Recommendation and Interview Tips

Alrighty.

Oh

hello y'all, welcome to the Swanee session on recommendations and interview tips, so we will give everyone just a couple more minutes to sign in and then we will be off to the races, so feel free to.

Type in the chat, introduce yourself and tell us where you're from.

And what year you are so happy for you all to be here?

Jack, thanks for being here.

Victoria, very good to have you. I'm from Nashville as well.

Aiden could meet you.

Welcome welcome.

Alright.

Just a couple more minutes. So like I said, feel free to introduce yourself and tell us where you're from and what year out.

You are, I apologize so.

Wrote great to have you.

All the way from DC.

Sydney good to have you.

Jocelyn as well.

Shiloh from Zimbabwe.

Samantha.

Well, lordy Megan.

Caitlin from New Jersey welcome welcome Emma from DC and GO.

Avery welcome from Louisiana.

Alisa, from Russia hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Jonah from Kentucky.

Dennis from Chicago. Welcome welcome.

Alright y'all, I think we are about ready to go so onward and upward to recommendation and interview tips. So once again happy to have you all here. My name is Reese Jamison. I'm an admission counselor here in the office of admission at Swanee and this is of course a continuation of our Tiger Tips series this summer. Your quick quick tips. Guide on.

How to look at the college search process. Things you need to be aware of.

And all that other good stuff. So I will send a link to you all for those who this is their first tiger tips session of the summer. Feel free to browse our Tiger tips page For more information. So recommendations and interview tips. Here we go. So beautiful. Swanee sunset of course showcase here at our proctors hall.

Uhm, viewing area. So just some housekeeping rules you all have already used the chat box, which is great. Please use the chat box on the right to submit questions. Throughout the session. The chat is moderated and thus your questions will not appear immediately. I'll go through and I'll have fellow admission counselor join me soon. Whose name is Shahrukh Burnett and he'll be able to answer more immediate questions.

Throughout the session, there will be a Q&A at the end though too, so don't worry about that.

If you have any sound video problems, feel free to try to refresh the page. If the problem persists, you can submit a question or comment in the chat box and will try to get to you so.

Alrighty, housekeeping out of the way.

Here we go recommendation and interview tips so they will talk about.

I think the two most variable parts of the college application process I'm going to say variable because recommendation letters and interview tips vary widely between schools, whether or not they're recommended or optional or not required at all, or not offered so today topics we're going to cover are the purpose of recommendations and interviews recommendations. Who should you ask? Types of interviews?

Tips and then a question and answer section as well.

So.

Here we are. The purpose of recommendations and interviews. So as you start applying to institutions, you'll find that admission representatives really want to get to know you.

And and the reason is is because college applications are very very different depending on the school they capture, a lot of information. But they don't always paint the whole picture of who the student is. So when it comes to the common app which is the application that's wanna uses, the common application goes as far as will get GPA's and test scores if you submit them were also test optional and and.

Other bits of information like where you go to school, what extracurricular activities you're involved in, but we know that you're you're human who's involved in a lot of different things as well, and I'll be happy to give examples as we move forward about what I'm talking about. Recommendations and interviews are sometimes required, sometimes not, as I said, it really depends on on the on the. On the school that you are applying for, so.

I will have you know though, if they do offer them if they are required. If they're not required in their optional, they are both recommendations and interviews appreciated. So as admission counselors, we definitely want to make sure that we are getting to know in a holistic review process which is typical for liberal arts institutions, we want to make sure that we are getting to know our students as best as we can. So always remember, at the very least to check.

The website for college specific application requirements. So every institution of higher education is going to have a robust website that's going to let you know exactly what is required for the application and what is optional or what is not necessary. So at the end of the day, if you remember one thing from this session, it's always check the website so recommendations.

Recommendation letters are written on your behalf detailing what type of person you are, your work ethic, and offer. More than just your grades and test scores. You're more than your application. With that being said, there for many universities want to hear from those who know you best. So for example, that can be high school counselors, teachers, administrators, coaches, or even part time job managers. If you have a part time job, so that's a good sort of smattering.

