This article covers how college interviews work, including which schools require them and which have eliminated them. You will find the 20 most common college interview questions grouped by category, with detailed guidance for each. By reading this guide, you will also learn how to prepare effectively, common mistakes to avoid, what to do after the interview concludes, and how much weight interviews actually carry in final admissions decisions.
1. How College Interviews Work
Types of Interviews
College interviews generally fall into two categories: evaluative and informational.
Evaluative interviews are more formal in structure. Interviewers submit a written report that becomes part of your application file and directly informs the admissions committee’s decision. Schools like Georgetown, Yale, Olin College, and Claremont McKenna College rely on evaluative interviews as a component of their review process.
Informational interviews are more conversational in nature. They give applicants an opportunity to learn about the institution and ask questions, but they typically do not carry direct weight in the admissions decision. However, the impression you make still matters. Word travels, and interviewers occasionally stay in contact with admissions offices beyond their formal reports.
Which Schools Require, Recommend, or Have Eliminated Interviews?
| Status | School | Details |
| Required | Georgetown | Done by more than 6,000 alumni volunteers across 200+ regional committees |
| Evaluative | CMC | Done by senior interviewers or admission staff, approximately 30 minutes |
| Evaluative | Olin College | Part of the Candidates’ Weekend for finalists |
| Evaluative/Recommended | Yale | By invitation only; Conducted by Alumni Schools Committee and senior interviewers |
| Recommended | Princeton | Princeton Schools Committee: students may opt out |
| Offered | Harvard | Conducted by alumni interviewers; not required |
| Offered | MIT | Conducted by more than 3,500 Educational Counselors worldwide |
| Eliminated | Columbia | Discontinued interviews |
| Eliminated | Brown | Eliminated in October 2022; replaced with an optional two-minute video |
Who Conducts the Interview?
At most selective schools, the interviewer will be a graduate of the school who lives near the applicant. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Georgetown all rely on alumni interviewers. MIT alone maintains a global network of more than 3,500 Educational Counselors, and Georgetown coordinates more than 6,000 alumni volunteers organized into over 200 regional committees.
Some schools take a different approach. CMC uses senior interviewers or admission staff, while Yale supplements its Alumni Schools Committee with current senior students who conduct interviews alongside alumni. This means that in some cases, your interviewer may only be a few years older than you, which can make the conversation feel considerably more relaxed.
How Long Do Interviews Last?
Most interviews run between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on the natural flow of the conversation. Some run shorter if the interviewer has a packed schedule. Others stretch longer when the conversation picks up real momentum. Do not interpret a brief interview as a bad sign, and do not let a long one rattle you either.
In Person or Virtual?
Interviews take place either in person (often at a coffee shop or library) or virtually over video call. Virtual interviews became widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic and have since remained a permanent option at most institutions. Both formats carry the same expectations. The setting changes; the substance does not.
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2. The 20 Most Common College Interview Questions
The following 20 questions come up consistently across college interviews at a wide range of institutions. For each question, you will find guidance on how to construct a strong and specific answer.
About You
Interviewers often start here to get a sense of who you are, and these questions are your chance to show personality, self-awareness, and what matters to you.
1. Tell me about yourself.
This question almost always opens the conversation and sets the tone for everything that follows. Avoid reciting a rehearsed summary of academic accomplishments or extracurricular activities. Instead, what they want is a brief personal narrative that connects a few things you care about deeply (an interest, an experience, or a longer-term aspiration) into a cohesive story about who you are.
Think of it as answering the question: “What do I want this person to walk away knowing about me?”
Sample answer: “I grew up in a family where politics was discussed at every dinner, which is likely what prompted me to found our school’s debate team during sophomore year. That experience deepened my interest in public policy, and last summer I interned at our city council office to explore those questions in a real-world context. I am excited about pursuing a degree in government and eventually working on education policy reform.”
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Pick a genuine strength and back it up with a concrete example drawn from your own experience. For weaknesses, choose one honest example and demonstrate the steps you have taken to address it. Polished responses such as “I’m a perfectionist” sound rehearsed. A more compelling answer sounds like: “I used to avoid asking for help, as I initially saw it as a sign that I had not worked hard enough. Over time, I’ve learned that seeking guidance from teachers and peers is part of the learning process.”
3. What do you do for fun?
This question is an invitation to reveal who you are outside the classroom. Talk about hobbies, interests, or pursuits that genuinely excite you. As a Harvard student blogger put it: “Your interviewer volunteered to talk to you to become your friend. They want to know about what you do after school, what makes you tick.”
