My online interview with Falmouth

This piece was written by BA(Hons) Fine Art student Sarah about their experiences of attending an online interview at Falmouth.

When I had my online interview with Falmouth in 2021, I didn’t have the option of an in-person interview. All my interviews were online for my university choices, which was new for me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the experience and enjoyed it. In this blog post, I will highlight my experience of an online interview and hopefully help you with yours!

Anxiety surrounding the interview

I remember being nervous before all of my interviews - I’m not the most eloquent public speaker and the online format was a new experience. However, for my Falmouth interview, I was pleasantly surprised. You’re first added to a ‘waiting room’ with other applicants and Student Ambassadors, where you can talk and settle your nerves with the Ambassadors, or you can also wait silently. This helped to make it feel more casual and eased me into my interview, which I hadn’t felt in my other interviews. It also gave me time to check my connection, volume and background before my interview.

Tips

• Breathing exercises before joining the meeting
• Keep a drink next to you to stay hydrated and feel grounded
• Have a notepad next to you - in the waiting room, you could look over prepared answers or doodle to ease nerves
• Ask for advice via the ‘Ask a Student’ tool on the website: before my interview, I prepared by asking a student questions about the course and their interview, which settled my nerves
• Dress in something you're comfortable wearing, you don’t need to worry about dressing formally

How to prepare for your interview

You will be in the waiting room for 15 minutes or so, and then the Student Ambassadors will add you to your separate interview with a course academic, which will last for 20-30 minutes.

Tips

• Two essential questions to have an answer prepared for are:

1. Why do you want to study at Falmouth?
2. Why do you want to study your course?

These questions are likely to be asked at the beginning when you meet your course academic, followed by a casual interview.

• Practice talking about yourself and your portfolio if your course requires one - in my interview, I was asked to discuss one specific piece from my portfolio
• Be honest in your answers, as your personality is more likely to shine through and develop into further talking points in your interview
• Be prepared to talk about the context of your work and any extracurricular activities that align with your chosen course - in my interview, I talked about my current research and inspiration sources; this could be your interest in books, films, exhibitions, music, etc.
• Have at least one question prepared to ask your course academic - the interview is very much a two-way interaction and it will show your interest in the course you’ve chosen, or in Falmouth