It seems fitting for some reason that my 100th post be about my interview. I don't know why.
Also, the fact that today is the Ides of March has nothing to do with my post, I just think it's a good idea to remind people about it. :)
So....my interview. It was generally a weird day overall. In the morning, I had taken the option of visiting one of the site schools that Tufts works with. I was told to get there on my own, where I would be met by someone who would talk to me for a bit then take me to observe some classes. I arrived early (of course) and met a few other candidates for the program. We talked for a bit before being met by the head of the social studies department. Aside from knowing that we were coming, this woman had no idea what to do with us. She thought that we were all interested in social studies (we were not; the other candidates were French, English, and Science) and then wasn't sure about what classes we should go see. She had not idea that we might like to see classes in our discipline, so she dropped us off at one class, then another, while she tried to go arrange that. The Latin teacher wasn't even there that day, so I sat in on an AP French class, which was, of course, taught entirely in French. The teachers of the classes we visited also had no idea we were coming, so none of them were doing anything particularly interesting, though it was nice to see the culture of the school in general. We were supposed to talk with the current Tufts interns, but the woman in charge of us didn't know, so we only learned their names before we were whisked off somewhere else. It was all very unorganized.
After that, we were to get back to Tufts on our own for the pizza reception at 12:30. We left the school at 11:00am, sure that we would be on campus within a half hour or so, since Tufts wasn't very far from the school. That was without considering the length of time it would take the bus we wanted to come. So I stood with two other candidates outside in the pouring, freezing rain for about 30-40 minutes, and, once we did get on the bus, we had to make a transfer, which meant more freezing, pouring rain. I commented to one of the other candidates that it's a good thing Tufts was my only choice because if I had another one, I would be sorely tempted to take it. I mean, shouldn't they have at least arranged for us to get back to campus? What if the candidate were from out of town and had no idea how to navigate the buses? At any rate, we made it to the appointed room, a little wetter than we'd been that morning.
The reception was fine; we all went around and said our names and what we wanted to teach. Naturally, I was the only Latin candidate, which makes me want to think that my chances of getting in are slightly higher than other people's. Then I went in to my interview. The woman interviewing me was, first of all, only interviewing two candidates that afternoon. She was also some kind of math Ph.D candidate, though she obviously had ties to the Dept of Education. The first thing she said to me when I sat down was, "I'm sorry, I've read over your statement of purpose, but I haven't really read your recommendations or your resume." I thought to myself, "WTF?! How on earth are you supposed to know anything about me without having read my stuff??" while aloud I said, "Well I'm sure they all said nice things about me." So, that was weird, and definitely threw me off. The interview itself was really casual, more of a conversation than anything, which as nice, except that this lady knew nothing about Latin and nothing about me. I mean, she asked me if there was a difference between learning your first language versus your second. Like, what??? So, yeah. It was strange all around and I didn't come out of it feeling that I'd represented myself well, mostly because I felt like I was explaining things to her the whole time rather than talking about why I'm passionate about teaching. Very disconcerting. I talked to my dad the next day and he was like, "Well maybe they've already decided to admit you but had to interview you for appearances." That would certainly be nice.
So, now all I have to do is wait. I think I might be hearing within the next few days, so I'll definitely let the blogosphere know.
Next up, the exciting world of apartment-hunting!
ciao
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