Qualities Key for Admissions:
| Communication/Interpersonal Skills | Flexibility/adaptability |
| Lab/tech/comp/quant skills | Ethical consideration/decision-making |
| Strong work ethic | Academic/discipline specific preparation |
| Initiative/work independently | Above and beyond visibility/achievement |
| Overcome adversity/problem solving | Research/scholarly interest |
| Analytical/critical thinking skills |
What does the interviewer really want?
- Will you be able to succeed in this program?
- Do you have the motivation to make it through?
- Can you justify why you want this degree?
- Are you a good fit for this program/school?
- Will you work well with faculty and other students?
- Do you have the right credentials and preparation?
Anticipated Questions
About You
- Open ended (“tell me about yourself”)
- Describe your academic preparation
- Talk about your research interests and how they relate to the university
Role Playing/Scenario Questions
- How would you pitch a product/service to a client who knew nothing about our organization?
- If you strongly disagreed with a co-worker or classmate about a project you were working on, how would you handle the situation?
Behavioral Interviewing Questions
- Give me an example of a time when you:
- Faced an ethical dilemma
- Made a mistake
- Overcame a challenge
- Took initiative
- Took a risk and failed.
Discipline/Department/School Specific Questions
- Why have you chosen to pursue this degree at our college/university?
- What do you read to stay current in this field?
- What are some of the challenges currently faced by professionals in our field?
- What characteristics do you think are important for success in this program?
Ways to Prepare and Practice for Interviews
- Discuss interviewing tips with a Career Education Coach during our specialized events
- Sign up for a mock interview with a Career Education Coach
- Attend any upcoming Interview Preparation Workshops
- Use Big Interview to record yourself answering various questions (behavioral, admissions, specialized populations, scenario, etc)
- Use our Career Center Resources for Case Interviews
- Write out anticipated tough interview questions with answers
- Critique verbal answers and non-verbal behaviors with a friend
Use the STAR technique to describe powerful, relevant, and detailed examples of your experiences:
Situation
- What was the specific activity you were to accomplish or what problem were you solving?
- Who was involved?
- Where and when did this occur?
Task
- What was the specific responsibility you were ask to do in your role?
- What was the objective?
- Remember to weave the research you have done on discipline, department, school into your answers
Action/activities
- What steps did you take to complete the job or solve the problem?
- How did you go about completing the steps?
- How did you involve or manage others during the process?
- Why did you take these steps?
- Did you consider alternatives and what were they?
Results (Positive)
- Did you accomplish the job the way it was originally defined?
- Was the result an improvement? An innovation or change?
- Did you improve or maintain good interpersonal relationships as a result of your actions?
- Did you create new relationships that might have future value?
- What were the benefits of your actions for the organization or for other individuals?
- What lessons did you learn?
- What core skills did you acquire?
- What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow from this experience?
After the Interview
- Evaluate your performance and look for ways to improve by asking yourself:
- Did you cover points you intended to cover?
- What questions were particularly difficult to answer?
- How did the interviewer’s personality affect your performance and why?
- Did you ask the interviewer high quality questions based on in-depth research?
- Email a thank you note within 24 hours.
- Follow up by phone or email when the recruiter does not respond by stated date, if appropriate
