepted to my Early Decision school as well.  Mount Holyoke College welcomed me into next year’s incoming class…  So why didn’t it work for me like it did for my sister?  I had already applied to other schools and had several offers on the table.  All of my second choice schools were eager for me to attend and showed it to me through generous aid offers.  As a student who require financial aid to be able to make her college dreams a reality, this became highly appealing over Mount Holyoke’s refusal of aid.

I ran into a situation where I was crunched for time with admitting all the necessary documents to the school.  My family was affected by Hurricane Ike and we unfortunately did not have our tax information ready when the school demanded it.  They were insensitive to my needs as a student, and made it extremely difficult to find answers to my questions.  Ultimately, the aid was offered at the last minute, but it wasn’t very generous – minimal in fact; and through this process I saw how difficult and frustrating it was to work with the administration.  I’ve talked about myself being a “gray” person in the past, who doesn’t fit into “black and white” molds, and the school that I believed to be the place of my dreams, was proving to be very colorless.  Afraid that this administration represented the environment of the College, I declined my offer on the grounds of not being able to afford it.

Basically my point is that even if you applied Early Decision and were accepted, you do NOT have to attend.  The whole binding document is filled with loop holes that makes it perfectly legal for you to decline the offer if you decide it’s not substantial.

If I could do it all again, I would still apply Early Decision and encourage you to do also if you have a “dream school.”  I certainly believe it increased my chances of acceptance.  Although applying early didn’t prove to be worth it in my case, I’m glad I was able to get my feedback early, to move on with my decision, and my life.

So remember, just as Early Decision seems very unclear and vague – it IS.  It is binding and yet not binding.  And although it can be a blessing for some, it can also turn sour for others.

I leave it with words of wisdom to young sophomores and tips for weary second semester juniors.

Seniors always told me their junior year horror stories with a shudder… and rightfully so!  Everyone knows why junior year grades are so important.  No matter which college you go to, an Ivy League or state college or somewhere in between, your junior year grades are where admission officers zero in on first. They are a big deciding factor, in addition to your standardized test scores, extracurriculars, and essays.  And most terrifyingly: from what I’ve seen, this year is when the “best students” from sophomore year get burnt out.  Ambitions of going to UCLA could be obliterated in your junior year; it all depends on your preparation and focus.

Why is junior year so hard?

• more advanced classes: AP, IB, HP (at least, you SHOULD be taking harder classes if you want to stay competitive for college admissions)
• more extracurricular activities

It’s difficult to find a balance – there are only 24 hours in a day! The solution?

Solution: get off the computer, stay focused, and PRIORITIZE! If you don’t, you’re sure to struggle.

I’ll give you a personal example:
In my sophomore year, I took one AP: European History.  That was a good tester course for me, to see how I would measure up to the AP exam and a difficult course with many seniors in my class.  I did great last year, but entering my junior year, I had 4 AP’s instead of one, in addition to 2 Honors classes.  You do the math!  That’s 4 times the work!

First quarter is tennis season, so that only added to my list of responsibilities.  I had made Varsity this year, so the practices and the games were even longer.   In short, I had more homework, but less time in which to do it.  A few times during the first months, I’d come home from away games around 7:30PM and be so exhausted that I would fall asleep without touching my homework.  Of course, I would wake up at 4:30AM to get everything done, but it definitely took a toll on my health.  I was so tired throughout the day.  I maintained my grades, but I definitely wasn’t feeling physically well.

I realized then that I needed to prioritize and stop wasting time on Facebook!  I loved tennis but I needed to keep up my grades.  In order to do what I loved, I had to start organizing my life.  Every person is different, but I used a to-do notepad to organize myself. I would organize my tasks for the day, with their times,  according to difficulty.  For example, I would do my AP US History homework from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, since it was the hardest.  Math was my easiest subject, so I did that last.   This really worked for me because I work best with timelines, and I love the satisfaction of crossing a task off after completing it.

Even though I got through my first semester with straight A’s, it really was a battle.  At least now I know what to do to be even stronger second semester.

Things to do during First Semester:

• keep up your grades
• get cozy with your counselor and teachers – they’ll be the ones writing you letters of rec in less than a year
• figure out which extracurriculars you really care about, and stick with them
• start college-searching
• attend some college seminars – go to the university’s website and click on their college tour schedules
• don’t get burned out!  there’s still a semester to go!

