My interview for Stanford was held in a Starbucks, and was really chilled out and went smoothly.

While I didn’t prepare any answers for questions etc., largely because I prefer thinking on the spot, one of my biggest tips is to prepare a few questions to ask the interviewer in advance. Have a think about questions that demonstrate your interest in the University (good), your interest in the interviewer themselves (endearing) and some degree of intelligence and insight (helpful). Not only for all of those reasons, but if for whatever reason there’s an awkward silence (your interviewer should make sure this doesn’t happen, but you want to be prepared), you can ask something interesting to prompt more conversation. With that kind of questioning the aim is to demonstrate interest and capability.

I was personally told to dress casually. Each University should have a policy on this, if you look it up, and I’d recommend following that. No need to turn up looking like a penguin unless you need to!

Be relaxed! The Interview for American Universities is as much about you learning about the University as it is the University learning more about you. You don’t want to come across antisocial, so just be ready for a casual conversation with someone who you can learn even more about your dream institutions from.

Best of luck