Questions to Ask Stanford Interviewer
Twenty questions an applicant can ask at the end of a Stanford interview, most often a conversation with an alum. They cover what the place was actually like day to day, what the interviewer found hard, and what happens once the call ends. Pick three or four rather than working through the list.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How did you end up at Stanford, and did it turn out to be what you expected?
Why ask it
An easy opener that gets the interviewer talking about themselves, which is what most of them hoped the conversation would include. The gap they describe between expectation and reality is the useful part, and it is usually more candid than anything in a brochure because they are describing a disappointment they have since made peace with.
What was the first thing about being there that surprised you?
Why ask it
Surprise is specific in a way that opinion is not. You tend to get one concrete detail, the pace, the cost of everything nearby, how many people were quietly working on a startup, that tells you more about daily life than a general verdict on the school.
Which class or professor do you still think about?
Why ask it
Filters for what actually stuck years later rather than what looked good in the course catalogue. Someone who cannot name one, or who names a famous person without saying anything about the teaching, is telling you their time there was mostly social or extracurricular, which is worth knowing before you build your own expectations.
How did you find the people you got closest to?
Why ask it
Belonging at a large university comes down to a mechanism: a dorm, a lab, a team, a job. Ask for the mechanism and you learn which structures do the work there. Vague answers about everyone being friendly usually mean the person arrived already knowing someone.
What is the workload actually like week to week?
Why ask it
Most applicants ask whether it is hard, which invites a reassuring yes. Asking for the shape of a week gets you hours, deadlines and how much sleep people lose. Note whether they describe the load as steady or spiky; the two demand completely different habits from you.
What did you spend your time on outside of classes?
Why ask it
The unstructured hours are where students at demanding schools either build something or drift. Their answer shows how much room the schedule actually leaves. If everything they name is resume shaped, that tells you something about the culture they were in.
How easy was it to change direction once you had started down one path?
Why ask it
Switching majors, labs or advisers is one of the few things you cannot judge from outside, and it matters enormously if your interests are still moving. Listen for whether they describe a process or a favour, because a system that depends on knowing the right person works badly for new arrivals.
Did you work with faculty outside of class, and how did that start?
Why ask it
You are asking for the mechanics: an email, an office hour, a posted position, a friend's introduction. That answer is directly actionable if you enrol. If they never did, ask what stopped them, since the barrier they name is likely still there.
What is campus like on an ordinary Tuesday rather than a big weekend?
Why ask it
Admissions materials are built out of the exceptional days. You will live the ordinary ones. This question routinely produces the honest detail that people scatter to libraries and empty out mid-week, or the opposite, and either answer tells you whether the social life is something that happens to you or something you have to organise.
How much did the area around campus shape your time there?
Why ask it
Location can be an asset or a cost depending on your money and your interests. Watch for whether they talk about internships and proximity to industry, or about how expensive it was to leave campus. Both are true for different students, and which one they lead with reveals the kind of student they were.
What was hard about being there that people outside do not hear about?
Why ask it
This is the question that separates a real conversation from a recruitment pitch, and most alumni will answer it if you ask plainly and do not flinch. Expect something about pressure, comparison or the effort of appearing effortless. If they say nothing was hard, the rest of their answers deserve less weight.
How competitive did it feel between students?
Why ask it
Every school claims collaboration, so ask about the feeling rather than the policy. The revealing detail is where competition showed up: grades, internships, club admissions, funding. A person who names the arena is describing something they lived through rather than repeating a line.
What do you wish you had done in your first year?
Why ask it
Regret is a cheap source of advice and people give it generously. The answers cluster around a few things, taking the intimidating class, asking for help sooner, saying no to one commitment, and the specific version they choose tells you what the environment punishes.
How did going there change what you did afterwards, concretely?
Why ask it
Push for the mechanism rather than the halo: a specific introduction, a recruiting pipeline, a skill, a credential that opened one door. Vague answers about doors opening usually mean the benefit was reputational, which is worth knowing honestly rather than assumed.