Things to “look forward to” in Second Semester:

• AP Exams
• SAT II Subject Test Exams (and SAT I reasoning if you haven’t taken it yet)
• second semester finals
• applying to summer programs

It’s an uphill battle until summer.   Words of advice: stay confident, stay motivated.  Even if you messed up your GPA in first semester, remember that colleges like progression and improvement!  If you did badly, you can only get better from here.   Find some emotional support in your friends, family, or counselor.  This is crunch time!

• Rules and Guidelines – In most cases, the recipient will ask that you include a certain number of works, or pieces on a selected topic. For this example, the recipient is asking me to give a portfolio of two or more selections, no more than 20 pages. I must also include a 250-word statement explaining the nature of the work and why I’ve selected the following pieces. If the recipient doesn’t ask for specifics, then read on and feel free to play and experiment until you feel your portfolio is balanced.
• Making Selections
  • When you have a large number of pieces to pick from – If the portfolio is for a subject you are very passionate about (in my case it is writing) then chances are you have multiple pieces to pick from. If you are unsure about which pieces are the best, use your feedback as a guide. Perhaps on one essay you made an A, but on another you were given a B – even if you enjoyed the B paper above the other, it is safer to go with an acclaimed piece, than a piece that left the reader with uncertainties. You can also ask a friend, parent or teacher, and if all else fails, you can ask me! Ultimately, pick no more than 5 pieces above the actual number you plan. In this case, I want 2-5 pieces, so I will use between 5-10 to narrow it down from.
  • When you don’t have too many pieces to pick from – Maybe this is a subject you just recently began exploring, so you don’t have years worth of trial and error lying around to pick from. First – Don’t get discouraged, if you have a true talent, it will show in the few pieces you do have. Value the quality above the quantity! I just recently took up print-making. This is a medium that although I feel talented in, I don’t have a large number of prints to pick from. Go with what you have, and if time allows, you can even try and prepare new pieces. Just remember to be inspired! Create because your heart tells you to, not just for meeting criteria
• Balancing your Portfolio – After you have narrowed it down to 5 or 10 pieces you really like, experiment with placement and see they foil on one another. For my writing portfolio, I was able to use pieces of any genre, and I had selected essays, research papers, poems, and one short story. If you are given this freedom to choose your genres, make sure to show your versatility! Don’t select all essays, or all poetry, because then you are only displaying one avenue, and the reader may become bored. For balance of my portfolio, I selected two poems of different subject matter and style, one essay, and one research paper. This shows the recipient that I am skilled in multiple genres and that I can write about many topics, basically it highlights maturity.
• Creating the Statement – For this example I had to make a statement explaining why I chose the selections. If you read above in the Balancing your Portfolio section, it showed my reasoning of picking one piece above the other, which is a great start for the statement. You could state that you intended to show versatility as an artist and ability to handle multiple subjects.
  • Other factors that you can contribute to your statement include:
    a) feedback about the pieces – “This essay left my teacher speechless and begging for more!”
    b) creative process – “This piece is important to me because I created it during a difficult time as a means of healing.”
    c) published work
    d) other intended methods – perhaps you picked the piece to expose a certain quality or viewpoint you have.
• Final touches – Proofread, proofread, proofread!! Create a title page with a list of your selections. Include page numbers. If you are submitting another type of art form, include summaries of the pieces! Read your guidelines one last time and make sure you stay within your limits and provide what is being asked for. Bind your portfolio in a folder or hard notebook – and submit!

This was focused mostly on writing portfolios due to my experience with creating them, but if this didn’t answer all your questions about creating portfolios, don’t be shy! Go ahead and ask questions and I’ll be sure to help where I can. If you don’t know where to begin, you can always call the admissions office or group administering the scholarship and ask what the typical portfolios include. Then at least you have your basics. Have fun with it, and remember to watch how the pieces foil on one another.

I’m going to start this off with the typical—albeit cliché—introduction: my name is Meghan, I’m a sophomore in high school, my zodiac sign is cancer, and I have two cats and a somewhat peculiar fixation regarding David Bowie and zebras. I can’t explain it either. My passions, however, are not limited to these idiosyncrasies; I enjoy an array of more typical activities such as art, politics, reading, and writing. Being the quintessential overachiever, I spend the majority of my time juggling extracurricular activities, sophomore class president and student council duties, community service events, and homework from my AP and honors classes. I’ve reported extensively for my school newspaper and Youth & Government publication, so I’m no stranger to the journalistic world.

I still have yet to decide what my plans for the next few years are, but I’m certain of something: I hope to move as far from my city as possible. I guess one can say that my career ambitions are in a constant state of evolution. Though I once considered my ultimate vocation to be a rock star (don’t laugh, I was ten), I’m beginning to lean toward political science or international relations, especially following my recent internship at a local political organization.

