Interview Experiences
Today we are bringing you a post where we discuss what our interviews were like in the process of applying to university. It’s normal for you to feel quite nervous about an interview, especially if it’s for a university you really want, so we hope this post can show you there are many different experiences you can have, even where it can be confusing at times.
Hello everyone, Sude here!
I’ll jump straight into my interview experience. I made all my university applications through UCAS, meaning I had a maximum of choosing 5 courses, which in my case were all at different universities. All of my 5 university choices had a requirement of presenting a portfolio and with 3 of them I had an interview. I was able to present my work face-to-face with the 3 universities I had interviews with whereas the other two preferred to have a digital portfolio sent over in order to make the decision on whether or not I would receive an offer.
For my in person interviews, where I presented my portfolio, I compiled all my best work onto A1 sheets of paper a couple weeks prior to the first one. You don't necessarily have to present all your work on A1 sheets, but this was the approach my fine art teacher had recommended for me. My portfolio had a very simple layout. I included work from each project from my A-level Fine Art course in chronological order. Some of my work was either too big, heavy or fragile to bring so I had photographed them instead. I titled each image / piece of work and mentioned the medium and the dimensions for those of which I had photographed. My aim was to present work of different media to show versatility of skills in visualising a subject and also work that I knew I could talk about confidently. Being confident in the work I produced was something I worked on before my interviews because if you cannot stand behind your work with certainty it’s hard to convince the interviewer you are worthy of being a candidate at the university. I also remember practising presenting my work, as the majority of interviews had a time limit you had to stick to.
As previously mentioned, 2 of the universities I applied to wanted digital portfolios. One of them wanted me to use their own program to set up the digital portfolio, which was hard to work around. This was mainly because of the platform asked to be used. I had laid out my digital portfolios the same way I had for my physical one although, I added a brief paragraph about the work for each piece since I wouldn’t be there to present the work. In the end I was given an unconditional offer by one and rejected by the other. A good representation of two sides of the spectrum. Moving back to my in person interviews. The general consensus was that you were trying to explain why, with all the work you have brought to the interview, you are someone that should be given an offer. The 2 main questions that I remember being asked by all of the universities was, “why do you want to study architecture?” and “why do you want to study at [university name]?” with the exception of one. If you happen to not get asked these 2 questions, I would suggest mentioning this at the end of your presentation. If you’re showing a portfolio or some form of work that displays your skills, you will most likely be asked questions about it. This isn’t to scare you, but to prompt you to say more about the work and if anything it’s a good sign that shows that the interviewer is interested in your portfolio. Out of the two people in the interview, you are the only one who knows the context of your work meaning there is no wrong answer to the questions you will be asked, so don’t stress!
One thing which I felt after all my interviews, was that I was faced with mixed signals with each one. One told me that the path in architecture that I wanted to take didn’t suit the degree they had to offer but then informed me the next day that I had a conditional offer. This one really shocked me. The other rejected me for reasons that I felt were unjustified (I still stand by this opinion) but these sorts of things happen. The interviewer at the 3rd interview praised all of my work and practically hinted at giving me an offer at my interview to which I received the news about an offer 3 days afterwards. All very different experiences. It’s easier said than done but staying calm is my number one tip. As much as you are there to ‘sell’ yourself to the university on why you are the amazing candidate they have been looking for all day, the interviewer is also there trying to get you to study at their university. It is also their job to represent the university and explain why the university is good when it comes to your degree. That is why you should always make sure to have questions in order to make the most of these representatives. This applies to other degrees other than architecture too.
Hey guys, it’s Linda!
I’ll be telling you about my interview experiences, which I hope will be useful to anyone who was in the same position as me in Year 13. Applying to such a creative course with no art qualification, I was quite worried, where it felt like I was up against people who would automatically outperform me, just for studying a creative subject. Eventually, I realised that wasn’t the case (otherwise I wouldn’t be here writing this today).
Like Sude, my applications were done through UCAS. I struggled to fill up the five slots, eventually deciding to apply to four universities, including two courses for one particular university. I got an interview for the three universities, except for one course at the university I applied to twice. All three required a physical portfolio, which I was expecting. I finalised my decision to study architecture later than I would have liked to. This meant I produced the bulk of my portfolio work (which I presented in an A3 physical format) in the space of two months alongside the A-Levels I was already studying.