Are you still in touch with people from there, and how does that show up?
Why ask it
Alumni networks are described in the abstract and experienced in the particular. Asking how it shows up gets you real instances or a polite silence, and the silence is informative. Note also that they are volunteering their evening to talk to you, which is one answer already.
What kind of student do you think has a hard time there?
Why ask it
Easier to answer than asking who succeeds, because it does not require them to praise anyone. The pattern they describe, the person who needs structure, the person who will not ask for help, the person who came only for the name, is something you can honestly measure yourself against before you commit.
If you were applying now, what would you do differently?
Why ask it
Their answer says as much about what they value as about admissions, and you should treat the advice as dated: an alum from a decade ago is guessing about the current process. Useful as perspective, not as strategy. What often comes out is that they would worry less about a specific thing they worried about a lot.
Is there anything I have said that you would like me to expand on?
Why ask it
A direct offer to clear up whatever landed thinly. Interviewers frequently take it, because they are writing a report and would rather write an accurate one. If the answer is no, you have lost nothing and shown that you would rather be understood than flattered.
What happens after this conversation?
Why ask it
Practical, and it prevents you from reading meaning into silence for weeks. The answer is often that they write a short report and have no further part in the decision, which is worth hearing plainly. It also stops you emailing them later with questions they cannot answer.
Is there anything you would want to know that I have not had a chance to tell you?
Why ask it
Closes by handing them the last word while giving yourself one more opening. Keep it genuinely open rather than using it as a launchpad for a rehearsed anecdote, which experienced interviewers notice immediately. Sometimes they name a gap in your file, and that is the single most useful sentence you will get.
Using these in the interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparing
- Find out who you are speaking with. An alum volunteering their time can tell you what the place felt like; an admissions staff member can tell you about process. Asking either one for what the other knows wastes your turn.
- Choose three or four questions and know which one you will lead with. Interviews run short more often than long, and the questions usually come at the end when time is thin.
- Cut anything answerable from the website. Deadlines, requirements and course lists are the fastest way to look unprepared.
- Write your questions down and bring the paper. Reading one out is fine and looks like preparation, not weakness.
Listening to the answers
Ask for the instance, not the average
"Was the community supportive?" gets you a yes. "When did you last hear from someone you met there?" gets you a story with a date in it. Whenever an answer starts sounding like a slogan, ask for the last time it happened.
Follow one answer instead of moving down your list
The best part of most interviews is the second question about the same subject. If they mention something they found hard, ask what they did about it. Working through four unrelated questions reads as a checklist.
Notice how old their information is
An alum's picture of the place is fixed at the year they left. Ask when they graduated early on, then discount anything about current programmes, housing or admissions accordingly, while trusting them completely on what the experience felt like.
What to avoid
Asking about your chances
Most interviewers have no role in the decision and no way to estimate odds. The question puts them in an awkward position and uses up the goodwill you would rather spend on a real answer.
Turning a question into a speech
A long preamble explaining why you are asking signals that you want to be heard rather than to learn something. Ask the question in one sentence and stop talking.
Only asking about prestige and outcomes
Questions purely about rankings, salaries and brand tell the interviewer what you are shopping for. Mix in at least one about the ordinary experience of being a student, which is the part you will actually live.
Pretending to have no questions
Saying you have none reads as indifference or as a failure to prepare, even when you genuinely feel your research was thorough. One specific question is enough.
Afterwards
Send a short thank you
A few sentences within a day, naming one thing they said that changed how you think about the place. Short and specific is better than long and grateful, and it should not include any new argument for your candidacy.
Write down what you learned while it is fresh
Note the concrete details, workload, how people found their friends, what was hard, in your own words. If you are comparing several schools, these notes will be the only thing that distinguishes them by spring.
Do not follow up repeatedly
One thank you is correct. Further emails asking for status put a volunteer in the position of explaining that they have no information, which leaves a worse impression than silence would.