Good Questions to Ask During a College Interview
Questions for the last ten minutes of a college interview, when the alum or admissions officer turns it over to you. They are written to be answerable by a person rather than by a brochure, and to leave the interviewer with a clear sense of who you are.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What's your own connection to the school?
Why ask it
Start here because the answer determines which of your other questions make sense. An alum from twenty years ago can speak about how the place shaped a life; a current admissions officer can speak about the curriculum as it stands now, and they cannot swap.
What do you remember most clearly from your time there?
Why ask it
People answer this with a specific professor, dorm, or winter, and specifics are what you can follow up on. It also warms up an interviewer who has been asking the questions for the last half hour.
What surprised you once you were actually enrolled?
Why ask it
The gap between the recruiting picture and the lived one is where the useful information sits. Common answers involve workload, how competitive or cooperative classmates were, or how much the town mattered.
Is there something about the school that outsiders tend to get wrong?
Why ask it
Every school carries a reputation that its own graduates find inaccurate, whether about wealth, difficulty, or party culture. The correction tells you both about the place and about which stereotype the interviewer is tired of hearing.
From the applicants you meet, what kind of student seems to do well there?
Why ask it
Phrasing it through the applicants they meet keeps it from sounding like you are asking whether you qualify. Listen for traits rather than credentials: self-directed, comfortable asking for help, willing to be bad at something new.
I'm interested in studying [your subject]. What should I know about that department that isn't on the website?
Why ask it
Naming a real interest is the point; it gives the interviewer something concrete to write down about you. If they do not know the department, they will usually offer to find out, which creates a legitimate reason to follow up.
Do first-year students get to work closely with professors, or does that come later?
Why ask it
Access early is what separates a school that feels small from one that only claims to. Answers about research assistantships, seminars, or office hours culture are worth more than a student-to-faculty ratio.
How easy is it to take courses well outside your major?
Why ask it
Requirements, prerequisites, and capped enrolments quietly decide this. Someone who took an unrelated course and loved it will tell you how they managed it, which is the practical answer.
What did students there do with their summers?
Why ask it
Summers reveal how strong the school's connections are and how much students are expected to arrange for themselves. Answers built around a specific programme or grant tell you funding exists; answers built around going home tell you it does not.
Has the alumni network mattered in your own career?
Why ask it
This turns an abstract selling point into one person's evidence. An honest not much is useful information, and a story about a stranger taking a call is more persuasive than any statistic about network size.
What's the hardest adjustment in the first semester?
Why ask it
You are asking for a warning, which most interviewers are glad to give. Expect something about unstructured time, being surrounded by strong students for the first time, or how quickly a bad start compounds.
What do you wish you had done differently while you were there?
Why ask it
Regret produces better advice than nostalgia does. The recurring answers, going to office hours, taking the odd course, staying one summer, are also the easiest to act on if you enrol.
How much has the school changed since you were there?
Why ask it
It tests how current the interviewer's picture is, which tells you how to weigh everything else they said. It also surfaces real shifts: new requirements, growth in size, a changed neighbourhood.
If you were applying today, would you still choose it?
Why ask it
Direct without being confrontational, and the hesitation is as informative as the answer. Almost everyone says yes, so listen to the reason they give rather than the yes.
What happens after today, and when do decisions go out?
Why ask it
Interviewers write a report and rarely see the outcome, and hearing that keeps you from reading meaning into their friendliness. You also learn the actual timeline instead of guessing at it for two months.
Was there anything you expected me to bring up that I didn't?
Why ask it
Almost no applicant asks this, and it can rescue an interview where you forgot the one thing you most wanted to say. It also signals that you would rather be useful than polished.
Is there anything from earlier you'd like me to expand on?
Why ask it
A second chance at a thin answer, offered without apology. Interviewers often name the thing they will have to write about anyway, which lets you fill the gap in their notes.
What do you think I would find hardest there?
Why ask it
This asks the interviewer to apply what they just learned about you to the place they know, which is genuinely difficult and often produces the most memorable moment of the conversation. Take the answer seriously rather than defending yourself.
What's the best way to reach you if something comes up later?
Why ask it
A small, practical question that keeps the door open. Most alumni interviewers are happy to answer a later question, and the ones who are not will simply say so.
If I end up with a choice to make in the spring, what should I be comparing?
Why ask it
It closes on a forward-looking note without presuming an admission. Good interviewers answer with a criterion you had not thought of, such as who teaches the introductory courses or how easily students change direction.
Handling the Questions Portion of a College Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the Interview
Find out who is interviewing you
Alumni interviewers, current students, and admissions officers can answer completely different questions. The confirmation email usually says which one you have, and if it does not, your first question should establish it.
Prepare three questions, not ten
You will get five to ten minutes at the end and one good question with two follow-ups uses it better than a checklist. Pick one about academics, one about the person's own experience, and one about what happens next.
Do not ask anything the website answers
Enrolment size, majors offered, deadlines, and study abroad destinations are all published. Asking about them reads as not having looked, which is the one impression an interview can genuinely damage.
Have a real academic interest ready to name
You do not need a career plan, but you do need something you are curious about. It gives the interviewer something concrete to write in their report, and reports are what the admissions committee actually reads.
In the Room
- Ask a question when one occurs to you mid-conversation rather than saving everything for the end. It makes the interview a conversation, which is what the interviewer has been hoping for all afternoon.
- Follow up once on anything interesting. Most applicants ask a question, nod, and move to the next one, which makes the whole exchange feel scripted.
- Write down two or three notes, and say you are doing it. Nobody minds, and you will need the details in April.
- If you are asked whether you have questions and your mind goes blank, say so honestly and ask what they wish more applicants asked about.
- Watch the clock. If they said thirty minutes and you are at forty, offer to wrap up rather than making them do it.
What Goes Wrong
Asking about your chances
No interviewer can tell you, and most do not even learn the outcome. The question puts them in an awkward position and spends the closing minutes on something with no answer.
Asking about aid or scholarships
The interviewer has no role in financial aid and volunteering the topic can make the conversation feel transactional. Send those questions to the financial aid office, where they will actually be answered.
Asking a question you already know the answer to
Reciting a fact back as a question, so I read that you have a co-op programme, is transparent. If you want to show you researched the school, say what you found and ask what it is like in practice.
Letting a parent join in
If a parent is present for a virtual interview, they should be out of frame and silent. Interviewers routinely note when the parent answered, and it is never noted favourably.
Skipping the thank-you note
A short email the next day, mentioning one specific thing they said, takes five minutes. Alumni interviewers are volunteers and they remember which applicants wrote back.