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Admission Interviews: Purpose and Preparation

Courtney Stricklin Burgan

Sr. Associate Dean of Admission at Occidental College

Cindy Montgomery

Associate Director of College Counseling at Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy

Introductions

Courtney

name/pronoun, title, 12 years at Occidental and 20 years in higher ed (11 years career services)

Oversee all of admission programming including campus visits, campus events, off-campus receptions, interviews and overseeing the 300+ alumni and parent volunteers and Oxy team of admission officers.

Cindy

Here to talk about interviews because this is often a murky or unexplained piece of the application process, and definitely something that students may not understand. It’s also not always clear even how important interviews are in the admissions process. So our hope is that today we can clarify the purpose of admission interviews while also offering some advice about how to support students who take advantage of this option. It’s important to Cindy and I that this is a conversation, so we’d love to get to know everyone here:

Attendees:

Name, school

If HS, do your students already take advantage of interviews?
If college, does your institution offer interviews?

QUICK OXY INTRO

About Oxy (brochures available if anyone is interested)

2000 students, NorthEast LA

Residential college with students from 47 states and 34 countries (Hawaii usually a top 10 state)

51% first-year students of color (domestic)

10-15% int’l or dual citizens each year

Meet 100% financial need, merit scholarships awarded to approximately 30% of applicants (between 10-35k)

Highly selective, holistic review (common app)

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

OCCIDENTAL INTERVIEW STATISTICS

1000-1500 interviews conducted per year out of 6500-7500 applications

2025: 8 students from Hawaii requested interviews out of 74 applicants (9th most popular state for applications)

35-40% regular decision acceptance rate at Occidental
55-60% acceptance rate of students who interviewed with Occidental (as high as ED!)

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

COLLEGE PERSPECTIVE

Evaluation of the candidate
Public Relations for the College

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Self advocacy
College Research
Demonstrated Interest

Because interviews really serve two purposes:

Schools learn more about applicants. Conversations that aren’t part of the application - favorite classes, projects, reasons to get involved in activities, meaningful experiences that don’t make as much sense on paper, etc.
I’ll show you an example of our interview report at Oxy, but these notes all get added to the application, like extra credit for admission. We know our students love extra credit!
Students are meeting another membre of our community, we’ll go into who in a minute. But they also get to talk to someone who had their own Oxy experience. Don’t have to talk admission word for it.
The ultimate demonstrated interest! Especially at schools like Oxy where as student has to request an interview, this is a huge indicator of someone who is genuinely excited about us. For any highly selective institution we are struggling with low acceptance rates and trying to guess who really wants to be here. Students who take the time to interview have a huge advantage in the process, as you saw by that higher acceptance rate.

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

INTERVIEW TIMING

Before the application is submitted
After the application is submitted

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

INTERVIEWERS

Senior Fellows/Admission Ambassadors
Alumni Volunteers
Admission Officers

INTERVIEW LOCATIONS

Online
On-campus
Off-campus

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

INTERVIEWER TRAINING AND PREPARATION

Volunteer & staff training, in-person and online
Interview specific guidelines, provided in advance and at time of first interview

Including sample interview questions & sample interview reports

Limited student details collected in the interview request form

Academic interest, extracurricular interests, questions about the college
Interviewers do not have access to the application materials

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INTERVIEW REPORT FORM

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Why Oxy? What brings you here today?
How would you describe your high school?
What classes are you most excited about this year?
What class has been the most challenging during your time in high school?
If you could repeat high school, is there anything you would do differently?
If you could change one thing at your high school, what would it be?
How do you spend your time outside of class?

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Admission Interviews: Purpose

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

How do you typically spend your summer? OR What are you doing this summer?
If you could only do one of your activities/hobbies/extra-curriculars, what would it be?
If Aliens landed on earth, what song/book/movie would you recommend to introduce them to humanity?
Do you have any questions for me?
Is there anything you didn’t get to tell me that you would like to share before you go?

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Admission Interviews: Preparation

WHY IS PREPARATION IMPORTANT?

Getting the most out of this opportunity!

Admission interviews are not the same as job interviews, so even students that have previous interview experience may not be prepared for this process

Having a plan for asking questions in a one-on-one setting
Being ready to advocate for oneself

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Admission Interviews: Preparation

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A COLLEGE INTERVIEW

BE GENUINE!
Go over possible questions beforehand

Good idea to prepare an outline but avoid memorizing a script

Make a list of questions about the college/university and the interviewer’s experience

Two to three questions is plenty!

Dress nice, but not necessarily formal

Students will be most themselves when they are comfortable in what they are wearing

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Admission Interviews: Preparation

WHO SHOULD INTERVIEW?

Everyone!
But… more specifically

Students who are really interested in the college/university
Students of color and/or students of any marginalized identity (traditionally have lower participation rates in admission interviews)
Students with lived experiences that would benefit from additional explanation

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Admission Interviews: Preparation

WHO SHOULD NOT INTERVIEW?

Students who struggle with in-person interactions
Students who are not applying to colleges with a holistic admission process or only to colleges that do not offer interviews
Students who do not take the time to prepare

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Admission Interviews: Preparation

FINAL THOUGHTS

Rarely will drastically change an admission decision in a negative way but can absolutely have a positive impact on a student’s application
A positive interview experience will also allow a student to learn more about the college/university and can support them to be better prepared in their application

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Thank You!

Courtney Stricklin Burgan

cstricklin@oxy.edu

(323) 259-2540

Cindy Montgomery

cmontgomery@hpa.edu

(808) 881-4062