Questions to Ask a Stanford Interviewer
Stanford's undergraduate interview is an optional conversation with an alum who volunteers to meet applicants, and part of the time is yours. Here are 47 questions to ask a Stanford interviewer, grouped by subject: their own years there, classes and the quarter system, daily life on campus, the hard parts, what came after graduation, and the interview itself. Each has a note on what the answer tells you or what to ask next. Pick three or four you would truly like answered; nobody expects you to work through the list.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Their Stanford
Why did you choose Stanford, and was it what you expected once you got there?
Why ask it
The first half is easy to answer and takes them back to being an applicant, which is where you are now. The second half is the one to listen to: whatever turned out different from the picture they applied with is likely missing from your picture too.
What did you study, and do you use it in the work you do now?
Why ask it
You come away with their field and their job, two facts that help you aim every later question. The route between the two is rarely straight, so ask which turn they did not plan. That turn is usually where the degree mattered, or where it stopped mattering.
What is your best memory from Stanford?
Why ask it
Leave it this open and see what they reach for. A seminar, a dorm hallway at two in the morning and a team bus are three different universities, and the one they pick shows where the place put its weight for them. Follow with who else was there.
What surprised you most in your first quarter there?
Why ask it
Surprise is specific in a way that opinion is not. You tend to get one concrete detail, the pace, the price of everything nearby, how many classmates already had a side project, and it describes daily life better than a general verdict on the school would.
Why did you start interviewing applicants for Stanford?
Why ask it
Alumni interviewers are volunteers, so the reason is usually a fond one: a debt they feel, a wish to stay close to the place, curiosity about who is applying now. It is also a question about them that has nothing to do with your application, and the conversation tends to loosen after it.
How did you find the people you got closest to?
Why ask it
Belonging at a large university comes down to something practical: a dorm, a lab, a team, a campus job. Their answer names which of those did the work for them. If all you hear is that everyone was friendly, ask where they met the first person they would still call.
If you were choosing again today, would you still pick Stanford?
Why ask it
A fast yes is common and still worth having. The answers to learn from are the conditional ones: yes, but in a different major, or yes, though a smaller college might have suited me better at eighteen. Asking what the other choice was at the time gets you a real comparison.
What makes Stanford different from the schools it gets compared with?
Why ask it
This works best on an alum who also studied somewhere else, or who now works alongside graduates of other schools, because they can compare from experience. Anyone else is setting Stanford against a reputation. The part to keep is wherever they saw the difference for themselves.
Classes
Which class or professor do you still think about?
Why ask it
Years on, what stays is rarely the famous course. Listen for what the teacher did, not only who it was: a seminar that argued back, a problem set that took a whole weekend, a comment on a paper. A long pause may mean their strongest memories are outside the classroom, and you can go there instead.
What was the workload like in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
Asking whether Stanford is hard invites a reassuring yes. Asking for one week gets you hours, deadlines and how much sleep people lost. Notice whether they describe the load as steady or spiky, because the two call for different habits.
How did the quarter system feel, with a new set of classes every ten weeks or so?
Why ask it
Stanford runs on quarters, so midterms arrive within a few weeks of the first lecture and a slow start leaves little room to recover. People tend to have loved the variety or felt permanently behind. Ask which quarter of the year was hardest for them and why.
When did you settle on a major, and what tipped the decision?
Why ask it
Stanford undergraduates have traditionally declared a major after arriving, not on the application, so this may be a decision you get to make late. Check the current rule on the admission site. From the alum, what you want is the thing that decided it: one class, one professor, or simply running out of time.
How easy was it to switch majors or change direction partway through?
Why ask it
This is hard to judge from outside and matters most if your interests are still moving. Listen for whether they describe a form or a favor. A switch that depended on knowing the right person is harder for someone who has just arrived.
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 is something you could copy in your own first year. If they never did, ask what stopped them, since the barrier they name may still be there.
How big were your classes in the first year, and when did they get smaller?
Why ask it
Introductory courses in popular subjects can fill a lecture hall anywhere, and the useful fact is the year the rooms shrank. Stanford has long run small seminars for first-year students, and places in them have usually had to be requested ahead of the quarter. If your interviewer took one, find out how they got in.
Stanford is known for engineering and computer science. What was it like for people studying something else?
Why ask it
Students there have long sorted themselves, half joking, into "techies" and "fuzzies": engineering and science on one side, humanities and social sciences on the other. A smaller department can mean close attention from faculty, and it can also mean being outnumbered at dinner. Whichever side your interviewer was on, ask what their friends on the other side used to say.
Did you spend a quarter away from campus, abroad or somewhere else?
Why ask it
Short terms make it easier to leave for one without falling a year behind. Ask what going cost them back on campus: a housing spot, a course sequence, a place on a team. If they never went, the reason they stayed is just as much use to you.
Who did you go to for academic advice, and was it any good?
Why ask it
The advisor on the form and the person students rely on are often two different people. In practice it is frequently an older student in the dorm or a teaching assistant. Someone who worked it out alone can usually name the wrong turn that cost them a quarter.
