Almost all the Ivy Leagues have alumni interviews. If you have read any of our blogs on Ivy League interviews, Princeton isn't much different from the rest of the Ivies. Princeton doesn’t provide much in the way of tips for hopeful students, so we thought we would share our top tips and tricks to help ace your Princeton interview.
What is the Princeton interview?
After you submit your application, an alum may reach out to you about an interview. The interview is not required and not all applicants will be offered an interview. If you don’t get offered an interview, it doesn’t mean you won’t get it. Pretty much you will not be penalized for not being offered one. But please do not reach out to them asking for one if they do not reach out to you. Make sure you check the email tied to your Common App account because that is probably where the alum will reach out. One note, QuestBridge National College Match applicants will not be offered an interview because of the more rapid timeline that they are on. For those who do the interview, it will most likely be an informal virtual conversation that should only last around 30-45 minutes.
Tip 1: Come prepared
Princeton does not publish any sample questions, but there are a couple of topics that will most likely come up. Such as
What are some of your interests?
What do you like to study?
Why do you want to go to Princeton?
These are all pretty standard questions that you should feel comfortable talking about. Remember, the admissions office already has your application, so try to bring new fresh answers to these questions instead of rehashing what you wrote in your supplement. If you don't feel comfortable answering these questions, try to practice talking about yourself before the interview. Have a parent, friend, or classmate do some interview practice with you.
When you answer any of these questions, you should have specific well thought out answers. For example, if they ask you why you want to go to Princeton, you can't just say, ¨because it is a good school.'' This answer doesn’t say anything about you or how well you would fit in at Princeton. Instead, your answer should be something more like, “When I took an online tour, I was very excited to learn about the Medieval Studies major at Princeton. I love that it is tied to Princeton's Impressive manuscript collection and the Index of Medieval Art. I also hope to get involved with research through the Environmental History Lab. I am currently in my High School’s comedy review so I also hope to audition for Fuzzy Dice and keep pursuing the arts outside of class.” Your answers should be detailed and specific especially when talking about what drew you to the school. If you don't have those already, do a little research and a little practice to make sure you are prepared.
Tip 2: Keep it conversational and have questions
The best interviews feel like a conversation. But how do you do that? To start, consider your answer length. It's important that you aren’t giving one-word answers. If the interviewer asks you what you do after school, your answer shouldn’t be ¨theater.” These interviewers are volunteers. They haven't gotten extensive training on how to extract information from you. They are approaching this as a thoughtful and friendly conversation. So try your best to help them out. Your answers should be around 2-5 sentences depending on the question and how much you have to say. Instead of just “theater,” think, “I do multiple things, but my favorite is being in the school's theater program. We do two plays a year and I am the lead stage manager this year and we are putting on Twelfth Night.” Giving details helps the interviewer ask follow-ups and keeps the conversation moving.
These also shouldn't feel like a one-sided conversation. You should also ask your interviewer some questions. These can come in the form of natural follow-ups or pre-thought-of questions. We would recommend doing both. Jotting down a couple of questions beforehand is a great idea. Remember, these alums might not be super recent graduates, so take what they say with a grain of salt, but they can be a valuable resource for learning more about the school.
Great questions include:
What is one thing you wish you did during your time at Princeton?
What was the best class you took?
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about Princeton?
Just don´t ask them about parties or easily googled facts and you should be great!
Tip 3: Act like it’s your dream school
Ok, so the majority of students apply to more than one top school. Many of our students even apply to more than one Ivy League, but you need to keep that to yourself for the interview. It’s unlikely the interviewer will ask you about any school that isn’t Princeton, so honestly, other schools probably won’t come up at all. However, it’s important to act like Princeton is your number 1 dream school. Princeton is looking for people who will come if accepted no matter what. They aren’t looking for people who aren’t sure if they will get into Harvard so they applied to some other Ivies as well. You should be excited about all the schools you apply to or you should be at least super willing to go there. Channel this! If you aren’t excited, it’s probably not the right school for you anyways.
Tip 4: Be nice and say thanks!
Alumni interviewers are volunteers. They are doing this because they love Princeton and want to help incoming students get in. A great way to show you appreciate them is to send a thank-you note after the interview. Even if they have already submitted your report before they see it, it’s a super polite thing to do. Also if they haven’t submitted your assessment before you send the note, all the better. TDLR: don’t wait too long before sending a note.
Tip 5: Loosen up
This is the hardest tip we give to actually do. We get it, you are probably super nervous, and telling someone to simply “loosen up” when they are nervous is hard. But interviewers don’t want to talk to robots. These interviews are partially to get a sense of who you are as a person. That means they want to see some of your personality. Obviously, you should be mature and thoughtful, but showing a little more about yourself isn't a weakness. It’s a strength. Try to not get in your head. Trying too hard to be perfect might not help as much as you had hoped!
College interviews can seem really scary, but they don’t have to be. If you are nervous about your Princeton interview, just take a step back. Do some research, prep some questions, and try to relax just a bit. Coming prepared will help you not stress as much and set you up for a great conversation! You can do this, we know you can.
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