By Robin Wasserman
Harvard Graduate and Noted Author

You may have the savviest application strategy in the history of college admissions, butI've got some bad news for you: You still can't game the admissions interview.

Robin Wasserman is the author of several original novels for children and young adults, including the popular Seven Deadly Sins series. A Harvard alumna, she swears she got in on her own merits...

Her latest book is Hacking Harvard . Ocean's 11 meets The Princeton Review in this high-stakes admissions satire, as three too-smart-for-their- own-good pranksters take on the ultimate challenge: breaking into the Ivy League.

You can study for the SATs; you can rewrite your college essay a hundred times;you can suck up for good college recommendations and run for office in every club atyour high school. But when it comes to the admissions interview, there are no secondchances, no revisions, no memorized speeches or reputations to coast on, no stacks offorms filled with impressive stats to hide behind. There's just you and your interviewer,face to face, one day, one conversation, one shot.

No pressure.

Yeah, right.

But even if there's no foolproof recipe for cooking up the perfect interview, thereare plenty of things you can do—and not do—to improve your chances.

DO:

• Schedule an interview—even if it's optional
• Ask questions (and make sure you prepare a few ahead of time)
• Let the conversation flow naturally—don't come in ...

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