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University interviews

username5483366

What’s the best way to prepare for university interviews?

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Ky64

What’s the best way to prepare for university interviews?

Most undergraduate courses don't interview so your first step is to look at the course pages on the unis websites and see if there is any mention of an interview. If not, there's almost no chance they'll be one.

If they do, there should be info on the format they use. You can always contact the academic department if you want more. Unless you are applying to Oxbridge they are not typically gruelling so most of the info you need will be sent to you when you get an invite.

Reply 2

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Ky64

So if I get an interview is there a dress code?

Generally no, (and they will tell you if there is). so most applicants aim for smart casual at most.

Reply 3

Rarest

Yeah, Admit-One has pretty much nailed it - most interviews aren't really that gruelling and the dress code is casual - smart casual. For examples of what the interviews can range between -
Cambridge (and I would imagine Oxford is like this too) interviews are definitely the most gruelling of the lot. If you apply for maths or CS for example, there will be a few maths questions where you will need to explain your thought process.

York interviews are far less gruelling, the interview (this is for Comp sci and Comp Sci/Maths) mainly just consisted of me talking about why I wanted to do that degree, some stuff about my personal statement and 1 somewhat easy question where you just work out of the question while explaining while you are doing.

Manchester interviews (again, this is for Maths+Comp sci) had no technical questions, they just wanted to talk about my personal statement, why I wanted to study at that course etc etc.

For Manchester and York, and other similar unis, if you make it to the interview stage that means you have like an 80% chance of getting an offer. Obviously for Cambridge and other higher up unis like Imperial, this is not the case.