A good example of the many different types of recommendations and recommenders who you can. You can ask and I'll talk more about that on the next slide, so.

Recommendations may be your first impression. If interviews aren't offered. So as I have been saying, sometimes these things are optional, so there are plenty of plenty of schools where they do not offer an interview for students, and so as admission representatives are reading through applications, that recommendation letter is going to be one of the first points of contact outside of the application where they really get to learn a lot more about you as an individual so.

You don't need to submit more than what is required or recommended.

A high quality recommendation is going to be more helpful than multiple average ones, and so that's important. If a recommendation letter is required, a really, really good, high quality recommendation is definitely going to go further than 2345 recommendations that are a paragraph long or very vague or just a restatement of your resume.

Uhm?

If there is an option to submit extra recommendations, you do not have to submit a whole handful of them two or three.

Depending on what the school is asking for is is totally totally fine so.

Recommendations may be required for special programs such as Business, Engineering, Medical or arts programs as well. So in this case, if you are applying to.

A institution that has a Business School in engineering school, medical school or arts school, oftentimes.

They will definitely require recommendations and they might require recommendations from specific individuals who have watched you grow within a certain area. So in the case of arts, let's say they may require recommendation from a theater director.

Something like that so.

Make sure that you ask those who you have the best relationship with. So what does that mean? For example, maybe it's a teacher. You've taken multiple classes with their a sponsor or participate in extracurricular activity. Your part of the deployment is you've had an ongoing relationship with this individual. They've gotten to know you a bit more than, say, one semester so.

In my case, I happen to have an English professor write recommendation on my behalf who had me for 2/2 courses. One was in British literature and the other was in poetry. During World War Two, so he knew me fairly fairly well through my time from junior to senior year, so he was very good.

About UM, ensuring that he knew the most about man, could speak incredibly, incredibly in depth about who I am and in the classroom, as well as out of the classroom as well. So I'll get to that here in a second to on this next slide, so.

Who should you ask? Recommendations so requirements for the type type of recommender differ.

Pay attention to whether there are specific types of people required, so who could that be? Most often it's a college counselor. Any core curriculum teacher from your junior senior year, a specific subject, teacher English or Science, or an academic advisor. This is important to go back to those special programs. There are universities that may require one recommendation letter from an English professor from a foreign language.

Sir, the requirements as I said are definitely there on the website and available to you to make sure that you know exactly who to ask for a recommendation. So in Swanee's case we ask for both a letter from a college counselor and then another letter from a core curriculum teacher from your junior and senior year. So there's a little bit of flexibility when it comes to which teacher or which teacher you will be.

Asking for a recommendation from other schools are are much more specific, so some schools will require a head of school as well, so maybe a principal or an administrator so.

Like I said, just be wary of what it is the school is requiring.

Recommendation Do's so here is some advice on how to go about asking for recommendations make sure that you ask early. You should start the conversation in the spring of your junior year over the summer or as soon as the school year starts.

High quality recommendations take time to write in your recommenders. Maybe writing multiple letters for different students. So in my case, my English professor, since I knew him my junior year, I went ahead and asked him and found out he's writing over 50 different recommendations per year, so it's always good to give them as big of a head of of a head start as possible on on letting them know that you would like a recommendation from the.

From them come in certain cases, recommenders might say I've got, I've got too many recommendations and so that'll give you time to to evaluate who else you would like to ask to be your recommender as well so.

Also if needed, provide your best work so when it comes to recommenders college counselors, teachers when they're writing multiple recommendations, they might need a sample of your work, academic work or your resume to refresh their memory about your specific experiences and achievements.

It's going to be a bit difficult, especially since these are human beings as well and they have lives. They might have a family, they might have different engagements that take up their time outside of what their day-to-day life is, and so.

Uhm?

It's always good to be able to provide.

A material for your recommenders so that they can sit down and really think about you as an individual and flesh out that recommendation to make it a bit more than just what you know what's on your resume? What's your GPA? Because we've already got that information thanks to the your application that you submitted so.

Alright, are there any questions on recommendations so far?

I'm happy to pause for a second.

On the interviews next.

Already called the interviews.

