Georgetown University Interview

I had my first college interview yesterday. My meeting was with a Georgetown alumni who worked at a private school in the neighboring town. When I received an email from Georgetown University's college admissions office with my alumni interviewer's contact info I was anxious. I did not know what to expect and feared my constant awkwardness when speaking. I am often inarticulate and can end up on tangents that have little meaning to my main point. Pushing my fears down I initiated contact with my interviewer through an email. The simple task of an introductory email became a brain surgery as I tried to be completely grammatically correct and get all the information I needed to across. I let her know my schedule, a little about who I was, and some contact information in the email. My, way too long to write for only being five sentences, email received a quick response. My interviewer told me that I did not need to be dressed formally, as they would be wearing jeans, and then asked if meeting at her school would be okay. Her response was light which put me in a spot where I did not want to seem too formal but I did not want to drop all pretenses and pretend she was my friend either. This email exchange ended with a finalization of an interview in a little over two weeks at her school.

As the interview approached I started to learn more about Georgetown University. By working on the "Why Georgetown?" essay I was introduced to the curriculum and other opportunities provided by George. I found things like the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. The Center had many opportunities for students but what stuck out to me was the tutoring and summer school options. Through the Center Georgetown University allowed students to participate in the local DC area helping students from elementary to high school in their education. This seemed perfect because I wanted to become a history teacher, and having an opportunity where I could participate in teaching while in college was my dream. I then got to looking at the history department and saw a wide range of depth. I was really intrigued by the Eastern European and Middle Eastern Studies. Through my research, I felt confident that I would be able to ask meaningful questions.

As the interview day approached I looked up online statements regarding people's interview process at Georgetown. I did not find anything too surprising with most people experiencing the same general questions of "What's your background?", "What do you want to do?", and "Why Georgetown?". I asked my friends questions about their interview experiences and even got a couple of them to do a mock interview for me.

I drove to my interview in silence. I thought about what I could say, how I could say it, what were my passions, and basically, anything to do with everything I thought they would ask me. Every so often I would turn the radio on to NPR, but each time I did I grew anxious and so went back to silence. I enjoyed my drive there and eventually found a parking spot right in front of the school. Being thirty minutes early I sat around in my car, eating food, and texting with my girlfriend before the interview. At five minutes before the stated meeting time, I left my car and went to the school.

As I reached the door a woman came out. We both instantly knew who the other was and so shook hands. We then each formally introduced ourselves and she said we should go in to try and find an open classroom. As we walked to a classroom small talk occurred with one good conversation started by me and another horrendous one. The good one was talking about parallel parking in front of the school. Everyone can connect on how much parallel parking sucks. The horrendous one was me talking about how I asked a friend if they knew this school, and then me getting on a tangent about how this friend just visited schools randomly. I did not have a point to my comment and ended up awkwardly silencing myself.

The real interview started with one simple question "What do you want to do and why Georgetown?". I started off on an awkward tangent about my love of history. It felt forced and I quickly lost things to say. Eventually, I started talking about every single thing in my life. This would have gone on forever if she had not seen a burst of passion in my eyes as I started to talk about the board game I had created. My hand reached for my phone, then I wavered, but she pushed me on so that she could see pictures of it. I felt great about this and had a blast sharing it with her. The interview went more smoothly after this, but I still felt pushed to keep talking with only a few questions from her. Eventually, we landed on this blog as a passion of mine and went in depth with it. While talking about this blog I learned a little more about her past, her being an English major and history minor.

As we progressed in our conversation she even brought up how it seemed I might want to be more focused on English then history. If I was a person looking in on my life I would completely agree with her, but there is just something about history that eggs me on more then English does. I love reading Quora pages for hours on history, choosing to do so over picking up a book, History feels like the unfinished puzzle I have to put back together. I wish I had said those things, but instead, I could not make a good argument for why history for me. Her insight was strong and she gave me some good information about a possible English major, but I was not able to respond thoughtfully to her comments about this new path. I felt divided while talking to her, not because of anything bad, but because I felt unable to articulate why I enjoyed history over English.

Throughout the interview, I asked her questions, some about the history department, her time at Georgetown, and about the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. As she was human, she did not know every question I asked, with some things, like the CSJRTS, being foreign to her. I was grateful for the information I learned from her, but I wish I asked her some questions like why she chose Georgetown or how did she like it there. In the end, for questions I wish I had been more adventurous, asking not just specific questions about the college, but more about what made Georgetown special to her.

My interview lasted around half an hour which was a bit shorter than expected. I came out of it feeling okay, I had felt disjointed at certain times, but I had a pleasant conversation nonetheless. At home I wrote another email, this time thanking her and asking her a question about the study abroad program. My interviewer was kind and while not taking the question and answer method I expected to face, she created a friendly and open environment. I want to thank my interviewer one last time for helping me in understanding what Georgetown University is, and how I would fit in there.