After attempting to maneuver through the hoards of college information that the typical high school student is bombarded with daily, I’m thrilled to have the privilege to join The “C” Word’s blogging team and therefore be able to chronicle my own journey in the college preparation process. It’s definitely going to be interesting.

So, nice to meet you and it’s great to be here!

My name is Shelby and I’m new to The “C” Word blogging team.  I’m a high school senior living in Cypress, Texas.   My nickname is Mermaid.

I love to read, explore, and discuss current issues.  I love baking cupcakes, sewing, and yoga, and I’m one of those weird people who enjoys cleaning.  I am passionate about the human experience.  I believe we are all unique and special, but that many of us go through life not ever really knowing ourselves.

My high school career has been anything but normal.  I had to start a new high school in the middle of my junior year after I moved to a new city.  A twisted trick of fate caused me to catch a chronic virus (similar to mono) that kept me out of school for weeks at a time.  I ended up missing 75% of my first semester of my junior year.

Nothing can prepare you for those individual and scary occurrences in life.  I went from being on top of things, in honors classes, lots of extracurriculars, to not knowing if I’d be healthy enough to return to school.  The amount of absences I had was just ridiculous, and I was beginning to realize that if things kept up the way it was going, I’d have to repeat my whole year!

This wasn’t easy after having just changed schools.  I didn’t have the adjustment time I needed to make friends and find my niche.  I decided to take control of things.  As my health began to slowly return to me I was faced with the impossible task of keeping up with the “now” while learning the “past”.  The administration was insensitive to my needs, and didn’t attempt to work with me.  I’ve found public school to be very impersonal, and quite simply black and white.  I’m a gray person, who needs something a little different, a little more individualized.

I decided the best way to handle this suffocation of piles of make up work, an uncooperative school, and basically no social life, was to be home schooled.  If I could set my own schedule, I’d be able to catch up with my courses and not have to repeat a year.  And that’s exactly what I did.  I worked my little bottom off all summer and started my senior year a little ahead of the schedule.  I take classes through an on-line program that allows me to be very flexible.  I stayed sane and got out of my house by getting a part time job.

So that’s a little about me!  I’m finishing up with my last three credits for high school, and I will be graduating in June.  I just finished with the college application process and I’ve received all my replies.  What’s next?  The big decision.

Basically, I did it all on my own.  I’ve had to address all the “alternative” approaches to the college application experience.  I didn’t have a college counselor, or someone to remind me of SAT deadlines.  No one was there to tutor me when I was stuck.  I took all of this on myself, but ultimately found my success.  I’ve proved myself to be an extraordinary problem solver.

I hope that I can provide an alternative outlook to the college experience through my posts here at The “C” Word, as I myself have done nothing typically.

I’m honored to be joining the team and I’m looking forward to what’s to come!
Shelby, aka Miss Mermie ♥

P.S. If you think you’ve seen me before, you probably have.  I have my own personal little blog hosted by Blogger called p!nk.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, the notion that I’m not new here anymore. The start of winter quarter brings a fresh batch of transfer students who are newer than I, brings the clubs I’ve been involved in to full force, brings me to a position of contributing to the school and making it my own rather than trying to find my own fit in it. I am not a peg searching for her hole in this school. I am this school.

Intimidating, no doubt.

Click here to see my previous post about college counseling.

At the beginning of November, I began looking around for college counselors.  A few of my friends who attend Ivy League Universities encouraged me to hire one.  Counselors can help to plan out the summer before my senior year, and help me write and prepare college applications.

Around where I live, there is a chain of SAT /SAT II/ ACT/ AP prep and college counseling companies called Harvard Squared.  Their college counseling is top notch: they have gotten 60 % of their charges into UCSD, UCLA, UCBerkeley (the big 3 UC’s) or better.  The price is expensive, about $5000 for 11th and 12th, but from what I can see from their results and statistics, it will definitely be worth it come October senior year.

Harvard Square’s system is unique.

First, they had me take a personality test to see what possible careers would be right for me.  Then, the founder (a Harvard Alumni and Harvard undergraduate application reviewer) matched me up with one of the 7 or so counselors at the company.  They immediately provided me with a plan for my junior year, and a preliminary plan for summer 2009, regarding extracurriculars and academics.  I have since been communicating with my personal counselor (Berkeley alumni and Berkeley undergraduate application reviewer) for a month now through e-mail.  I will meet with him in person once a month until the college application process starts in October 2009, when I will see him probably once every week.

