Saturday, March 22, 2008

Interview with Yale ASC Alumni

I went for an interview with Yale's local asc today. Basically it’s part of the applications for entry into Yale, an procedural interview with prospective students seeking entry into Yale.

The interview was arranged as a meeting at a common F&B locale, and that itself was not highly unusual and the interview was a rather informal one, in front of a coffee shop. It was okay, considering this place was in the heart of the CBD.

I was present at the location early, and I had gone there expecting to be grilled but what I received was a man who was 10minutes late! That was okay, but my interviewer didn't even know anything about me! I always expect the interviewer of this sort to be a person in position and has gone through a portfolio of me all ready to ask questions.

But what I got was that he knew zilch, and asked even the most basic of questions like my last school of study. He didn't impress on sight, asked very basic mundane questions, dressed in simple striped office shirt toting a briefcase and an umbrella.

So this is a graduand of Yale? Apparently later he said he has a PhD as well. A PhD holder working in CBD? A office pencil pusher? Some PhD eh..

After asking me some basic questions, he went on about how hard it is to get into Yale, and that maybe NUS is not such a bad place, he ended up telling me what to do! Plus he said why choose Yale? Did you look at the other universities? Yale is a more liberal arts school, are you a liberal arts kind of person? Plus he had that condescending maybe-you're-not-good-enough to get into Yale because-i-am-from-Yale tone. He was telling me, with my academic interests I should do a post-grad studies for my field of study as undergrad level is pretty shallow. All I could really make out is that he doesn't really think I'll qualify for Yale. After 30 minutes, my impression of him went from bad to worse, I mean what kind of interview is this?!

I don't even really even want to go to Yale, just wanna go to cmu. From the looks of it, Yale and Cornell will be rejecting my applications soon. But I am already half expecting that. Did I truly think that I can get into the top 10 universities in the world?

Sigh. I don’t need someone to tell me I am not good enough.

Posted by MK at 10:42 PM