Hi Guys,
first and foremost, good luck to all of you. This is my first ever post, so please forgive any mistakes.
I applied to UT in 2nd Round and had an on-campus interview last week. I was interviewed by a 2nd year student and it was very laid back, in fact after "resume" question it was more of a conversation.
I made one observation about a certain question, that I wanted to share:
Q: If I gave you two tickets to anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you take?
---- (Note: after asking this question, my interviewer closed her notebook and stopped taking the notes and then listened to my answer. So I don't know what to interpret of that, but I told her about my recent travel trip and where I would like to go next.)
Overall: I was asked questions, that are already mentioned by so many users on this forum. The process was really laid back and I really felt like it went well. (But then again, I might be completely wrong, lol)
I have 3 tips for anyone who is still interviewing:
Please Please Please Read your application essays! (Most of the questions they ask is what you wrote in your application, so please show some consistent reasoning.)
--- If things have changed, for example if in your essay you said I want to come to McCombs because Faculty, Sports and Small Size but if you feel different now then go ahead and mention it like "Sure, after conducting some research and talking to students, I want to come to McCombs for Faculty, Small Size and Sports and I reflected these in my essay. However, I would like to add the city of Austin as another reason because after spending some time in Austin, I feel like this is the culture where I would thrive.
What and When are not as important!!! Why and How are very important!!!
--- Don't take forever to set up background story (you are not pitching a movie idea) so do a concise job and then move along to Why and How!!??!!
--- You can't make up your WHYs so really dig deep inside and find out why you decided to do anything. Better to be naive and true then to be someone whose BS gets called out. For example: for the anywhere in the world question. There has to be one place on this Earth that you really want to see and yes it might be as cliche as saying "Barcelona" but why Barcelona should make you stand out. Maybe you like to visit Olympic Cities or you are a huge fan of Messi/Maradona, any thing that really appeals to you.
Read your resume inside out.
-- I know you have heard it like 1000 times before, however I can't emphasize how much it helped when she pointed to specific points on my resume and I knew what she was referring to.
Two fellow forum members, @anonisab and @kana162, were really encouraging and helpful when I was preparing for my interview. I would like to thank both of them for their time and help.
I would now like to pay it forward. Hence, if any of you have any questions about my background, stats or interview, please feel free to PM me and I will get back to you.