So far, I am pleased with my personal college counseling experience.  All of the counselors at Harvard Squared are very knowledgable, and have gotten most of their clients into top 20 schools.  A good handful have gotten into Johns Hopkins, Duke, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, and more.  My counselor motivates me and most importantly, keeps me accountable for my grades.

Words of advice about picking a personal college counselor:
1) Check their track record. Before finally hiring a counselor at Harvard Squared, I met with a few independent counselors.  Their list of colleges they have gotten their clients into did not impress me.  If you plan on going to Yale, you definitely shouldn’t hire a counselor who has only gotten students into UC Santa Barbara.  Hire a counselor that you know has gotten students with your similar ability into colleges that you want to get into.

2) Chemistry! It’s important that you actually like and respect your counselor.  They are being paid to help you.  If you can’t communicate well with your counselor, you are just wasting your time, his time, and your money.  Make sure that your rapport is good – it really can make the difference.

3) Don’t settle for less than the best. You’re going to be paying good money for a college counselor.  Be sure that he or she can get you exactly where you want to go.

And of course, remember that college counselors aren’t miracle workers.  Their job is to get you into the college that you want to go to, which ideally would be attainable, but just a little bit out of your reach.  A counselor will help you push the envelope, and make you a stand-out applicant.

They terrified me.

The weight of an interview in your application profile will vary from school to school, and its importance will often depend on the rest of your application. For the most part, though, you’ll see that the interview isn’t ranked with nearly as much importance as your transcript, essay, etc.

Then what’s the point of interviewing? Well, your interviewing skills reflect your attitude in general, and an experienced, confident interviewee is someone who can be confident and successful on campus and in the world at large. Having good oral communication skills will take you far in the work force and everyday life. And plus, interviews for college admissions could definitely help you prepare for job interviews and scholarship interviews, where they play an even larger role.

I’ll profile a few of my interviews and offer you a few tips:
Interview #1 Seattle University
Date: October 16th, 4:30pm
Interviewer: admissions rep
Location: Starbucks in Denver
Pump-Up Song Of Choice: “Stronger” by Kanye West
Scheduling it: I got a postcard in the mail saying an admissions rep would be conducting “informational interviews” at a couple of coffee shops in Denver. I was on the fence about actually going, because the impression I got was that it’d be like when I met with the rep at my school. I e-mailed him to ask, he said for the most part it would, but I decided it wouldn’t hurt to go. I gave him an available time frame and finalized literally the night before. I’m pretty sure I apologized, like, a million times. Well at least I should have.
The day of: Craziest day of my life. I got out of school around 3:00, got to my house around 3:45, needed to get to Starbucks (30 minutes away) before 4:30, and had work near my house around 5:00. As I left school, I text-messaged my co-worker (with a million more apologies) to let her know I’d be running late. In the car on the way there, I went over standard interview questions in my head–why I was interested in that school, my passions, etc. We still got there a few minutes early–not as early as I would have hoped, but the rep was still in the middle of another interview anyway. In conclusion, woosh!
The interview itself: When I saw he was still in the middle of another interview, I went to check out something in the adjoined Barnes & Noble (okay, and pep talk with myself). I didn’t go far, but there was an awkward moment where he had to look for me. Eek. Happily, he recognized me from when he came to visit my high school, so that was a much better start. He had a sheet to fill out with my basic info (test scores, GPA, current class schedule, extracurriculars, etc.) and other notes, so we went down that list and let it take us where it would. He took particular interest in my music web site; I think that had personal appeal. The rest of the thing was pretty casual, but pretty standard. He asked what other schools I was applying to (and even why I wasn’t applying to certain institutions), we talked about some of the clubs on campus, what I might be pursuing as a major… I asked about financial aid and he invited me to apply for a certain major scholarship program. In this case, it really was informational, but I learned some new things and made a personal impression.

