How Interviews Can Help Your College Application

By Maya Katsovich, 2024

Published 11/20/23

As students apply to colleges, many want to demonstrate interest in their top schools to increase their chances of acceptance. There are many ways to make yourself known to a college, like attending college representative visits right here at CHS’ College and Career Center, touring a campus, or even joining virtual information sessions of a university. One extremely beneficial way to show interest is scheduling an interview with a college you like. 

Interviews can help the college gain more insight into your interests and personality. From my experience, prospective students are usually interviewed by current students at the college/university. This eases the nerves that may come with being interviewed and makes it feel more like a conversation to get to know another person! Being yourself in an interview can help colleges put a face to your name when reviewing your college application. It also can add to what you already have in the application (your activities, essay(s), transcript, etc.) because you can express what your favorite subjects in school are, your strengths, and other personality traits that define you! 

It can be equally helpful to interview with a college to see how you like it! Having that one-on-one meeting with a college student can help you gain insight into their perspective on the school, what clubs and activities they’re involved in, and even advice they may have for you. In many cases, there will be time at the end of the interview for you to ask the interviewer questions. During both of my interview experiences, I found it valuable to hear how the college students connect to any of the topics I had mentioned, and also how they are part of the community on their college campus. 

Finding and applying to colleges can be a long, tedious process, and interviews are just one way to help you through it!