So types of interviews as I've been saying for the entirety of this presentation, it really depends on the institution, the college, if they have interviews, if they require interviews or don't have interviews at all. So over the past year, interviews has also expanded out into virtual interviews, so there are potential formats that interviews can take. That's in person virtual, a phone call or video submission.

So technically there are really two types of interviews. There are evaluative interviews and then there are informational interviews and so.

Evaluative interviews are typically required by more selective schools or they are dependent upon the application type. So when it comes to more selective schools, interviews are misses a key point down below. They're not going to make or break an application, but they do carry weight, so the highly selective school they will be assessing applications and sometimes that interview might be just enough to edge Edge student out.

Over top because they did so well, they they fit just makes sense as the interview talked with interviewer, talked with them about their interest in the school. So evaluative interviews are going to be much more intentional with their questions about you and your experience. They may require a resume submission beforehand as well. So for example, evaluative interviews might be required just for an undergraduate.

Studies program or specific programs, much like recommendations for business programs, engineering, medical and arts as well. So once again, make sure that you check the website and you know what is required when it comes to those interviews so.

Informational this is type 2 of interviews and so informational interviews go like this. They are intended to help you learn more about the school.

Admission representatives want to know more about you, engage your interest in the school. It could be with an admission representative, or it could be with an alumni. And if it's optional, it never hurts to attend one. If you're truly instant interested in the institution. And so when it comes to informational interviews, really, what it is is that it's an opportunity for the admission Counselor admission representative to be able to talk with you to learn more about you and to be able to.

Tell you more about the school and answer any questions you might have. So in an interview that I've had, Swanee has what we call virtual counselor appointments and we also will be offering this fall returning to off campus appointments as well across the US and so.

When it comes to our more informational Infocom interviews, I had a student one time who came to an interview. He gave me his resume as he walked in, and I learned plenty about who he was academically. He was very interested in the natural sciences. He's very big on biology. I learned that he was a big soccer player as well, but what I did not see on his resume was something that we talked about later was that he was in.

Avid fisherman so this student fished quite a bit and even competed within the southeast as a fisherman, and so that was a lovely lovely story to hear from them about how we got into fishing his grandparents.

Helped him when he was younger. Learn how to throw a line, things like that so it was a lot of fun to learn more about this student and at the you know at the end of the day he ended up coming to Swanee and he he absolutely adored the four lakes that we have on campus. The 13,000 acres that we have it was. It was definitely a perfect fit for this student so.

Uhm?

Absolutely. There we go so.

Interview tips, so here are my tips to you about interviews, so make sure as I've said, the one thing to remember is to check the website for deadlines. So if an interview is required.

They may need to be completed ahead of your application submission date, so make sure that you know what is required through the application, project process and schedule that interview well in advance to ensure that that time you're going to work with your schedule so #2. Give yourself plenty of time to arrive.

We know you're busy, so plan ahead to make sure you're on time to your virtual or in person. Appointment the best timing that I've found is roughly 10 minutes early, so this is going to give you enough of a buffer that say the red lights a little bit longer than you thought. Practice let out a little bit late. You were at the theater just a little bit too long or you need time to find the admission counselor in or admission representative.

And the coffee shop or whatever it is you your meeting with them. Always give yourself just a little bit of space to get there. Get settled and take a deep breath before you walk into this interview so.

Always remember, be yourself so dressed to impress, but you don't have to be formal and talk about your experience, your passions, and your strengths. So admission representatives when they're going through an interview are there to talk about you and they want to know not just what you're involved in, but why you're involved in it. So yes, you might have hours and hours of community service, but what does that look like?

Why are you involved in community service? Is it fulfilling thing that really brings you great joy to do community service. Have you been apart of river cleanups? Have you worked all sorts of different different avenues in terms of community service?

Yes, you might be a 3 sport varsity athlete, but what does that look like to you? Are you a leader out on the field? Do you find great joy in playing these sports? What sorts of clubs are you involved in and why are you involved in in them? Are you a part of a social justice club? Are you a part of the chess club? It's all of these little things that really do paint the picture of who you are as a student because we know that you do more than just go to school.

