Tip 5: Show Them What Matters to You Outside the Classroom

Aim to help your interviewer see who you are outside the classroom. You can provide an inspiring view of your identity by sharing the relationships, anecdotes, experiences, events, pastimes, commitments, talents, challenges, and points of view that define you.

I recommend that you gather this material before your interview so you can identify the items that most clearly help others see who you are.

One Way to Gather Personal Material

Return to the document you created to hold the material that illustrates your love of learning. Go to the section called “outside the classroom.”

Spend ten minutes a day filling it with personal material that will help the interviewer see the people, activities, and other things that make you who you are. Put a reminder and an alert in your phone to do this every day for a week. And be ready to capture the great ideas that pop up when you’re doing something else.

When you identify any material that might help your interviewer understand you, capture it. There's no need to write down the full story; just jot down a brief note that’ll help you remember it, for example: “What I love doing most,” “My commitment to caring for my elders,” or “How I derive strength from my community.”

At the end of the week, review what you’ve collected. Highlight any items that illustrate both (1) an important element of your life outside the classroom and (2) your ability to contribute to a community. (Items in the second category will demonstrate attributes like empathy, curiosity, creativity, thirst for new experiences, openness to new perspectives, communication skills, and ability to connect with others.) Give the highlighted items a close look; they may be some of the most effective to share in your interview.

Review all of the items on your list and identify the ones that best illustrate who you are. Pick the three that will best help the interviewer see the commitments, activities, events, and perspectives that make you who you are. Be prepared to share them during your interview.

General Advice as You Gather Personal Material

As you generate a list of the people, activities, and other things that might help the interviewer see who you are, you may need to make tough choices about which to share.

I recommend starting with the content that feel essential. If you need to narrow the list further, give extra weight to the items that you can share with authority, conviction, enthusiasm, and genuine interest. This will naturally attract your interviewer's attention and respect. Also, pick items that work together to demonstrate you're a well-rounded, three-dimensional person. If most of your items are about similar priorities (say, athletics), consider adding an item that provides a contrast (say, a community project, a spiritual discipline, or an artistic endeavor).

And because these interviews focus on topics that we usually approach seriously, remember that there may be room for a moment or two of levity in your interview. I recall one applicant who told me, “Yeah, I study a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m above bingeing on Love Island now and then!”

Content like this balances the conversation with a little joy and humor. It also adds another emotional dimension to the conversation. This can inspire interviewers.

If You Get Stuck

Explore:

The foundational work -- your verbal sketch and illustrations of that sketch -- that you did when you wrote your admission essays.
The creative, athletic, political, spiritual, social, or community endeavors and pastimes that are important to you. Why do they matter? What do they mean to you? What role do they play in your life? How do they affect your perspective on yourself, your family, your community, or the world?
Your commitment to these activities. How long have you participated in these activities? What form of discipline have they required? How much of your time do they take? What have you decided not to do in order to sustain your commitment? What have they taught you?
How your commitment has shaped you. How has it affected your perspective on something important to you? What has your dedication to it taught you about yourself, your values, or your family, friends, or people in general?
Times when you entered a flow state. What did that feel like? What were you doing? What did you take from this experience?

We often take for granted and overlook the defining aspects of our lives. There's often valuable material in things like:

Your location: How has it affected who you are? What has it taught you about yourself and others? Where else would you like to live? Why?
Your family: What does your interviewer need to know about them in order to understand you? What’s important to them? What do you respect about them? What are the key lessons and values they've taught you? What strengths does their support give you? What needs do you fill for one another?
Your race, gender, heritage, culture, or language: How does it enrich your experience? How else has it defined your life?
Your community: What's your role in it? Who shares it with you? What do they mean to you? How do you interact?
Your responsibilities or commitments: For example, if you work in a volunteer or paid job (this includes supporting family at home), help the interviewer understand what it is and what motivates (or requires) you to do it. What have you learned from it? What have you sacrificed for it?
Other demands that reduce the time and energy you can devote to studying: What are they? Are they choices or requirements? What have they contributed to your life?
A defining challenge: How have you responded? What have you learned? How have you grown because of it?
The most exciting, important, or surprising thing you’ve learned outside of school: Why does it interest you? What does it mean to you?
Your friends: What do you do for one another? What does their friendship mean to you?
The essential traits of your personality: What are the traits that make you who you are?

Collect anecdotes and stories that will help the interviewer understand what these parts of your life mean to you. Share what surprised you, stayed with you, changed you, helped you grow, and the non-academic things that matter most to you.

Remember: your objective is to collect the anecdotes, perspectives, forces, people, and activities that will help the interviewer see who you are outside the classroom.