Georgetown Group Interview Experience

TabbyG123

Hi there!
I recently attended the group interview for Georgetown in Miami and wanted to share my experience to help others know what to expect.

It was not a conventional group interview with the usual questions, and there is little you can do to prepare. The format take an hour and is like this: you will be split up into groups of three or four and you will role play as an admissions committee for GULC. He will give you a handout with descriptions of different application scenarios (all of which have ambiguous and difficult to resolve conflicts) and he will ask you to either talk as a group or will ask direct questions about a certain interpretation of the facts, and then he gives his actual interpretation and how he decided on the application.

I would recommend that during the group conversation portions that you be more vocal and make sure that you make your voice heard, but not annoying, because it is easy to be lost in the conversation.

There were four scenarios but we only got to three: one was about a student who got put on academic probation for plagarism but slightly misrepresented the situation (he considered this a huge character issue), someone else who didn't fully disclose information after being accused of plagiarism and withdrawing from a graduate program (also a huge issue), and someone who made typos and mention to another school in their personal statement (also huge issue).

The purpose of the interview is to see how well you can articulate your position and support it with evidence. Apparently Dean Cornblatt favors applicants who can get to the point of their argument quickly.

Make sure to prepare one fun fact about yourself, as he'll ask everyone in the room to share something at the beginning.

Best of luck!

tringo335

Wow that’s very interesting. Do you think this format is beneficial?

TabbyG123

@tringo335 said:
Wow that’s very interesting. Do you think this format is beneficial?

I definitely think the format is beneficial for better understanding how well applicants articulate and support their arguments. Even to me, it was clear who of those in the room were stronger candidates and who were meh.

If that's what you meant by beneficial. It's also definitely beneficial to strong applicants who want another opportunity to strut their stuff.

Paul Caint

Great post!

So would you say the individuals selected for the group interview are a mixed bag? Also if you don't mind could you share your stats (don't have to if you don't wanna!)?

10000019

@"Paul Caint" said:
Great post!

So would you say the individuals selected for the group interview are a mixed bag? Also if you don't mind could you share your stats (don't have to if you don't wanna!)?

He's publicly shared that info:
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/PublicInterested

TabbyG123

@"Paul Caint" said:
Great post!

So would you say the individuals selected for the group interview are a mixed bag? Also if you don't mind could you share your stats (don't have to if you don't wanna!)?

It's hard to say. It would be impossible to know the GPA/LSAT of these folks just by speaking to them briefly. And even then, I wouldn't know if this was consistent across all of the group interviews. So I don't know if they throw a mixed group of students together.

One thing i do know is that these folks would likely not have been asked for a group interview if they weren't at least partially qualified. But Georgetown does give out a large number of interviews (but that doesn't mean that a lot of students actually do them). And GULC does track demonstrated interest.

Just a few thoughts!

melissa091

You’re an open book! Thank you for sharing your journey with us!!