4. Tell me about an influential person in your life.
Choose someone specific and explain clearly what that person taught you or how they changed the way you think. This could be a family member, a teacher, a coach, or a mentor. Resist the urge to spend most of your answer describing who the person is and focus on the impact they had on how you see the world or on how you approach challenges.
5. What has made you stick with an interest for years?
Interviewers are far more interested in sustained commitment than a long list of activities. Reflect on what initially drew you to the interest, what kept you engaged through periods of difficulty, and how your understanding of that interest has deepened over time. An applicant who has spent three years seriously studying jazz piano and can articulate how that shaped their discipline and ear for detail will stand out far more than someone who lists twelve activities with nothing substantial to say about any of them.
Academic Interests
These questions test whether an applicant is genuinely curious about learning or simply collecting credentials.
6. What do you plan to major in and why?
Connect your intended major to a specific experience or defining moment that sparked your interest. If you are undecided, that is entirely acceptable. Discuss the subjects and intellectual questions that excite you most and explain why you want to explore them further in university. For example, “I keep returning to questions about how economic policy affects access to healthcare, and I want a program that lets me study both.”
7. What are your academic strengths?
Describe what you are skilled at within that discipline and support it with a concrete example. “I’m strong in math” communicates very little. “I find satisfaction in working through mathematical proofs because I enjoy building a logical argument step by step, where every claim has to be justified before you can move forward,” communicates both competence and intellectual character.
8. What is your favorite class and why?
Pick a class that genuinely engaged you and explain precisely what made it stand out. Was it the instructor’s approach to discussion? A particular text or project that shifted your thinking? The more specific you are, the more memorable your answer will be.
9. Tell me about a book that has influenced you.
Choose a book you have actually read and can talk about with confidence, then explain how it made you see the world differently. This does not have to be a classic novel or any canonical literary work. It could be a nonfiction book, a graphic novel, or a book from an unexpected genre that can serve as compelling evidence of intellectual engagement, provided you can speak about it with real substance. Saying a book changed your perspective means nothing without explaining specifically how and why.
10. Describe a challenging academic experience and how you handled it.
Be honest about a time you struggled. Maybe you performed poorly on an examination, fell behind in a demanding course, or took on a subject that was harder than expected. What matters most to the interviewer is not the difficulty itself, but the actions you took in response and the lessons you took away from the experience. Vulnerability handled with self-awareness is far more compelling than a polished story with no real conflict.
Why This School
These questions reward applicants who have done thorough, specific research. Interviewers can tell immediately whether you have done your homework in familiarizing yourself with the institution or are giving a generic answer.
11. Why do you want to attend this college?
Reference specific programs, professors, courses, campus traditions, or other opportunities that appeal to you. Explain how they connect to your interests and long-term goals. The ones who stand out are the ones who mention the specific professor whose research they have read, or the undergraduate journal they want to write for, or the January-term program they have been thinking about since sophomore year.
Sample answer: “I am passionate about environmental science, and I noticed that your school has a field research station where undergrads can do hands-on work starting sophomore year, which is rare at most institutions I have looked into. I also talked to a current student who told me about the sustainability committee, which is something I’d want to join right away.”
12. What do you know about our school?
Mention something specific you learned about the school beyond the first page of its website. Reference something specific and substantive that you discovered through real research, whether through conversations with current students or attendance at information sessions. The more specific the detail, the more convincingly it signals that your interest in this school is deliberate and not performative.
13. What will you contribute to this college?
Think carefully about what you bring to a campus community on top of what you have already accomplished. Perhaps you have a habit of organizing collaborative study groups, organizing events, or bringing a perspective shaped by your distinctive background. Be concrete about how you intend to get involved and what you hope to offer. This is also a good moment to connect your answer back to specific student organizations or campus initiatives you have already researched.
Extracurriculars
Interviewers are not looking for the longest or most impressive list of activities. They want to understand what an applicant actually cares about and what lessons their involvement has produced.
14. Tell me about your extracurricular activities.
Resist the temptation to enumerate every activity in your application. Pick two or three activities and speak substantively about what you actually do, what you have learned, and why those activities matter to you. Remember: The quality of reflection always outweighs the quantity of accomplishments. As MIT admissions officer Melissa Cao advises: “Don’t feel like you need to only talk about STEM-related things the whole time.”
15. What is your most meaningful extracurricular experience?
Choose one activity and go deep. What is a specific moment or accomplishment that stands out when you reflect on your involvement? How has your experience shaped your values and character? Avoid speaking in vague terms about leadership or teamwork. Interviewers have heard those words thousands of times. Specific moments and honest reflections are what make an answer worth remembering.