Daily life
What did you spend your time on outside of classes?
Why ask it
The hours nobody schedules are where students at a demanding school either build something or drift. Their answer shows how much room the week left. If everything they name would fit on a resume, you have learned something about the crowd they were in.
What was campus like on an ordinary Tuesday night?
Why ask it
Tours and admit weekends show the exceptional days, and you would be living the ordinary ones. Some alumni describe everyone vanishing into libraries by Tuesday, others a dorm lounge that was never empty. Either way you find out whether a social life turned up at your door or had to be arranged.
Where did you live, and how much did your dorm shape your first year?
Why ask it
First-year friendships tend to start within a few doors of your room, so the housing setup matters more than it sounds. Stanford has reorganized how it assigns housing more than once, so take their account as history and look up how it works now. What carries over is how much of their life the dorm ended up holding.
How much did the area around campus shape your time there?
Why ask it
Being in the middle of Silicon Valley is an asset or a cost depending on your money and your interests. Some alumni talk about internships a short ride away. Others remember how expensive it was to do anything off campus. Both are true, and the one they lead with says which student they were.
How did you get around, on campus and off it?
Why ask it
A small question with a practical answer. The campus is big enough that a bicycle comes up in almost every account, and getting off it without a car is another matter. If you will not have one, ask how people reached a grocery store, an airport or San Francisco.
Which Stanford traditions did you take part in, and which did you skip?
Why ask it
Every tour lists the traditions. An alum can say which ones students turned up for, whether that was the Big Game against Cal or an afternoon of fountain hopping, and which survive mainly on the website. The ones they skipped, and why, show how much school spirit was expected of them.
How much did sports matter to people who were not on a team?
Why ask it
Stanford fields a lot of varsity teams, yet students differ widely on whether game days shaped their week. You are asking whether athletics was background or center stage. If you hope to play, turn it around and ask how athletes and everyone else mixed.
Could you tell, day to day, whose family had money and whose did not?
Why ask it
Whether everyone got along only ever earns a yes, so ask what could be seen. Spring break plans, meals off campus and unpaid summer internships are the usual places. If your interviewer never noticed, that is an answer too, and worth putting to a current student as well.
The hard parts
What was hard about being there that people outside do not hear about?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly and wait; this is the point where the conversation stops sounding like a recruiting pitch. Expect something about pressure, comparison or the effort of appearing effortless. If they say nothing was hard, they may have forgotten, or they may see the interview as a chance to sell the place, and you can lean on their other answers a little less.
People talk about "duck syndrome" at Stanford. Did that match what you saw?
Why ask it
The phrase means looking calm on the surface while paddling hard underneath, and students there have used it for years. What you want is whether they felt it themselves, and whether anyone around them said so out loud at the time. An answer that is only about other people is still an answer; let it stand.
How competitive did it feel between students?
Why ask it
Every school claims collaboration, so ask about the feeling and not the policy. The detail to wait for is where competition showed up: grades, internships, getting into clubs, research funding. A person who can name the arena is describing something they lived through, and you can then find out whether it reached their friendships.
How strong was the pull toward tech and startups for people who arrived wanting something else?
Why ask it
The industry next door is part of the appeal, and it also tugs. Ask whether they watched friends change plans because of it, and whether those friends were glad afterwards. If that world is what you already want, ask the opposite: how early people started, and what a latecomer missed.
Where did students turn when a quarter was going badly?
Why ask it
You are hoping for a place or a person: a resident assistant, a dean, a counseling service, a friend's couch. Their knowledge of the official services is as old as their degree, so look those up yourself. What they can say is whether asking for help was ordinary or something people hid.
What kind of student do you think has a hard time there?
Why ask it
Easier to answer than who succeeds, because nobody has to be praised. They will describe a type: the person who needs structure, the person who will not ask for help, the person who came only for the name. Measure yourself against it honestly before you commit.
What would you tell someone about to start their first year at Stanford?
Why ask it
Advice from an alum is mostly regret turned around, and people give it freely. It tends to cluster around a few things: taking the intimidating class, asking for help sooner, saying no to one commitment. The version they choose shows what the place was hardest on.
What is one thing about Stanford you would change?
Why ask it
A complaint from someone who loved the place is worth more than praise from the same person. Give them a moment, because the first answer tends to be a joke about parking or dining hall food. The second is the real one, and it often names something the university is still arguing about.
What is the biggest myth about Stanford students?
Why ask it
This lets them correct the caricature, whichever one they are tired of: that everyone codes, that nobody works hard in the sunshine, that it is all one type of person. Notice which myth they pick. Often it is the one people applied to them.
After graduation
What is one thing in your career that happened because you went to Stanford?
Why ask it
Asking for one thing pushes past the halo to how it worked: a specific introduction, a recruiter who only visited certain campuses, a skill, a line on a resume that opened one door. If nothing specific comes, the benefit was probably the name, and it is better to hear that than to assume more.
What did you do in your summers, and how did you find those things?
