While most students in their high school career will hear and lament about the struggles and hardships of junior year, the first semester of senior year is far worse once you factor in the college application process. School and college essays were indeed tough for me, but I placed most of the first semester stress on myself when I made a dreadful mistake on my first college interview.   

In terms of college apps, the months of November and December are notorious for early applications, which then lead to the dreaded college interviews. 

Soon after finishing my Columbia Early Decision application in early November, I received an email from a Columbia graduate, Y. Han, asking me if I was interested in an alumni interview. Even though she assured me it wouldn’t affect my application process and that it would be very casual, I was still skeptical about whether I wanted this interview.

After consulting with my friends, my parents and other family members, I decided that I would do the interview despite my earlier worries of jeopardizing my chances of getting in by sounding dumb. 

I sent an email back to Ms. Han, telling her that I was indeed interested in the interview, and I listed the times when I was free. Now, my trouble started with our following email exchange. 

She sent me an email back asking me if I was free on Monday, Nov. 25, for an interview. I responded that I was free at any time that day and yet again waited for a response. She responded back asking if I would meet her at the Starbucks in downtown Palo Alto at 7 p.m for our interview.

Now before I am judged for my stupidity, let me preface this next part by saying that this was my first time with the interview process, and I didn’t fully understand the concept of a “confirmation email.” Even though I had been taught in sixth grade that assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME, I decided to assume that because I had told her I was free for the entirety of Monday, our interview was going to happen, so I didn’t send a confirmation email.

I prepared myself in the next week for the interview, asking my peers about the interviews they had already done for other colleges. As the time passed, the day of Nov. 25 finally came, and I felt very prepared for this interview. I dressed up fairly nicely in black slacks and a long sleeved collared shirt. I then hopped in my mom’s Nissan Leaf, and we made our way to University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto. 

I went to Starbucks early in order to make a good impression and waited for Ms. Han. As the time went by, my curiosity grew, and I wondered why my interviewer hadn’t shown up yet. Let me also preface this next part by saying I am not racist, but rather, I was just confused. As I sat there waiting, I proceeded to ask every Asian lady who walked into Starbucks if she was Ms. Han, and I got some very strange looks indeed.

 At about 7:30, my mom came and asked me if I had fully confirmed the date with the interviewer. I told her I hadn’t sent an extra confirmation email, and let’s just say neither of us had very pleasant ride back home. I had wasted 30 minutes in downtown Palo Alto.

I called the interviewer and found out that since I hadn’t confirmed fully, she didn’t know whether the interview was on. She also said that she would be going out of town the next day, and that her deadline for interviews was Dec. 1, meaning I would not be able to get an interview.

While this whole experience was very embarrassing for me, considering that I had told many people I was doing an interview, it did teach me some valuable lessons. I was once again bitten in the rear end by the evils of assuming and learned the valuable lesson that there is no such thing as too many when it comes to confirmation emails.