I had my interview during Diversity Connect with an alumnus, which I know is unusual for NYU, so I really wanted to share my experience. I will say, expecting to interview with an adcomm member meant that I prepared wrong for this interview. (About half of the Diversity Connect folks interviewed with the adcomm, the other half with alumnus that the adcomm had carefully matched us with.)
The alumnus still had all of my information and had read my full application. However, the answers she was looking for were totally different – I had professors names and course names to respond with when she asked me about what I wanted to study, but she wanted subject (like marketing, strategy, etc.) The interview felt more like my Columbia interview – talk about a difficult colleague, a time you failed, back-up options. She didn’t ask me specific questions about my interest area or about my current area like a lot of the reviews tell you to expect.
Overall, I was just in the wrong mindset for a traditional interview, so my responses sort of sat strangely. If you do have an alumnus, adjust your expectations as soon as you can, be more broad, and ask clarifying questions! Some of the questions I got – I just didn’t understand what she wanted to get at – there was clearly something she thought she was asking that wasn’t translating and I struggled. The good news is, I got in anyway, even though I completely felt like I blew the interview. Anyway, that might be a “con” to interviewing at one of the Connect events – it was helpful in terms of thinking about the school, but I wish I had interviewed in the “regular” process.