Why ask it
Summers are where a degree starts turning into a first job, and the route matters more than the title. A campus program, a professor's grant, a cold email and a parent's friend are very different answers. If the university paid for any of it, ask how hard that money was to get.
Did you or your friends stay on for a coterminal master's?
Why ask it
Stanford lets undergraduates apply to start a master's degree alongside the bachelor's, which students call a coterm. An alum can say who did it and whether the extra time paid off. Eligibility and cost are set by the university and can change, so confirm both there.
What did the people you graduated with end up doing?
Why ask it
One person's career is an anecdote. A dorm floor's worth of them starts to be a pattern. You will hear whether their friends scattered into many fields or mostly went the same two or three ways, a detail that published outcome figures tend to flatten.
Looking back, what did the people who got the most out of Stanford do differently?
Why ask it
This is the usual question about who thrives, put to someone who has seen how it turned out. With a few years' distance the answer is often a habit and not a talent: going to office hours, changing plans early, joining one thing and staying. Whatever they list is a short plan for your own first year.
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 lived in the particular. Asking how it shows up gets you real instances or a polite silence, and the silence counts. They are also giving up their own time to talk to you, which is one answer already.
What is different at Stanford now from when you were a student?
Why ask it
Partly a courtesy, since it lets them admit what they no longer know. It also dates everything else they have told you. An alum who follows the place closely will mention new buildings, new requirements or a change to housing. One who does not is giving you a portrait of an earlier decade.
The interview
If you were applying now, what would you do differently?
Why ask it
Treat the advice as dated: an alum from ten years back is guessing about the current process. As perspective it is still good. What often comes out is that they would worry less about one particular thing that consumed them at seventeen, and it may be the thing consuming you.
From what I have told you today, what at Stanford do you think I should look into?
Why ask it
Save this for late in the conversation, when they know enough about you to answer. A specific suggestion, a program, a student group, a professor's work, is something you can look up that evening. A general one may mean you have not yet said plainly what you care about.
Is there anything about Stanford I seem to have the wrong idea about?
Why ask it
It takes some nerve, and it only works once you have said enough about why you want to go. The correction is usually small and gently put: a program that has ended, a reputation that is out of date. Thank them and do not argue the point.
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 open; do not use it to launch a rehearsed story. The interviewer writes a report afterwards and may name the one thing they are unsure how to describe, which is your chance to say it clearly.
What happens after this conversation?
Why ask it
Practical, and it keeps you from reading meaning into weeks of silence. 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 saves you from emailing them later with questions only the admission office can answer.
Using these in the interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Preparing
- Know who you are meeting. For undergraduate applicants the Stanford interviewer is an alum who volunteers, not an admission officer. They can describe what the place felt like; they cannot speak for the admission office on process, deadlines or your chances.
- Assume they have not read your application. Stanford has said that its alumni interviewers do not see the file, that the interview is optional and offered only where volunteers are available, and that not being offered one does not count against you. Check the admission site for how the program runs this year.
- Choose three or four questions and know which one you will lead with. Your turn usually comes at the end, when time is thin.
- Draw from more than one group. One about their own years, one from the hard parts and one about the interview itself makes a better set than three about classes.
- Cut anything answerable from the website. Deadlines, requirements and course lists are the fastest way to look unprepared.
- Write your questions down and keep the page where you can see it, on the table or beside the screen. Reading one out is fine and looks like preparation, not weakness.
- These are written for the undergraduate alumni interview. Stanford's graduate programs run interviews on their own terms, so for one of those keep the questions about the person and swap the ones about dorms and majors for questions about the program.
What a Stanford interviewer is likely to ask you
- Each alum runs the conversation their own way, so there is no list to memorize. Expect open questions and a talk, not a quiz.
- Have something to say about what you are curious about: an idea, a subject or a problem you keep returning to, and what you have done about it beyond assigned work.
- Be ready for why Stanford. An answer built on something particular, a program, a way of teaching, one person's research, holds up better than one about rank or weather.
- Expect to be asked how you spend your time and what you would want to do on campus. One activity described in detail says more than a list of six.
- Because the interviewer has not seen your application, you may find yourself repeating what is in it. Tell it as you would to someone hearing it for the first time, because they are.
- Your own questions land better when they pick up something from this half. If they asked about your robotics team, asking what they built or joined as a student follows naturally.
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 early on when they graduated, then discount anything about current programs, housing or admissions accordingly, while trusting them on what the experience felt like.
What to avoid
Asking about your chances
Alumni interviewers write up the conversation and take no part in the decision, so they have no way to estimate your odds. The question puts them in an awkward spot and spends goodwill you would rather use 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 more than you want to learn something. Ask the question in one sentence and stop talking.
Only asking about prestige and outcomes
Questions purely about rankings, salaries and the name 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 would live.
Pretending to have no questions
Saying you have none reads as indifference or as a failure to prepare, even when you 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 in your own words: the workload, how people found their friends, what was hard. If you are comparing several schools, these notes may be the only thing that tells them apart by spring.
Do not follow up repeatedly
One thank you is enough. Further emails asking for status leave a volunteer explaining that they have no information, which makes a worse impression than silence would.