Interview #2 Colorado College
Date: January 15th, 4:30
Interviewer: alum, not particularly recent
Location: Starbucks, close to my school
Pump-Up Song Of Choice: “How To Rule The World” by Monkey Jacket
Scheduling it: In the late fall (sometime in November or December), I e-mailed CC to schedule an interview, per the instructions on their admissions page. Finally, around January 9th?, someone left a message at my home phone saying that a number of interviews would be done that weekend in a hotel in Denver. The application deadline was January 15th and I was going to be out of town (actually, visiting Seattle U) that weekend. I let them know I couldn’t make it. I got a response, saying I still had until two weeks after the deadline if I was still interested in interviewing, and so that admissions counselor passed my name on to an alumni rep. The alum called me quite promptly, and we agreed to meet at a Starbucks near my school. She asked me what I looked like, so she’d be able to find me. NOTE: I should’ve e-mailed or called to follow up when I didn’t get a response to schedule an interview. First of all, I probably should’ve worked on scheduling this interview sooner.
The day of: I came to school looking like I was going to spend the night there. I had an extra bag (because I didn’t want to be hauling my grungy backpack to the interview) and a change of clothes (a sweater and a pair of slacks that don’t wrinkle, so they’d look fine after a day in my locker, plus heels). I had to spend an extra hourish at school then walk to the Starbucks.
The interview itself: I arrived early and beat the interviewer. I whipped out a book and hoped no one from my school would walk in and talk to me. Overall, questions were fairly generic, but very conversational. We talked about my family, my passions, my goals. I came in with the goal of plugging that music web site I’d started again, and it was easy to do so. I had also come prepared to talk about my strengths and weaknesses, and that definitely came up. The general tone of this interview was not “What have you done?” so much as “What could you do?” and I could tell she was inserting some questions that would challenge my endurance against the block plan (a schedule in which you take one course at a time for three-and-a-half weeks instead of several courses for a quarter/semester), Colorado College’s trademark.

Interview #3 Northwestern University
Date: January 26, 10:30am
Interviewer: alum, not particularly recent
Location: an education building in the Denver-metro area
Pump-Up Song Of Choice: “Hot IQs” by Hot IQs
Scheduling: At some point, I checked a box saying I wanted Northwestern to contact me about interviews in my area. Eventually I got a postcard instructing me to reserve a time slot online right away. My time slot was at 10:30–early enough for me to not be hungry, late enough for me to be conscious. That’s seriously what my considerations were.
The day of: I ate a hearty breakfast. I wore a sweater, blazer, black slacks. Because Northwestern has a renowned Journalism school and I didn’t stand a chance getting accepted, I decided on my counselor’s advice to prepare a portfolio of some of my writing–clippings from the school paper, the magazine at which I’d interned, my web site, and others. I brought it in my messenger bag.
The interview itself: I wish I could remember how this interview started, because I have no idea how it got to where it did. I don’t remember talking about my classes or my test scores at all. I don’t even remember talking about writing, and the truth is I decided not to whip out my portfolio. I do remember that I’d said something about my interest in social justice, and I think the students’ active social consciousness was one thing that interested me about NU. He asked me where that passion came from, and I noted that while my high school was a huge part in empowering me to act on my interest, it really stemmed from my family’s history–experiences in immigration, poverty, People Power in the Philippines… So we talked about homelessness, poverty, voter turnout (he gave me a hypothetical statistic and asked me to interpret it)…all sorts of unexpected things that challenged my critical thinking and evaluation skills on the spot.

What You Should Do To Prepare:

• Practice interviewing. Ask your counselor, parents or friends if they’ll pretend to interview you. You should give them a list of sample questions (check out this site), but also see what they come up with on their own. If nothing else, prepare answers to some of the most common questions yourself, in your head, out loud, written down… But really, it’s more helpful/terrifying if someone else is staring you down.
• Brainstorm some questions that you can ask them. Not only is this an excellent opportunity for you to have these questions answered, but let’s face it, it does look good. It shows you’ve done your research. So ask questions whose answers you can’t find in their brochure
  • YES: “Who are the best professors to contact about [a particular program]?” “How would you describe the social climate on campus, particularly for someone like me who comes from the out-of-state minority?” “What would you say is the most outstanding attribute about this school? What’s the weakest attribute?” “How has the school changed since the time you graduated?”
  • NO: “What’s your student-to-faculty ratio?” “Do you have [this major]?” “What percentage of students come from out of state?”
  • The questions you can ask alum might be different from the ones you ask if you’re actually meeting with some on admissions, because, well, they’ll have different answers.
• Go in knowing what you love about yourself–and what admissions folks will love. It sounds sort of sneaky and egotistical, but you’ve got to brag about yourself so that time-crunched admissions officers will know why you belong on their campus. If this interview were your paper application, what would you take to the fluorescent yellow highlighter and reprint several times? For me, running my own web site is something that makes me unique and ended up really hitting two out of three interviewers. What makes you unique? Or, what are you passionate about? What experiences have had an unforgettable impact on you? What makes you and this school click? Fortunately, this is probably going to be something you love talking about anyway!