“How are you feeling?” It’s the question student helpers find themselves asking applicants again and again on interview days. The answer is almost always the same: nervous, but excited. For many of them, it’s their first time visiting the college. Looking up at the historical buildings, they try to take it all in and briefly allow themselves to imagine living there. They’ve dressed smartly – which for some means a suit and tie, and for others it means a brightly coloured jumper to show personality. They’ve meticulously reviewed their personal statement, agonised over online lists of the ‘Hardest ever Cambridge interview questions’, and now their mind is constantly oscillating between picturing failure and success.

The waiting is the worst part. At Emmanuel College, which held interviews in person this year, candidates are assisted by student helpers, whose main role is to take them to the right location: either to the registration desk, the waiting room, the reading room, or finally to their interview. These are short pilgrimages and are inevitably filled with slightly stilted conversation. Most student helpers are cycling through the same sort of questions for each candidate: “Where have you come from? What subject are you applying for? Have you been to the college before? What time is your interview?”

“Student helpers often find themselves strongly empathising with the candidates”

Yet conversations also often go off-script, leading to moments of humour and genuine human connection. Megan Owen, a second year student at Emmanuel, remembered talking about “mine and an applicant’s Spotify Wrapped, where we particularly focused on Taylor Swift and Billy Joel.” Life at Cambridge is a fairly common topic of conversation, though student helpers have to avoid alienating candidates by using Cambridge-specific terminology. This can be harder than it sounds when you are so fully immersed in the world of slocals, supos, bops and plodge. One third year helper remarked there were lots of “NatScis at Emma”. The candidate’s face bore of confusion and concern, there is a pause before the student helper realises the misunderstanding: “NatScis not Nazis – it’s short for Natural Sciences!”

Through their brief conversations, student helpers often find themselves strongly empathising with the candidates. This is despite most helpers’ interviews being online, as in-person interviews weren’t reintroduced at Emmanuel until last year. Working on interview days then provides students with an opportunity to reflect on how their interview experience could have been different.

“The friendliness of the helpers made me feel really positive about the whole experience”

Megan claims: “I am so glad my interviews were online, as after thinking I did badly in my interview, the walk through the grounds and the four hour train home definitely wouldn’t have lightened the situation.” She notes there are advantages and disadvantages to both models in terms of accessibility and inclusion, but fears that “differences in cultural capital are hard to stop from coming through in conversations between applicants from different backgrounds, leading to intimidation that is difficult to prevent.” Practical issues, such as the inconvenience and cost of travel, also frequently came up regarding in-person interviews.

However, other student helpers note the additional perks of an in-person interview like the free hall lunch, which helps “frame the interview as an experience instead of simply an ordeal,” as third year student Timothy Browning put it. Others believed that in-person interviews create better communication, with Peter Holmes, a second year, claiming: “Online, I often find it difficult to really present yourself without disingenuously doing things like staring at the camera to purport engaging in strong eye contact”. Indeed, a 2021 study suggests that candidates were viewed by recruiters as more friendly, open and calm when interviews were conducted in-person, compared to online.

The first year student helpers who experienced face-to-face interviews generally favoured them over the idea of an online interview. Indeed, many of them chose Emmanuel College specifically because they offered in-person interviews. They identified the positive impact student helpers had on the day. Attila Szalai shared that talking with student helpers “made me realise that students at Cambridge are normal people, not superhumans and so maybe I still had a chance of getting in.” William Acworth also vividly remembered chatting with the student helpers, recalling: “the friendliness of the helpers made me feel really positive about the whole experience.” He also remembered socialising with other candidates: “We all had interviews later in the day so we ended up exploring the college buildings and just chatting in the old library while people went to their interviews”. However, he remarks: “I never saw any of them at Emma in October.”

But that's the brutal reality for most applicants. The majority won’t get in. For student helpers, whether they had their interview online or in person, the whole experience can be looked back at with more fondness after the acceptance offer. For everyone else, it will be up to them to decide if the whole in-person experience (the long journey, the chance to see the College, meeting the student helpers and the other candidates, the biscuits in the waiting room, the free hall lunch, and finally the interview itself!) was worth it.