Academic

How to Prepare for a College Interview

By Alfred Brophy

I've been meaning to talk about how to prepare for a college interview for some time.  And this morning's New York Times has an article on this topic--or at least how the affluent prepare for them (by hiring extremely high priced tutors).   It begins with a vignette about a consulting session where students learn how to dress for the college interview.  It raises some important questions about equity in college admissions--and (in my mind) the question whether people get anything like what they pay for.

One of the things I love about the article is the reference to the website applywise, which the Times likens to turbotax for college applications.  I sure love turbotax, so this is the sort of thing that's probably for me.  Couple of things to think about here--I visited the applywise website and was surprised, though perhaps I shouldn't, at how many of their models look like people my age -- that is, parents of high school students -- rather than the students themselves.  But, hey, they're marketing to parents.  Second, I guess applywise is for the rest of us who can only afford a couple hundred dollars for a computer program, rather than intensive in person consulting.  And their demonstration makes it look like something that helps students and parents get organized.  Finally (and a little off-topic for this post), we need to talk about computer aided instruction for first year law classes at some point.

One of these days I'll get to that post--with some more modest suggestions about how to prepare (like think through why you want to go to a particular college, what you might contribute to it, what classes you've enjoyed in school--including maybe a few lines on each of your recent classes and what you've read recently; what your career goals might be).

The picture is of Guilford College in Greensboro.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 19, 2009 (boomark / email).