Tomorrow, I have an interview here (http://www.google.com/search?q=duke&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=iw).

The funny thing is, I applied to this second-tier school as an afterthought. It's not that big of a deal, but I figure it'll prepare me for more serious interviews to come so it'll be a useful experience.

Any general tips? I have no idea what to expect.

LOL at the first picture on their website:
http://www.duke.edu/photoessays/604/1.jpg

do you know how shitty you sound?

Do you know how rude it is to post a hurtful comment like that when somebody is just asking for advice?

google typical college interview questions and prepare yourself to answer. shit like "what's your hobbies?" "why do you want to go here?" "what extracurricular activity are you passionate about?" all the things i had no real answer for to harvard. sigh.

I did the interview, it was chill. I basically regurgitated my resume while the interviewer talked about his days at Duke. He made me feel like I was sure to get accepted, constantly saying that I was an interesting person and stuff.

hope you like black strippers.

dude, you come on here talking about how an interview at a school like duke is nothing...talking about how its practice for more serious interviews..."second-tier" school and all that bull. you are an elitist and i was merely pointing out that, to me, you sound like a total cunt. i hope you enjoyed your interview, though i'm sure you don't care about getting into that school, seeing as how your other prospects are so fucking good. try to be a little bit less of a smarmy cunt. you haven't earned the right to sound like that (gotta get that degree from duke first).

Heh, I've used my interviews at Cambridge University as practise too - not intentionally, but because they were possibly the hardest discussions I've had in my entire life, and it's made all the others I've had to go to ridiculously easy by comparison. To label one of those institutions as second-tier is more self-delusory than anything else.

I saw a video of a Cambridge Comp-sci interview. Completely different than an American-style interview, which has way, way less impact on your admission and is way, way more casual in tone and in the questions they ask you.

Ask for me calling Duke second-tier, that's how I view it in my subjective ranking of colleges. 1st tier would be harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, mit, caltech and nothing else. Duke is still an AMAZING school, just not up there with the best. Sorry if that bothers you so much.

I wasn't too excited about this interview because I have no great affection for Duke, not because I think the place is academically deficient.

Ask for me calling Duke second-tier, that's how I view it in my subjective ranking of colleges. 1st tier would be harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, mit, caltech and nothing else. Duke is still an AMAZING school, just not up there with the best. Sorry if that bothers you so much.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm ridiculously elitist when it comes to academia - as far as I'm concerned in the UK it's Oxbridge, Imperial or bust. The reason that I pointed out the way your comment looks is because a lot of people here would kill for an opportunity to attend a university like MIT or Duke.