What to expect in University Interviews

What to expect

Understand why you are there. They are making sure that you’re firstly academically capable of undertaking the course and if the course is right for you. It’s somewhat like a job interview, it's for the benefit of both parties.

An example of this for me was at one of the universities I visited, if I didn’t have an interview I might have taken this course without releasing exactly what I was getting into. I had an interview with a very kind women who was quizzing me on what I had done in the field and what I want to do. Then she led by telling me about that universities course which was actually different to what the prospectus and website said. I recited what I remember from the website and prospectus just to confirm when she replied with “Yeah, we need to update that.” This is a good example of when an interview benefited me. Otherwise I would have been on a course I didn’t even sign up for, but when there’s a lot of money and time involved it’s actually a huge issue.

That being said, the women did say I was welcome onto the course if I wanted to but after discussing how the course had changed I personally didn’t want to join. That being said, universities have to narrow down applicants so you do need to sell your skills and experience well. It’s not impressive if you are joining a course and have no prior knowledge what so ever. 

Plus all normal interview etiquette apply usually. Gum, clothes manners that normal stuff. Another instance of almost the opposite happening was as mentioned before, I’ve had an exam & interview at one of the universities, this experience was rather nerve-racking. Every other student that was there help an A1-A2 leather folder and there was me… Well, I had a tiny laptop. It was an animation course with both drawing and 3D design. I managed to ace the small exam and interview but I was odd one out. If I could recommend anything it would be prepare. Bring stuff that they might be interested in. For me, I took a video portfolio with me and some stills. But they was interested in some of the specific animations on my portfolio and wanted to see more. Luckily I have a YouTube channel ;) and a website in which I had everything on at the time.