<p>PATHETIC! that’s horrible. honestly, i think you should just wait until you get a solid decision…then complain. im curious as to what university this was…but wow. that’s really bad.</p>
<p>My D has had good to great experiences with her (mostly) ivy interviews this year. HOWEVER, there has been one problem with setting up an interview for one ivy. The interviewer contacted by D via email and asked her to meet with him later THAT DAY. Of course, my D never checked her emails until the end of the day, so had to email him back and request another date, and then suggested several dates. The interview then responded and asked her to meet him at 12:00 noon on a WEEKDAY. Of course, she was in school, so she could not meet him and so emailed him back with this time problem. SILENCE and no further word from this interview.</p>
<p>My H (who also happens to be an alumni of this ivy) wanted to contact the guy and tell him that he needed to set up a time that worked for my D. FORTUNATELY, my D and I were able to disuade him from this course of action! Still, we are worried that the interviewer is going to go back to the college and say that my D would not schedule an interview with him.</p>
<p>We know who the local alumni coordinator is here. We are thinking that my D should contanct him to let him know that this interviewer has stopped contacting her. What do you think??? Anyone have this situation?</p>
<p>^^I think you could continue to try to reschedule it. I think if you call the alumni coordinator you might use the tone “my D’s interviewer contacted her on short notice and she wasn’t able to rearrange her schedule and now the interviewer is not responding. Is there another interviewer or can you intervene.” Most are agreeable to meet right after work or on a weekend, but perhaps there’s a day when your D could leave school for an hour at noon and meet the interviewer on their lunch hour if they don’t have another available volunteer interviewer. I can’t imagine that wouldn’t be an excused absence…</p>
<p>My D had a rather disastrous interview at one of the Ivys as well. The interview started pretty normally, and then the interviewer asked what colleges she had visited. She replied that she had not visited any (weird, I know! DH and I begged her to visit, but she was adamant.) and explained that she did not visit because she did not want to base her application decisions on the beauty of the campus or any other intangibles, since academics were of primary importance to her. The interviewer spent the rest of the interview scolding her and relating how he had taken his children to visit colleges since freshman year etc. etc.</p>
<p>Fortunately, she is pretty tough, and was able to laugh about it afterward when she related the story to me. We did not do anything about it at that time (i.e. trying to schedule another interview etc.) She was not accepted to that particular Ivy, and I do wonder if the interview had anything to do with the decision.</p>
<p>As has been said many times, the interviews rarely count for much. I do believe they can be a tip factor or cause the Admissions Committee to take a second look. (At least that what the Admisisions Officer has told us at the training workshops that Harvard holds for its alum interviewers.) If theres a big disconnect between an application and an interview, the Committee can ask for a second interview. </p>
<p>There is one thing I want to say: many posters seem to think that interviews are nothing more than a chat. I always put the applicant at ease, always begin by repeating the line from the handbook, ie were trying to screen you IN, not screen you out, so please help me as much as possible, I want to hear all about you , please dont be modest (very important in the cultural context of the international interviews Ive done.) But Im not really trying to see if this person fits into the college. But one of the things I am trying to do is get a sense of intellectual curiosity/vitality. So if someone said s/he liked to read Aristotle, I wouldnt say no, really, what do you like to read for fun? (Although that might be a later, follow up question). I would say something like, I havent read much Aristotle myself. So tell me more what exactly do you like about it? Why? Teach me. I dont consider that approach confrontational. </p>
<p>Back to the idea of an interview as purely a chat. S had his own interview recently and described it precisely as a very nice chat. When I asked what they chatted about, he said, you know, stuff about Theory XYZ. I actually didnt know, had never heard of that theory and would have been way out of my depth. He was matched with an interviewer in his field of interest which is more than Harvard does, at least in the areas Ive interviewed. I am sure the interviewer was trying to gauge the depth of his interest/knowledge of the field. And the fact that my S enjoyed it simply as a chat shows how skilled that interviewer was. Yes, there are bad interviewers out there. Yes, they should be reported back to the college (by the candidate or the GC) but sometimes the system works really well.</p>
<p>Oh, and about that interviewer trying to schedule a same-day meeting? That’s just rude rude rude and unacceptable. Asking a student to meet at midday on a school day is also pretty poor although some students do have very flexible schedules. I had one case where the student and I couldn’t mesh our schedules and he was therefore assigned to another interviewer who could meet in the evening which was the only time that student was available.</p>
<p>“No, but, IMO–YMMV–a kid who purports to give a strong, definitive answer as to what (s)he wants to do in life SHOULD have a valid reason for that answer. The answer in this case was NOT a valid reason IMO–again, YMMV. There are LOTS of possible majors for students who like math and science”</p>
<p>“it seems interesting to me” is all the valid response I think is necessary from a 17 yo.</p>
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<p>I don’t think a great interview will, by itself, get you into Harvard, but I bet a lousy one can keep you out.</p>
<p>A “lousy interview” wouldn’t keep anyone out of Harvard. If the rest of the package was outstanding, and the interview was the only negative, the Committee would ignore it or call for a second interview. I don’t know how it works at other colleges.</p>