16. What kind of community service do you do?
Describe any service work you have undertaken and reflect on what it meant to you. If you have not engaged in formal community service, think about other ways you have contributed to your community, whether through tutoring, mentoring younger students, or helping at home.
Future Goals
Applicants are not expected to arrive with a perfectly mapped career plan. Interviewers want to see evidence of real reflection about the future, even if some details are still forming.
17. What do you hope to gain from your undergraduate experience?
Think beyond academics. Perhaps you want to conduct original research, pursue a semester abroad, join a specific student organization, or simply be around people from different backgrounds and perspectives. Show that you have thought seriously about what college means to you beyond getting a degree.
18. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Share a general direction and explain why it holds meaning for you. Acknowledging uncertainty about the specific details is entirely appropriate, provided you can talk with conviction about the kind of work or life you find meaningful. If your goals have changed over time, that itself is worth mentioning too. Growth and reconsideration are not signs of instability; they are signs of a student who takes their own development seriously.
19. Is there anything else you would like us to know?
This open-ended question is your chance to share something important that did not come up naturally during the conversation. You might address a personal circumstance that provides important context for your application, describe a project you are proud of, or highlight a quality that your application does not fully capture. If you feel the interview covered everything, it is fine to say so briefly and thank the interviewer.
Situational
Behavioral questions test how an applicant handles real situations. The best answers follow a clear pattern: describe the situation, explain the actions you took, and share what you learned.
20. Tell me about a time you faced a challenge or failure and what you learned.
Pick a real challenge, describe what happened without sugarcoating it, and devote the majority of your answer to what you learned or how you grew as a result. Avoid making it sound like everything worked out perfectly. Interviewers appreciate honesty and respond far more positively to candid self-reflection than to polished narratives in which everything ultimately worked out perfectly. The willingness to sit with a difficult experience and draw something honest from it is itself a quality that strong candidates consistently demonstrate.
3. How to Prepare for Your College Interview
Research the School
Before your interview, spend time on the school’s website reading about specific programs, campus culture, traditions, and recent news. Go further than the homepage. Read faculty research pages, explore course catalogs, look up the student newspaper, and, if possible, speak with a current student. Interviewers can tell immediately whether your familiarity with the school is deep or surface-level.
Practice , But Do Not Memorize
Run through common questions with a friend or family member. The goal is to feel comfortable talking about your own experiences and ideas, not to memorize scripted answers. Georgetown notes that “interviewers are not looking for any specific information about the applicant; rather, they seek to have a general conversation.” Additionally, as MIT admissions officer Melissa Cao writes: “It really helps if you have things in mind to talk about and can elaborate on your answers with details or examples.”
Prepare Two to Three Questions to Ask
Your interviewer will almost certainly invite you to ask questions. Prepare two or three thoughtful responses that reflect genuine curiosity about the institution and your interviewer’s experience there. Ask about what surprised them upon their first arrival, or what they wish they had known as a student. These conversations often become the most memorable part of the interview for both parties. Avoid questions you could easily answer by looking at the school’s website.
Reflect on Your Experiences
Before the interview, mentally list down your activities, classes, and experiences. Identify a few stories or examples you can draw on for different types of questions. You do not need to plan exact answers, but having a mental library of moments to reference will help you respond naturally rather than reaching for vague generalities under pressure.
What to Wear
Business casual is a safe choice: a clean shirt, nice pants or a skirt, and closed-toe shoes. You want to look put-together without looking like you are going to a job interview at a law firm. But when in doubt, gear on the slightly more formal side rather than the slightly less.
Tips for Virtual Interviews
If your interview takes place over video call, test all technology in advance. Make sure all your devices and your internet connection work. Choose a quiet, well-lit space with a clean background. Direct your gaze toward the camera when speaking to simulate eye contact and attentiveness, and keep your phone out of reach for the duration of the conversation.
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4. What to Do After Your College Interview
Send a Thank-You Email Within 24 Hours
After your interview, send a brief and sincere thank-you message to your interviewer. Express appreciation for their time, mention something specific from your conversation to demonstrate that you were genuinely attentive, and keep the message concise. This is a small gesture that shows maturity and appreciation.
Reflect on the Conversation
Take a few minutes to jot down what you talked about, what went well, and what you might want to improve for your next interview. Be honest with yourself in this reflection. If you avoided a question, answered too vaguely, or missed an opportunity to share something important, note it. If you are interviewing at multiple schools, this reflection will help you get better with each one.
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