After applying to many colleges, especially those we truly aspire to get into, we wait for a response from those colleges. Those responses usually come in form of a confirmation letter or an interview letter/call. Even no responses are received from colleges, which is a clear indication that an individual won’t make it into that particular program but Do colleges give interviews to everyone?
As clarified above, colleges do respond to the ones that seem potential candidates and can be to the ones who seem to have qualified for the admissions through the determining criteria. Either interview is called or whatever the further step is determined by the college after scanning of the applications is taken so that the scanned applications can be overviewed by the candidates themselves.
Need for an interview
Interviews are meant to know the one who is being interviewed personally and also to know about him, the other parts of the applications like communication skills, confidence level, personality, etc, except the grades. Thus, the interview is needed to be conducted as the colleges have received just the grading picture of the applicants so that their assessment can be done through the interview.
Do interviews matter?
Interviews do matter to some extent as there are colleges that not only emphasize the academic excellence of the students but other aspects of the applicants are emphasized more. Of course, academic excellence is of prime importance but those applicants with good academic reports along with communication skills, personality, and level of confidence are much preferred as they are assumed to bring more to the table. So the interview that went well does increase the student’s chances of getting into the college.
College’s perspective of offering interviews to everyone
Colleges that offer an interview to everyone are the ones with a perspective of assessing the applicants through the process of interviews and collecting more information regarding them. And those colleges have interviews as a part of the initial screening process for the applicants. And then after the initial screening, they decide on the applicants that seem to be the potential ones and continue with the further process/steps determined by them.
Colleges that do not offer interviews to everyone
Most colleges do not offer interviews to most of the applicants as the interview isn’t part of the initial screening but the component of finalizing the candidates/applicants as the last step. Those colleges have the perspective of offering interviews to only those applicants who already passed the initial screening criteria determined by the college. So getting an interview called from colleges an individual has applied to, mostly means that he/she has already passed the initial screening and now it all might depend on how the interview goes.
Interviews were not offered
Long ago, when access was an issue, interviews were usually not offered at all by any colleges but now thanks to this technological era, interviews became an integral part of the admission process of colleges. This digital era has allowed colleges to interview anywhere and this also increases the competition as candidates can be of a diverse group, each bringing something new and unique to the table, thus making sure that every one of the candidates plays a part in the college is sort of a requirement.
Requirement of an interview by colleges
Some colleges have programs offered them for which interviewing an applicant is sort of a requirement, no matter if they offer an interview to everyone or the finalized candidates only. For instance, colleges offering a Diploma in Psychology may prefer knowing the candidates personally as their graduation from that particular college may lead to spread a good name of that college because of that trained psychologist in the market. The interview is then set as a requirement for admission in fields/programs like this, where personality tests are sort of mandatory.
What is a college interview about?
Colleges that conduct interviews are mostly to know more about the applicant except the grades and qualifications shown by his application. So the questions mostly asked in these types of interviews include questions like;
- Tell us about yourself
- What is your academic background?
- Why do you want to get into this college?
- What are your expectations from this college?
- What do you prefer, a class discussion or one side lecture by the teacher?
- Why do you opt for the particular programs?
- What are your interests besides studies?
- What other extra activities did you participate in at the previous institute?
- Do you have any experience related to the opted program?
- Do you have any certified experience?
- Why do you think you are competitive enough for admission to this college?
- Where do you hear of this college?
- What are your plans?
- What is plan B if you don’t get in?
- Do you read?
- What kind of books do you read?
- Do you have team working abilities?
- What do you think are your strengths and can make you stand out among others if utilized well?
- What are your weaknesses and how do you think you can overcome them?
- What kind of personality inspires you?
- Do you prefer group studies or individual studies?
- Are you interested in politics?
- Tell us about the point of realization in where you decided to go for the field you opted for?
Who conducts the interview?
College interviews are usually conducted by the members of interview committee, determined by the college itself. This usually contains the college professors in general, some experts related to the offered filed/programs and one member who is good at judging the personalities, mostly a psychologist. These are the members that mostly constitute the interview committee of well known and prestige colleges but exceptions are always there.
Conclusion
Bottom line of the whole discussion is that the interview option, that is either it will be conducted or not and will it be conducted as a part of initial screening or as a part of finalizing the applicants, depends on the whole admission process determined by the college and also the weight of the factors determined by them.
