<p>Alumni Interviews--are they any different from campus interviews? Do they still ask the same questions? thanks..</p>
<p>From my understanding, yes.
I had some of my interviews with deans and some with alumni.
They both asked very similar questions.</p>
<p>Annie,</p>
<pre><code>I’ll take a stab at this, since I do alumni interviews for my college. I think what you need to remember about alumni interviews is that, unlike interviews with the admissions office, the person you’re speaking with doesn’t do this for a living. The admissions officer interviewing you has probably done this hundreds of times and should be very good at putting you at ease, getting you to open up about yourself, etc. With an alumni interview, you are speaking with someone who may do fewer than a half dozen interviews a year. He (or she) may not even be that good at interviewing teenagers.
Having said this, I think you need to plan on being more proactive in an alumni interview. You’re not going to be able to count on the interviewer bringing out those traits, accomplishments, etc. that put you in the best light. Although you should always prepare ahead of time, and have some idea of what you want to talk about, I think this is particularly true in an alumni interview.
This doesn’t mean you can’t also be spontaneous and be willing to take the interview in unexpected directions. The best analogy I can give you is that you need to be like a great jazz musician or blues player. Those guys are able to be spontaneous and improvise because they know the song they are playing so well.
Finally, keep in mind that the person interviewing you is trying to do a couple of things. First, and foremost he is trying to decide if you’d be a good fit for BS in general and his school in particular. Coming across as mature, responsible, enthusiastic and nice are all good things. Next, he is trying to ascertain whether you’re the kind of person who’s going to make a positive contribution to the school. For example, as someone who interviews for a college, every kid I see has a ton of extra curricular activities which sound very impressive when put on an application. I try to focus on what the applicant really did. Being President of the Spanish club is impressive if you have 50 kids in the club, if you organized a dozen activities and trips over the course of the year, and if you started a cultural exchange program with high school students in a spanish speaking country. It’s somewhat less impressive if there are two other kids in the club and your one club activity was going to Taco Bell and eating a burrito.
Ok, now that I’ve got you all hyper, my last piece of advise is to relax. For an alumni to agree to interview prospective applicants, he (or she) must really love the school and probably enjoys doing this. If you really love the school too, you already have one thing in common. When I see someone who I can tell really wants to go to my college, I don’t want to be they guy who thwarts their dream. I’m looking for them to have a great interview and I want to find good things to say about them.
Finally, even if your interview doesn’t go well, don’t panic. Because we’re amateures at this our comments carry less weight than an admissions officers. Positive recommendations from your teachers, who see you every day and know you best will carry a lot more weight than an interview that maybe didn’t go so well.
In any event, good luck and let us know how things went.
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<p>Thank you soo much for your help! The interview went really well (at least I think it did)!</p>