Uhm, so absolutely be yourself. Be honest, be open and and be in depth with your answers about what it is you're interested in so.

Come prepared #4 so it's going to pay off to do a little bit of research and have a few questions ready. This is going to vary depending on how much preparation you need to do between a value of interviews and informational interviews, but I think the point still stands that when you're going into an interview, it's always going to help if you do a little bit of research about the school and you have a few questions so.

This is an admission representative who is trained. Whether it's an alumni or it is an admission representative, and so they're going to be there and they will be resources for you to be able to ask your deep burning questions. So what is campus life like? What is it like to? What is residential life like? What is there fun to do on campus?

Anything, anything along those lines that emission representative is going to be your best resource to answer all of those questions while you were there, so.

And I know none of you are going to, but just in case, if you're going to be late, let the interviewer know. So in Swanee's case will send you an email and a text message prior to your appointment. In both cases, just send a simple email or simple text, respond back and say, hey, I got stuck in traffic. Anything along those lines. It happens when we know that those things happen, so.

Admission representatives may be able to wait, or they may be able to reschedule so.

That rule does not hold firm and fast for every single type of interview out there though, so I would caution you. Of course to remember.

The 1st 2 bits of advice which is, you know, make sure that your schedule is going to work for that day, and make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to arrive there so.

Alright y'all, you've got this. You really do.

Admission representatives want to get to know you. It's a conversation, even in the evaluative setting they want to talk to you and they want to get to know you. So you've got this super easy and you get to talk about one of the things that you know best.

You so thank you for tuning in today. Are there any questions that you all have? Feel free to put those in the chat. I'm happy to help. Once again, my name is Reese Jamison and I am an admission counselor here at Swanee. My email is below. If you're if you have any questions later on you think it's something new, and here are two Swanee resources. The Swanee application requirements page, as well as the Swanee visit page if you'd like to schedule a visit, so.

Alrighty.

Thank you all. Happy to answer any questions you got for a little bit.

Samantha, thank you for joining so.

Hope you have a great rest of your day.

When going OK, that's a great question. When going through the interview process.

What are some of the biggest, biggest mistakes a person could make?

That's a great question.

And it varies. Of course school to school and I can only speak from my perspective as well, so I've been doing interviews with students, informational interviews with students for two years now, and so.

One of the biggest ones that I see is not doing any research at all. Showing up to the appointment.

Handing me a resume and I try to ask more questions about them and then when it comes time to talk about Swanee, they have nothing to ask and it's not that they may not necessarily be that they don't want to learn anything about Swanee, but.

It's at that time in place that I'm a representative of Swanee. I've done a little bit of research as well, and so I I know that I'm there to sort of guide you through and answer. You know, anything that you have so.

It's definitely good to simply take a visit to the university that you're interested in their website and just do. You know, maybe 20-30 minutes of research so that you're ready and can and can show that you're interested in the university so.

It's a great question.

Alright.

If I cancel interview that I already scheduled, will it be seen as bad? So that's a good question, and again, it really depends on.

The university I can't guarantee one way or the other that it will be. As I said earlier though, what I can say is that it's not necessarily going to be make or break. So if the day before you realize that something pops up, maybe.

You know any number of things can happen if the day before you realize you're not gonna be able to make your interview more than likely a lot of admission representatives will understand, and they'll be more than happy to reschedule that time with you. So I know that these things happen. I've had to reschedule plenty of interviews over my two years here, so.

I I I don't know if you know more evaluative setting, I can't really speak to whether or not it's going to be seen a certain way or not so.

It's a good question though.

Alright.

Jonah, what type of questions are asked during the interview?

That in itself is a good question. So uhm again, I can only speak from from my case. It's for me so.

When it comes to.

The informational interview.

Questions that I typically ask our first, how did you learn about Swanee? What are you most excited about?

And then after that I asked about, you know, tell me a little bit about your courseload senior year. What sort of things are you interested in? What courses are you taking? And then all ask? Have you thought about maybe what major you might be interested in pursuing? So that way if I can, I'm happy to talk about that program here at Swanee as well so.

