New App, Foyl, Helps Students Avoid 5 Most Common College Interview Mistakes

Ivy League Edge announced today the immediate availability of Foyl on the Apple App Store. Foyl is the first app of its kind to help high school students prepare for—what is for many—the first important interview of their life, the college interview. The app features proven interview tips from college admission experts. It also features 44 sample questions students are likely to get during the interview. Students can practice answering these questions with Foyl in the privacy of their own homes before the big day.

According to Foyl, here are the five most common mistakes students make during their college interviews.

Mistake #1: students pass on an interview, even when they have the opportunity to do one.

Most colleges make an interview optional. If the school is within a reasonable driving distance, students should definitely do an interview. It represents an important piece of information to help admission officers get to know the student as a person. It also shows that the student has genuine interest in the college. And the interview is a great chance to develop interviewing skills in a situation where something important is at stake. These are skills that will come in handy throughout one’s career.

Mistake #2: students come to the interview poorly informed about the college.

One pet peeve of admission officers is students who ask questions during the interview that they could have answered for themselves easily if they had bothered to read the college website. Students should ask questions that show they have done their homework about the college. They should be probing for more in-depth insights into the institution and the student experience there.

Mistake #3: students give over-rehearsed answers to the interviewer’s questions.

While it is important to prepare for a college interview, students should not get too carried away. The point of preparing is to add depth to one’s thoughts about the topics discussed during the interview. It is not to painstakingly craft perfect answers, commit them to memory, then spit them out word-for-word.

Mistake #4: students are overly boastful in their answers.

During the interview, a student’s best bet is to master the fine art of the humblebrag. A humblebrag is a brag that appears modest. It does so by directing attention away from the student and her positive qualities, and toward the circumstances in which she accomplished something that benefited others. “I played a key role in something great” sounds a lot better than “I’m great.”

Mistake #5: while not lying outright, students spin their accomplishments.

To put spin on a claim about oneself is to exaggerate it in a way that risks misrepresenting it. Unfortunately, there is so much spin in our culture these days, it is hard to know the boundary between a fair claim and BS. Depending on how outlandish the spin a student puts on an accomplishment is, the admission officer might actually take time to verify it.

Download Foyl for free on the Apple App Store.

About Ivy League Edge

Ivy League Edge is an edtech company that helps high school students get into their first-choice college—and excel academically when they get there. The company makes 2 apps. Foyl, Your College Interview Practice Buddy, is available for free download on the Apple App Store. Readerly is an app that empowers students to dramatically increase their scores on the reading sections of the SAT and ACT. Ivy League Edge also hosts Pop-Crit Portland, a college-readiness summer program that uses popular culture criticism to train teens to read and write with intellectual rigor.