<p>So, I had my Hotchkiss Alumnus interview about a month ago. I wasn't able to fly up for an on-campus interview, so we scheduled an off-campus one. </p>
<p>The only problem is (and this has been eating at me ever since) that I'm having a few concerns about the way it went. Not that it went badly. But I have been reading around the forums and everyone's interviews seem to be fairly centered on interests, and goals and stuff like that. My interviewer and I talked briefly about why I wanted to attend and then the rest of the time was mostly spent answering my questions about details. </p>
<p>Should I be worried that he didn't get sufficient information from me to report to the admissions officers? Or do interviews frequently occur in this manner?</p>
<p>I had an alumni interview, and it was a little different from my regular ones. They said that when I visited the schools later it might be helpful to schedule another interview, even though it would be after the application deadline. If that wouldn't be possible I should at least contact the admissions office and ask if I could talk to them when I arrived.</p>
<p>Someone sent me a PM asking about a potentially awkward teacher recommendation. I think the sentiments I expressed there apply here as well...since an alumni interviewer is an outside reporter to the Admission Committee and not someone who later serves as a decision maker. The decision makers in the admission office look at the interview notes from alumni interviewers along with the recommendations. And they interpret the feedback in a holistic fashion rather than consume it as gospel truth that they are duty-bound to defer to.</p>
<p>I think the schools look at the recommendations -- and the rest of the application -- as a package. One person, an AdCom interviewer, may form some opinions about who you are before the full package is reviewed by the entire team. But that person's interview notes get read by everyone else together with the full application. So they're reading recommendations while looking at your grades and such. It's not like they see one less-than-stellar recommendation and form an opinion based on it in isolation.</p>
<p>Also, I think -- over decades (in some cases centuries) of existence -- admission offices have developed an institutional awareness that sometimes a recommender or outside interviewer will be like the Russian judge in figure skating. Top American skaters would get 5.8 and 5.9 scores from all the judges but then the Russian judge would score 5.2 or something like that. It was frustrating, but not fatal.</p>
<p>You're in a better position because the figure skating scores were computed on a purely mathematical basis. With admissions, they can disregard or diminish the weight they assign to a recommendation from a teacher who doesn't know the applicant very well and whose comments are an aberration. Same for an alumni interviewer. They know that some recommenders and alumni interviewers are just harsher than others and, unlike figure skating, your recommendations aren't being used to compare you to other applicants who have recommendations from different people. They are used to get to know you. With an alumni interviewer they can benchmark and have a very good idea of how that person's feedback dovetails with actual experience...much like we can get to know a movie reviewer and decide we really want to see a certain movie even though that reviewer's commentary wasn't glowing.</p>
<p>That said...and even though the figure skaters had a tougher challenge than you do in the form of the Russian judges, keep your chin up because plenty of American figure skaters have won gold medals!</p>
<p>I do alumni interviews for the college I attended. One thing you might keep in mind is that we're not professional admissions people and so may be less skilled at asking the right questions and getting to know you. </p>
<p>If the interview ended up being mostly you asking him questions because he just didn't have that many questions for you, I wouldn't worry about it. Also, remember the questions you ask can be actually say a lot about you - particularly if they are intelligent, well thought out, show that you have taken the time to learn something about the school and help reveal your own interests and passions. Hopefully you didn't ask too many questions that could be answered by spending a couple of minutes looking at the brochures the school sent you when you applied.</p>
<p>Just a tip for the others ... make sure you come to the interview prepared with your questions, grades, etc. This seems to be what impressed my interviewer the most. Sad, I know, that the best thing he could see in me is my preparedness. But I'd take it over nothing. ;)</p>
<p>You should not worry one bit about the interview, Alyria. There are going to be differences in how an alumni interviews you and how the admissions officer interviews you, but truly they both have the same goal in mind, and that is to spend time talking to you in a hopefully somewhat relaxed atmosphere to help them to see if you are a good fit at the particular school. By answering your questions and just conversing, it does tell them a lot. Basically, the school has your scores, your report cards, your essays and all of that stuff, so they know how you do in school and what your ECs are. Again, they just want to make sure that you know what, in this particular instance, Hotchkiss, is like and what boarding school will be like. This helps you both to know whether it would be a good fit or not. The alumni interviewer has been given instructions on conducting the interview, so although you might think other questions should have been answered, rest assured that you were asked the questions that were supposed to be asked and the interview was conducted the way the school would have wanted it to be. As has been mentioned, the interview is simply another part of the whole process so try not to worry, even though I'm sure it went well. Good luck.</p>