So you applied to UPenn, what’s next? Well for most students, you will be offered an alumni interview. Don’t freak out, unfortunately, it doesn’t mean you are on the shortlist to get in. Penn offers interviews to about 90% of candidates. They actually try for 100% if possible. Penn’s admissions office has a short video of tips and tricks for interviews and also a very long one. These can be super helpful resources for preparing for the UPenn Interview, but we thought we would share our own top tips for a great Penn interview.
What is the UPenn interview?
Just to get us all on the same page. UPenn offers an alumni interview program. These are volunteers. They do not work for the admissions office. They are not professors. Each volunteer is tasked with interviewing a couple of prospective students. They will reach out to you directly usually over email. Please check the email you used for the Common App (that is where it will be) and don’t be surprised if it is from a random Hotmail address instead of a UPenn address. Good interviewers will use their old UPenn email and put something like “Penn Alumni Interview” in the subject line. But that’s not guaranteed. Sometimes, it might look like spam. Once you get the email, they will set up a time to meet with you. Penn interviews are not required, but they are highly encouraged. After the interview, the interviewer will write a short report and that report will be added to your admissions file. It’s usually not a make-or-break thing, but it’s helpful to do and you should be ready to put your best foot forward.
Act like it’s the top school on your list
Ok, we get it. Princeton is your number one but you are also applying to UPenn and Brown as your other reach schools. That’s great, but under no circumstances can you tell anyone at Penn that. This is true for all admissions interviews, but especially at top schools, you have to act like this school is your number 1 choice dream school. Top colleges only want to let in students that they are sure will choose the school if accepted. Go into the interview with this mindset. Don’t even think of it as a lie. All the schools on your college list should be colleges that you would want to go to. If Penn is on your list, you should already be excited about it, just lean into that feeling.
Study up on the school
One of the questions that will come up in almost every interview is “why do you want to go here?” You should have a great answer to this question ready to go. You should be able to talk about academics, unique opportunities, and specifics. For example, “because Penn is a really good school,” says absolutely nothing about you, the school, or how you would be as a student. Instead, saying something like, “I want to study criminology and I was excited to learn that Penn not only offered it but also had biological approaches to crime as part of the curriculum. I also would be excited to be able to take some courses in the engineering school and love that Penn allows that. I want to get involved with undergraduate research as well and was excited to learn about CURF at Penn.” Part of your answer should be academic, you can also research opportunities outside of the classroom. Make sure you can be specific. “I like theater” is fine, but “I hope to join Penn’s Mask and Wig club because of my love of musical comedy,” is better.
Review possible questions.
Each interviewer will ask different questions. It is more of a conversation than a script, but Penn does post sample questions. These questions are given to interviewers as a guideline and many alumni will use them. Look over the questions beforehand and think about how you would answer them. Your interviewer might not use all of them, but they will most likely use some of them. Make sure none of these questions would catch you extremely off guard.
Ditch the one-word answers.
UPenn only uses alumni for interviews. The training is minimal. These are not professional interviewers. This means they are treating it as a conversation for the most part. Nothing kills a conversation faster than a one-word answer. If someone asks what you like to do after school and your answer is “volleyball,” it puts your interviewer in the difficult place of having to keep the conversation going. Even saying, “Volleyball. I am a setter on my school’s varsity team. I have been playing since freshman year and I haven’t missed a practice this season,” gives the interviewer a lot more to go on. Be mindful not to ramble on, but most students have more trouble talking than not talking.
Don’t fall for the stress trap
UPenn gives interviewers a few things they should be looking for when it comes to interviewing students. One that has historically been on the list has to do with if students can handle the difficult workload Penn has and fit in on the fast-paced campus. Often interviewers will ask something about time management to get to this question. Students often answer this by saying they “do a lot already.” There is something that makes sense about this, I will be good at Penn because I am good at high school. The problem is college is a lot harder than high school.
Saying you do a lot in high school doesn’t say much about your time management skills. Being able to talk about how you have made systems for yourself or how you set time aside shows more about you. Instead of saying, “I am super busy now and I manage great,” think, “While I do a lot, I make sure to prioritize my time. I have a system for making sure projects and assignments don’t sneak up on me and keep a well-organized planer. I also make sure to only do extracurriculars that I deeply care about and can invest my time in.” You don’t have to be Superman. It’s actually more impressive being Clark Kent (saving the world and a 9-5 job!? Clark was holding it down.)
Have (appropriate) questions.
Most interviewers will allow you to ask them questions. It’s good to have some. Asking questions will make you seem more excited for Penn (see tip 1) and might give you some great insight into the school. Make sure your questions are appropriate. There are obvious things that aren’t appropriate, for example, “Are there good parties?” And there are less obvious ones. Keep in mind your interviewer is an alum, but when they graduated can vary. You will have their email before the interview, you can look them up. We aren’t saying you should Insta-stalk your interviewer, but you can certainly see if they are a recent grad or not. The more recent, the more questions about what’s happening currently on campus are appropriate. If the person graduated in 1982, try to keep questions broad so that they can answer, such as “what was your favorite thing about going to Penn?” or “If you could have done one thing over at Penn what would it be?” You don’t want to put your interviewer too on the spot if you can help it.
Open up and loosen up!
This is another fairly general interview tip, but you should be coming through in these interviews. If you are too guarded it will be a bad interview. Especially if your interviewer is a recent grad, which many of Penn’s are. Young alums are usually excited for you and want your interview to go well. This can be hard however if you come off like a robot. Don’t be scared to talk about your passions. Penn is always looking for mature students with wide ranges of talents and interests. Loosening up and talking about what you love will humanize you to interviewers. This is important when it comes to the interviewer filing their report to the admissions office after the interview. The more information they have on you, the easier it is for them to write. The report is only around 6 questions that they get to free-write for. The more they see you as a person and the more they know about you, the better that report will be.
Penn wants to get to know you as a person. That’s what these interviews are for. They want to see that you are excited about the school and that you are a person with passions and interests. They also want to see that you can confidently talk about what matters to you. It might sound like a lot, but it's simple as long as you prepare and don’t get too in your own head. Often these are recent grads just trying to have a conversation. We know you can do that!
Need help with prep for any stage of the college admissions process? We’ve got you covered here.