Interview questions tend to focus on student interest, experience, academics and extracurriculars.

The college admissions interview is a balancing act of students learning more about the school and selling themselves.FOR STUDENTS FEELING the pressure of college admissions interviews, a little preparation can go a long way.

Experts say students should come into the interview with a sense of what they'll be asked and bring some questions of their own. This preparation allows the student a chance to impress the interviewer while also learning more about the institution and whether it might be a good fit. Students gain insight into the academic and social culture of colleges they're applying to while also allowing them to explain their interests and goals to the interviewers.

"A good interview is going to be a conversation. Let the conversation flow back and forth," says Eric Pedersen, chief enrollment officer at Evergreen State College in Washington.

At Evergreen, admissions interviews are optional but available by request. However, many colleges have done away with interviews, experts note. Students should check with individual schools to see if an interview is required as part of the admissions process.

College interview questions typically fall into several categories, says Sean Logan, dean of college counseling at Phillips Academy, a private high school in Andover, Massachusetts. According to Logan, an interviewer is likely going to ask students about their interest in the institution and why they want to attend the school, their academic and intellectual interests, extracurricular activities and "how they think on their feet."

The questions, experts say, are designed to help the college get a picture of who the student is, their interests and motivations.

At Georgetown University in the District of Columbia – where interviews are required – senior associate director of admissions Melissa Costanzi says, "Many times we learn things in interviews that we wouldn't have learned from anywhere else in the application ... We think a really important part of holistic admissions is to give the applicant the opportunity to tell his or her story." Holistic admissions refers to a review that incorporates academic and nonacademic factors to gauge an applicant's potential for success.

How Important Are College Admissions Interviews?

The purpose of a college interview may also vary. For some schools, it's merely informational while at others it is evaluative.
"The interview can be one of many factors," Logan says, adding it is rarely a "high-pressure, high-stakes situation."

According to a report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, only 3.6 percent of colleges surveyed agreed that interviews are of "considerable importance" while 53 percent of respondents declared those conversations to be of "no importance." Instead, the emphasis is placed on grades in all courses and in college prep courses, admissions test scoresand high school rigor.

While counselors say an interview is unlikely to seriously boost an applicant's odds for admission, students should think of it as another data point colleges are collecting, particularly as some are putting less emphasis on SAT and ACT scores.

"I think that for some of the colleges, especially the ones that are downplaying the role of standardized testing in the admissions process, that interview just becomes another facet that they consider when they're building their university community," Gallen says.