US & UK Interviews

US

US interviews are normally between 20-30 minutes long. The purpose of the interview is for the college to to gain more information about who you are as a person. Whether or not you have an interview is not a direct implication of your chances of success in being admitted to a university. It mainly depends on the availability of interviewers. Sometimes a university is so confident in admitting you, they don’t even need more information about you! Nevertheless, interviews are not the most integral part of your application.

Your interviewers will normally be with an alumnus of the university, who is also from the country/region you are from. The interviews are very casual. Interviewers will write a report about you afterwards, so think about if there’s anything not mentioned in your application that you’d like to mention!

Some questions for you to prepare for your interview:

1.    Why are you applying to this school? (This was asked in all of my interviews)

Answers can include: location, special programs, culture, etc.

2.    What are some professors whose classes you’d like to go to?

3.    What do you like to read about?

4.    What is your favourite/most important extracurricular?

5.    Any other questions you have for me?

Make sure you always have a few questions prepared!

6.    Anything else you’d like to let me know that’s not included in the applications? (This was asked in all of my interviews)

Some universities also have the option for submitting a video, and I found it very helpful to watch other past applicants’ videos! For example for Brown, just search up “Brown University Video Portfolio”

UK:

Universities like Cambridge, Oxford, and Imperial have interviews for students to further assess their academic abilities. This is because many people have highly competitive school-leaving exam results, and they want to identify students who are truly passionate and dedicated to their studies. After the interview, universities will decide who to admit. The interviews are normally ~15-20 minutes, and there may be multiple sessions. 

The interviews are hosted by professors or PhD students studying the same major. Interviews differ significantly from major to major, so I’d recommend researching more about sample interview questions for your own major.