It's usually those type of questions from me, but other interviews may be entirely different with different institutions, so they might ask you extensively about your resume and the different interests as well as X curricular activities that you're involved in. And in that case they're wanting to sort of ask you what are your particular strengths and weaknesses, and how. How do you work too?

Do your best at at these different things. How are you involved in them so?

That in itself was a good question, so.

Thank you, Jonah.

What makes an interview stand out from others?

That is a awesome question. So what makes an interview stand out from others come to me when I'm out interviewing students. For sure, the best interviews that I have had our interviews with, students who I can tell are relaxed. They're happy to be there. They are here to answer, to ask questions with me about the university. I can tell that they're interested in learning more.

About Swanee UM but really, really. The key here is that they also they, they know themselves really well as well, so they're very comfortable talking about their experiences. Very comfortable and honest talking about how it is there involved and things of that nature. So definitely.

Those that that really, really do demonstrate interest in in in Swanee for me are those types of interviews that I have the most delight and and fun having so.

Alright.

Question on timing different time zones I suppose.

It's closer to six hours.

So when it comes to scheduling interviews with.

Admissions offices or with alumni? It depends on the school really. So in our case at Swanee.

Uhm, all of our interview times are listed in Central Time Zone USA, so.

Will let you know, obviously on the email confirmation that that is the time that has been scheduled so.

Other types of schools. I can't really speak much to, but I did see doing my research for this that sometimes it's up to the student to schedule that interview as well, so it really varies on the university, so it's definitely worth your time to read through the website and see if they have interviews if they're required. If they're optional, as well as what time zone, they're either scheduling in, or if they're willing if they're able to.

Comedy The time zone difference so.

Hope that was helpful so.

Uh, when you request an interview? What are some common places you mean? So for me when I am scheduling interviews ahead of time, just time slots that are available to students to sign up whenever I'll do them well in advance of when I'll when I'll be there and I tend to be a a more local.

Uhm oriented human, and so I. I definitely schedule a lot of my time at local coffee shops if I can, or if I have to. Just 'cause of the area I'm in, it might be at a Panera things like that, so it's always going to be out in a public setting with, you know, a little bit of life to it. Maybe I'll get some, get some cookies on, hand them out if student.

I would like one things like that, so for me personally, it'll it'll always be if it's in person at a local coffee shop or kind of Panera or something like that. So when it comes to virtual, obviously virtual interviews are done through your computer, so.

That's right.

At Swanee, do you ask any random questions such as any books that we are currently reading, which is our favorite movie, etc? If yes, what is the purpose of those?

That's a good question.

So Fernando I.

I I personally will only ask those questions if a student has indicated that that is an interest that they have, so I will not be asking random questions that are just out there in the ether. If a student has not indicated that that's an interest. So I said earlier, I'll ask a student. Have they thought about what they're interested in majoring, and so if a student says I'm interested in being an English major?

I'm definitely definitely going to ask what sorts of books have you been reading? What are you interested in? I was an English major as well, so I always always appreciate that type of questions so.

Maybe a favorite movie if a student is indicated that film studies is something they're interested in, happy to go down the rabbit hole for a minute or two and sort of ask them about their interests. But by no means do do I ask random questions that don't have anything to do with Swanee or what the student is interested in, so.

Alrighty, thank you Fernando.

Alright y'all are there any other questions you got?

Happy to stay on.

Come on, I know there are some.

Well.

If there are no more questions.

OK, we got one.

Uhm?

Roelke would you mind giving me a little bit more to go off of?

I'm I'm not sure as to what you're referring to.

Oh yes, I'm so broke asked do.

Disturbed students learn how to fly at that Swanee, so I need to brush up on the program. But yes, I do believe that students at the local airfield airfield just down the road can get their pilots license at Swanee so.

Absolutely.

It's a great question.

Alright young, hey last questions. Before we wrap up for the day.

Happy to let you back out and hope the weather is good where you are.

Right then so it is.

240 by my time.

And if there are any no more questions than I am happy to let you all get on with your day. So thanks again for tuning into these twenty session recommendation and interview tips. My name is Reese Jamison. My email is on this slide and I'm happy to help. If you all have any questions following the session. So thank you and I hope you have a great rest of the day.