<p>Re post 47: " it seems interesting to me" is all the valid response I think is necessary from a 17 yo." Not for a 17 yo interviewing for a place at a competitive college who has identified a possible major for him/herself. Please note it is perfectly valid for the student to say ‘I don’t know,’ in response to a ‘do you know what you want to major in?’ type question. But if a student says ‘bio medical engineering" or something similarly specific, s/he should certainly be prepared to discusss that. I’m not saying the student needs to be up on the latest developments in the field, but s/he needs to show some awareness of what the field entails - beyond ’ math and science.’</p>
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<p>Gosh, my D got into a top 10 LAC … she is interested in being a chemistry major, potentially pharmacology or neuroscience … and her basis is that it sounds interesting, she’s enjoyed the classes she’s taken so far (including a summer program on medicinal chemistry). What else was she supposed to say in an interview? It’s interesting to her. Great. Maybe she’ll continue that interest, maybe her studies will take her in another path. </p>
<p>My S, also admitted to a top 20 university, happened not to interview as it was not required, but he’s interested in history, internat’l relations and / or poli sci, with the hope of potentially going into government work some day. Why? Because it’s interesting and he enjoys learning about it. I don’t know what else can really be said about these things. We all are interested in what we’re interested in because, well, it interests us.</p>
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<p>Pizzagirl, your D’s reasons for her interest in chemistry provide the context and the details needed in an interview. She enjoyed the relevant classes - her interest was whetted through the summer medicinal chemistry programme. That’s saying a lot more than ‘it interests me.’ That’s saying “it interests me because…” and that’s exactly the sort of info an interviewer seeks.</p>
<p>But she doesn’t really know anything about the field, what it entails, what it might lead to, what a job in that field looks like. That’s ok. Maybe the ultimate job she winds up with hasn’t even been invented today. That’s why I don’t think it’s necessary for the biomedical engineer to articulate exactly what it is he plans to do.</p>
<p>Of course the biomedical engineer guy doesn’t have to articulate what he plans to do! But he appears to have given no indication that he had any understanding of the field.</p>
<p>While I agree that many high school students don’t know, I think it’s reasonable as an alumni interviewer to want a little more than “it’s interesting.” If, for example, Pizzagirl’s daughter said she liked chemistry because she “enjoyed the classes,” the followup question is – what about the classes does she like? What lab experiments did she like? Which topics in chemistry interested her? Many times as an interviewer I have to probe like this. </p>
<p>And this works for every possible subject. Which time period in history? Which authors do you like to read? What type of problems in math do you solving? (Always adding “and why?”)</p>
<p>If the student can’t have a decent conversation about the subject they think they want to major in, I will indicate that in my report. And many students will say something like, “I just put down psychology, but I’m really undecided.”</p>
<p>There is also a difference between the student who has taken high school chemistry courses and says “I want to major in chemistry because I find it interesting,” and the kid who says “I want to major in bio-medical engineering” or I “want to major in pyscholinguistics” – fields in which very few high schools offer course work–because it “sounds interesting.”</p>
<p>I NEVER said I expect the kid who says bio-medical engineering or psycholinguistics to tell me exactly what they plan to do. I do think they ought to be able to articulate a reason for majoring in that specific field. So, I don’t see anything wrong with the alum interviewer asking that question. “I’ve always liked math and science” wouldn’t be a good enough reason for specifying a bio-medical engineering major. </p>
<p>Interviews aren’t that important and one question isn’t going to make or break anyone. Again, it’s perfectly acceptable to say you’re undecided as to a major. It won’t hurt you in the least.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Pizzagirl on this topic. Maybe it’s because I have teenage sons! When I conduct my interview I do NOT ask overly intimidating questions. I merely try to draw the student into an interesting conversation to get to know him/her better. If something doesn’t work out. I move on. These kids are very nervous and really, the interview just doesn’t mean much, in spite of what some alums may wish to think. </p>
<p>My goal is for the student to leave the interviewing thinking “wow…that was a nice experience. I really hope I get into X”</p>
<p>The “Are you calling me a liar,” comment was over the top, and from that point on, I don’t think the interviewer has any credibility. Is it so impossible that he misheard? What a jerk.
How badly does your son want this college? If this happened to one of my kids, they would probably (irrationally) write it off as a place they’d rather not graduate from. If it’s one of his top choices, I would ask the GC if she would talk to the admissions rep about it, and complain. She has reason to do so because other students from her school might encounter this same interviewer and be turned off from the college as well. My kid’s GC would not have hesitated to report it.
Both of my kids had wonderful interviewing experiences at Ivys and other top schools. I don’t remember even one complaint of this kind. They felt respected and left feeling that the interview went at least ok, and usually very well. Even if your son was totally unqualified for the college, which I doubt, there is no excuse for rudeness or intimidation on the part of the interviewer.<br>
If your GC won’t report it, have your son call the admissions office and request another interview, and tell them why.
And whether the answer of “I’ve always liked math and science” was adequate really doesn’t matter. A follow-up question to bring out a nervous applicant would have been the appropriate response from the interviewer. Not giving the “right answers” is no excuse for rudeness.</p>
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<p>When my daughter began doing alumni interviews for Harvard, the local coordinator who had been interviewing for years gave the newbies some informal instructions and advice. She began her remarks by saying “Over the years I’ve kept a lot of kids out of Harvard…” Apparently that senior interviewer has reason to believe that a bad post-interview report from her has carried some significant weight.</p>
<p>That “senior interviewer” might have a somewhat inflated idea of her own importance.</p>