Why a college interview is like a first date

Have you ever been on a first date where the person you were with was a terrible conversationalist?  It’s just about the most agonizing thing in the world.  You sit there at a table in a restaurant trying desperately to think of things to say so you can avoid the excruciating silence that you know is going to come unless you keep talking.  And after about twenty minutes of trying, you want to pull an imaginary ejection handle and catapult yourself away from the table.  

If you sit in your college interview waiting to be asked questions and then give short answers without any details, it's like putting the interviewer through a terrible first date. 

Don’t confuse the college interview with a job interview where you will be asked difficult, probing questions about your experience and what you can bring to the company.  This is a first date (without the chance for romance at the end). The initial conversation could be awkward until you find common ground.  You’ll need to call upon your personal characteristics that you think make you likeable.  You’ll probably want to bathe beforehand.  But ultimately, you and the interviewer are going to try to get to know each other.  You’re going to have to find something to talk about.   

If you want to be impressive, make the interviewer’s job easier and try to find some common ground.  Be a good conversationalist.  Don’t just sit there.