<p>How much could having an exceptionally good Alumni interview affect my application?</p>
<p>Minutely. Might tip the scale, but I don’t think the interview is ever substantively decisive.</p>
<p>Consider what adcoms are looking at:</p>
<p>-your transcript representing three plus years of cumulative effort
-your test scores, which go to great lengths to ensure consistency from one test to the next
-your course rigor, which is compared to a database filled with similar students and curricula
-your LOR, written by education professionals who have closely observed and evaluated you for at least a complete year
-your ECs, representing hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of effort
-your awards, given by objective third party judges using published criteria</p>
<p>Now consider your interview - generally less than an hour spent with a complete stranger who has minimal training and can only compare you to a handful of other applicants at best. It would be absurd for adcoms to place any significant amount of weight on the interview, either positive or negative.</p>
<p>By the way, I interview candidates for Duke and I have no illusions about the importance of the activity. However, it is an important PR job and I simply enjoy talking to students.</p>
<p>In addition to what rmldad said, consider that a whole lot of applicants for colleges and universities of Duke’s caliber are smart, articulate people who will interview really well. So I suspect it’s actually rather difficult to have an “exceptionally good” Duke interview.</p>
<p>I am also an interviewer, and I do not believe that my interview is given significant weight. I view my most important role as a representative of the university for candidates with choice. I also view my role, for however much weight it is given, as an advocate for the candidate. I try my hardest to accentuate the positive aspects of the candicacy or mention matters that perhaps did not come through, according to the candidate, on the application. So, that is how you should approach the interview, a final opportunity to express yourself to the admissions committee as well as an opportunity to learn more about the school. If you actually ask serious questions about the school and listen to the answers with intelligent follow up, you will do very well. You will also have information to make an informed choice between Duke and other terrific schools.</p>
<p>I never ever try to make the interview difficult or criticize a candidate for normal teenage stuff, like a little nervousness, gathering your thoughts, and so forth.</p>
<p>However, for what’s it worth, I do think that you can have a very good or very bad interview. What do I mean by bad–not knowing anything about the school or what you do think you know, getting completely wrong, saying you know a lot about a particular area, politics for example, and actually not knowing anything at all, or repeating only obviously canned generalities under the mistaken impression that I am really not that bright. I will give a low rating to this rare candidate and not one has ever been accepted.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some candidates are just very very impressive. These candidates express themselves with a high degree of sophistication on a variety of topics, comfortably converse during the interview without sounding canned, and are well prepared on Duke itself. These are not the loudest candidates or the brashest, they just seem to have some degree of star power. It never seems as though the prepared ten minutes in advance. I always give these candidates a five and not surprisingly they always have choice in selection.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t think my low ratings for some candidates and high ratings for others are the cause of their admission or rejection. Correlation is not causation. I think my ratings and the admission committee’s decision are both the product of characteristics of the candidate and the effort they put into the college admission process. So, if you have put tremendous effort in your high school career, and into your application and choice of schools, you will do well in your interview and likely in the application process as well.</p>
<p>@manyloyalties - I appreciate your comments and would encourage any applicant who is preparing for an interview to heed your advice.</p>
<p>Going off-topic however, I noticed your comment “I always give these candidates a five”. Under the rating system Duke used until last year, a five was designed for the top 1-2% of applicants. I always stuggled with a bright student, since this criteria seemed unreasonably high. I even gave very few fours, which I recall was for the top 10% of applicants. I am glad the Admissions Office has reconfigured the ratings range to allow more flexibility for us as interviewers.</p>
<p>On second thought, this comment might not be off-topic. Different interviewers will look at identical rating scales and interpret them in distinct, possibly unrelated ways. Even the reconfigured scale is subject to considerable intrepretation.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I just completed my interview this past Saturday. The alum who interviewed me said that I should be a perfect fit for Duke. Hopefully Duke feels the same way.</p>
<p>to rmldad–the five is for just those blow me away. I was responding to the suggestion that all students with good grades somehow come across as roughly the same. I probably overuse the five but no more than one out of ten get one. I know that in my area the “best” candidate I see, the five, is going to be accepted at Harvard or Stanford or get a large scholarship at another very fine school (Vanderbilt, Wash U, Virginia) and so I see no reason to artificially give a student who may well get into Harvard a four. so, maybe ten percent get a five. If it is really one precent, how would I ever know anyway as I would have to interview one hundred candidates over many years and remember them all well enough to pick that one that was the five. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t deceive myself into thinking my rating matters all that much. I just do the best I can and try to help the candidates.</p>
<p>I, too am an Duke undergraduate admissions interviewer, so please permit me to comment from the alumnus’ perspectives.</p>
<p>Our goal is to answer your questions, to make you more familiar and comfortable with Duke, and to discover things about you that are not documented in the “formal” applications process. We then write a brief report to summarize our conversation – and, yes, it is most important to view this as a bilateral discussion, not an inquisition. The possibility of that report having an adverse impact on the admissions decision is very small, but it might have a limited positive effect.</p>
<p>At the “stratospheric” level, my suggestions are very simple:
- Since we want this to be a mutually-pleasant and -productive experience, PLEASE just be yourself;
- Answer and ASK intelligent questions articulately;
- Demonstrate that you’ve “done your homework” and know the fundamentals concerning Duke (for example, it’s not very impressive when an applicant asks questions about a major that does not exist);
- BE ENTHUSIASTIC regarding Duke.</p>
<p>My last point will also be concise. I certainly understand that the seniors’s college choice – both the student’s and the universities’ decisions – is a huge deal for a teenager. However, PLEASE try not to be anxious or stressed. Generations of your older peers survived and prospered through this process and – believe it or not – you will, too.</p>