Personal and Language Interview Procedures
Purposes of a personal interview:
to elicit information from the student;
to give information about the program to the student;
to evaluate the student.
Be sure to create an atmosphere of ease. Students must be comfortable to share anxieties with you. You might want to interview the student in an informal setting. Allow 30-60 minutes for each interview. When you take notes, let the student know you are doing this in order to make an interview report.
Reasons students may be unsuitable:
_Students may be academically unprepared (inappropriate coursework or spotty grade records). Take into consideration special circumstances that may have affected a student’s academic performance (death in the family, illness, choosing the wrong major). Watch for signs of consistent improvement following difficult periods. However, if a student has several terms of poor grades or is very inconsistent in their overall performance, these may be signs that the student is not quite prepared.
_Students may be emotionally unprepared or unstable. This is a sensitive matter, both legally and pragmatically. It is difficult to tell a student that you think he or she is immature, irresponsible or a poor representative of the U.S.
Ways to “deselect” a student:
_Reschedule the interview, telling the student that you are not ready to decide yet and you think he/she needs to give more thought to this. This gives the student an opportunity to save face (and not return) and gives you time to contact references or to ask a colleague to join you in the second interview.
_You can defer acceptance, telling the student that you are not ready to accept him/her at this time, but that you encourage him/her to reapply after they have more language background, a more consistent academic record, etc. You can tell the student that it’s been our experience that students who have trouble academically on campus, will have difficulty overseas.
_You can accept the student provisionally (e.g. they must get a “B” or better in French next term) or refer him/her to another, more appropriate program.
_If you don’t think the student is suitable personally, you might tell the student that based on what he/she has told you, you don’t think the program is suitable for him/her — that you’ve known other students with similar backgrounds who had a hard time adjusting to this particular program (this way you avoid telling the student that he/she is not right for the program). If a student keeps insisting, you can organize a subcommittee of the executive board, or other colleagues with interests in the program, to interview him/her and make the final decision.
General Interview Guidelines
Below are some areas to touch on while conducting the personal interview of the student. These areas correspond to the Personal Interview form. Attached are sample questions that might help address some of these issues.
General experience: Has the student moved around a lot or mostly lived in one place? What has been the extent of his or her travel? What kinds of contact has he had with people from other cultures? Has the student gone directly from high school to college, or has he or she had significant experiences in between, such as jobs, etc?
Academic record: Is the student’s academic record healthy? Has he or she taken courses that provide a good background for overseas study? If the student is planning to study in a non-English speaking country, what level of language skills does the student have? How confident is he or she in using the language? How willing does the student seem to use the language?
Motivation/Goals (short/long term): Why is the student applying to this program? How does the program fit with the student’s short and long term goals? What travel plans does the student have outside of the academic program? What does the student plan to do after the program? What does the student know about the country now? What does the student plan to do between now and the beginning of the program to become better prepared?
Family background/current living situation: Has the student lived away from home? In what kind of situation (dormitory, rooming with friends, living alone)? Does the student have brothers and sisters? What kinds of living situations are they accustomed to? Are they independent, or do they want to be? What kind of family would the student like to live with in a foreign country? How does the student feel about the prospect of living with a family he or she has never met before? How does the student’s own family feel about his or her plans to study abroad? Are there family members or close friends it would be difficult for the student to leave?
Evaluation: What kind of impression does the student make on the interviewer? Is the student friendly? Open? Poised? Articulate? Does the student react defensively to certain questions? Can you find out why?
Possible Interview Questions
- Why did you pick this program? What might it do for you?
- Tell me about your work experience. What did you get out of it? (Look for signs of adjustment.)
- How do you spend your free time here? How would you spend your weekends abroad?
- How do you envision your living situation? (Look for expectations that are too high, unrealistic, or don’t fit the program.)
- What has been the most meaningful event of your life? (Clue to values, contribution to personal growth, self-image.)
- Where have you traveled? What have you learned about yourself through your travels? What have you learned about other people?
- If you go abroad, what will you miss the most?
- When you have ups and downs, what do you do? When you’re bored, what do you do?
- What five words would you choose to describe yourself? What five words would your friends choose to describe you?
- What do you consider your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?
- What else should I know about you?