College admissions normally do not involve one to one interviews. There are many reasons for this. The most obvious is one of logistics. Most prestigious schools have way too many applicants for open admission spots. As a result, most, if not all, of the admissions decisions are made solely through a review of the materials requested by the application package. This involves your grades, transcripts, and your test scores. It also includes your admission essay. The truth is they just don’t have enough people to individually assess applicants through an interview. There are still interviews held in the case where a person is shortlisted or is waitlisted or put on a short list. The interview in this context may definitely help you. The downside is that it’s fundamentally unfair. We would not want college spots being awarded based indirectly on the fact that one applicant and his/her family could afford airplane tickets and hotel room while another applicant is not able to afford such luxuries. Be that as it may, college interviews do occur, that’s why if you do find yourself in that fairly rare position, you need to make sure that you come prepared.
So, how exactly do you relax before college admissions interview? First of all, you have to remember what the college admissions interview is for. It’s basically a means for the admission committee to personally get an idea of the answer to the overarching question behind the admissions process, “Why should we admit you instead of another applicant applying for the same spot?” It doesn’t really get any more basic than that.
It’s a very simple question. However, the admissions interview can take a lot of tricky variations to getting to that question. It may seem like a rambling free-for-all but it actually has that basic rock solid question beneath it. So, you have to always prepare your interview answers based on adequately addressing that fundamental question because admissions interviews can take all sorts of weird tangents. Many interviewees stress themselves out trying to anticipate all sorts of weird questions, trying to come up with all sorts of worse case scenarios. This whole process can get so stressful and pressure-filled that it can be quite traumatizing.
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The first step in relaxing for college admissions interview is to properly prepare. Once you’ve done all the work that you can do, you should allow yourself to relax.
However, you can only relax once you’ve already done the work. So again, the first step is to prepare. Do the work. Lay out the questions; lay out the answers; prepare your answers; practice; have many different people critic you; tweak your materials; keep editing; keep refining; put a lot more scenarios; practice talking in front of a mirror; look at people in the eye; practice your handshake; and so on and so forth. At the end of the process, after you’ve done all that work, you must allow yourself to relax. With that established, when you’ve given yourself consent to relax, we can now proceed to the next step which is, take yourself out of any stress-filled environment that reminds you of the upcoming interview. This means that you should go camping, hiking, outdoors, or concerts or some sort of indoor environment. The key is to break free mentally from a particular geographic location that reminds you of the stressful time up ahead. This does wonders for letting your mind unwind. Remember, human beings are creatures that react and act based on stimulus. And visual stimulus is very powerful. So, take yourself out of a place that reminds you of the stress and just enjoy yourself. The next step is to listen to relaxing music. Music is a very emotional component that we drink in every day. Ever noticed that if you get wound up and agitated and if you listen to certain types of music, you get calmed? That’s why it’s very important that you listen to the right kind of music, close your eyes, and just give yourself permission to relax. Finally, you have to get proper amount of sleep. We’re talking about 8 hours here. Never cheat yourself by sleeping less. I know it’s very stressful. I know that there’s a lot at stake but at the end of the day, you have to remain sane through the process because what’s the point of winning the battle if you end up losing the war?
This guest post was written by Chris Walker. He is an essay writer specializing in graduate school admissions essays. His work can be found at http://www.samplegraduateschoolessay.com/