I submitted my UCAS application in November of year 13 and had my first interview around mid-December. That day, I arrived at the university, and greeted the tutor who gave me a quick tour of the department before taking us to the room where I was to get interviewed. I talked through my work, and was surprised to see that he had almost no reaction to my work (I felt like I was speaking to a brick wall), having expected to be criticised the same way I had heard about architecture students receiving feedback. He only really showed interest in some volumetric explorations I did (I included the two pocket-sized books I studied to sketch these in the same plastic sleeve of my portfolio where I kept the page itself, to which he reacted with “I’m surprised you have these books” ; somewhat impressed), as well as a booklet explaining a project for a client that I compiled some pages for during my work experience in Year 11. The tutor asked me some questions about the project, like where it was situated and what building stage they were at. We then moved onto the actual interview questions. Looking back, I only remember a few, like why I picked French and why I wanted to study architecture. The interview felt like it went by so slowly, but it was soon over and I headed home, totally unsure of how well I had done.
The university for which I applied to two courses required a digital portfolio as part of the application process, and from this they short-listed the applicants to interview in person. I used Wix to present my work, and was selected for an interview for one of the courses. This interview took place a few days after the first one, and was the university that I had the gut feeling about. Where I was alone for the last interview, this was a group applicant interview day. A total of five to six of us were given a tour of the architecture department, followed by a presentation outlining the course . We were then chosen one by one to have our ‘informal’ interviews. I was first up, and we were told that we would know by the end of the interview whether we got an offer or not. I definitely felt more relaxed and confident at this interview. We first went through my GCSE grades and A-Level predictions before talking about my work. Looking through my portfolio felt more like a discussion, which I originally anticipated for my interviews. I presented my work the way I had rehearsed, as the tutor analysed my strengths and weaknesses from what he saw. He even showed me directly how to improve my line quality, physically drawing before me. However, a few pages in I was cut off, and the tutor left the room to go and retrieve some examples of current student work: I thought that what I was showing wasn’t what he wanted to see. I panicked as I sat in the tiny office in silence, waiting for his return. But we simply talked about what kind of work that first years were doing, before I proceeded to show some supplementary work in my sketchbook as well as the same work experience booklet I showed at my last interview. However, my grades and my portfolio were the main artefacts of interest that the interviewer really engaged with.
I was interviewed by the last university at the start of February, after submitting a drawing task and extra personal statement specific to this university. Again, I spent the day with a larger group of about twenty other applicants. We all had a time slot and tutor allocated who would interview us. For my interview, we started off discussing the tasks I had submitted, for which I had to produce five drawings under different time limits, using different mediums and based on different themes. I spoke about why I drew what I drew, my thought process behind each one and the tutor made a few comments on what he thought about them. Then, we moved on to talking about my portfolio. We spoke about each piece of work, similar to the previous one. Again, my skill set was analysed through each piece that I presented. This time, I was told that my model-making skills weren’t that great, but all these comments were just indications of where I was strong and which skills I would need to hone in on if I was accepted onto the course. The questions I was asked revolved around the work I produced, and again, the thought process behind what I created. Finally, the discussion shifted onto some more general questions like why I wanted to study at this university and what I knew about what it was like working in practice.
All these interviews truly were unique experiences. Every interviewer was interested in something different: the first liked what I produced for work experience, the second was interested in my drawing skills, and the third was intrigued by my thought process. This goes to show you really cannot fully prepare for your interview, so the best thing you can do is just to bring yourself and be confident in what you bring to the table.
Hi guys, Elif here :)
My interview experience was very similar to both Linda and Sude. One difference in the applications was that only 1 out of the 5 applications I had an interview. 4 of my university preferences required a portfolio, predicted grades and personal statement and one only required my predicted grades and personal statement, which is quite surprising for an architecture course. As I’ve previously mentioned only 1 of my university choices had an interview meaning the others requested a digital portfolio. I had taken Art A-level so I did have work to put into my portfolio but I wanted to increase the variety of skills I was showing, hence why I attended a few life drawing classes. For my final portfolio I had an A1 folder with a combination of my A-Level work and additional sheets I had done.
For the interview I was nervous just like everyone else but it wasn’t so much about getting an offer. Instead, it was more about being able to correctly explain myself and my work. I wanted to get my point across quite clearly and being nervous can sometimes make me panic which was a little bit scary. The interview was done in a large room with 4 spread out desks and a tutor at each one. You would be called and given 5 minutes to explain your portfolio. Then I got asked questions and we discussed the work. I was quite surprised that the lady kept reminding me that I can’t spend too much time talking through my portfolio as I have a certain time limit, which threw me off because it felt like she didn't want to listen and wasn't interested. Regardless of this interruption I continued and we had quite a brief discussion on my answers to the questions she was asking. At the end of the interview, which was short and brief, she did give me a positive response saying that it was likely for me to get an offer, which is always very nice to hear.
We hope this was a useful post for many of you and that you feel more at ease walking into your next interview. Just remember it will all work out! If you have any contributions or comments make sure to leave them in the comments under our instagram post on @archidabble or get in contact with us from the 'Contact' page. Come back next Friday for a new post!
