<p>I just signed up for my interview. Has anyone already done theres and have any advice/tips? Also, what topics do they usually ask about? Is it necessary to bring a resume?</p>
<p>1) Be yourself. I know it’s cliche, but this is your one chance to be more than just a few sheets of paper to admissions (albeit indirectly).</p>
<p>2) Yes, bring a resume but don’t bother to talk about it during your interview. Most likely the admissions people will know this stuff from your application. Also, your interviewer probably won’t care because their instructions are specifically not to talk about stuff that are obvious from your application. So unless there’s something on there that you must address or it pertains to some aspect of you that you didn’t really touch on in the application, just hand it over as a reference for the interviewers for later. </p>
<p>3) There are no set topics. No question lists. No evaluation forms. Nothing of that sort. It’s a casual conversation for you to express yourself, for the admissions to get to know you on a deeper level, and for you to ask questions and to get to know Duke from an alumnus. </p>
<p>So my advice is be yourself, maybe pick one or two topics that you are passionate about and could maybe steer the conversation in that direction, be social, engaging, friendly (i.e. not sketchy), and prepare a few (! not pages upon pages) good (not inane, nitpicky, or very obvious stuff found on the website) questions. A thank note or email is also a nice gesture afterwards.</p>
<p>i’m having my interview on sunday…</p>
<p>nervous!!!</p>
<p>
No, interviewers don’t have access to the application. They know only the basic contact information, whether the applicant applied ED or RD, whether the applicant is a legacy, and the applicant’s intended majors.</p>
<p>
While this is true during the interview itself, interviewers are expected to write a somewhat lengthy evaluation afterwards. How much weight this is given is debatable, however - I suspect not much.</p>
<p>^ Regarding above:</p>
<p>1) No I never said the interviewers had access to the info. Hence bring a resume so that they can reference it later when they write their evaluations (see below). The admissions office however, will have an applicant’s file. Thus, talking about things that the admissions people back at Duke already knows defeats the purpose of having an interview to get to know the applicant better. </p>
<p>2) There are no evaluation forms that the interviewer should bring with him/her to the meeting. If he/she does, then the interviewer is doing something wrong. In fact, the applicant should not see any evaluations being done during the entire process. As for afterwards, it’s still not much of an official form. From what I gather, it’s more of a free form “thoughts of the interviewer” or “overall impression of the applicant” kind of essay/letter. I don’t think they really have many (or any) specific questions that they instruct the interviewers to ask.</p>
<p>i had my interview a few weeks ago!!! i live in washington, his name was jorge florez. but yeah, all i did was bring my resume and look nice. he didn’t even ask for my resume until i mentioned i had it near the end of the interview. just be yourself! you’ll be fine!</p>
<p>^ Hey where in Washington do you live? (I’m applying ED from there and have an interview tomorrow)</p>
<p>bellevue, i go to newport highschool. you?</p>
<p>Glad I’m not the only one applying from Washington.</p>
<p>hhahaha trust me there’s A LOT from washington that are applying. probably over 15 just at my school</p>
<p>Really? lol people at my school don’t even know what Duke is.</p>
<p>ahahah oh jeez that is sad…</p>
<p>I had my interview last week and it went really well 
My interviewer had never heard of my school before.</p>
<p>I live in Washington too, but I haven’t gotten any contact for an alumni interview yet. 
Is there something I still have to do before I can get one? I know they’re optional, but decisions come out in a month…it’d be nice to get one in before then.</p>
<p>I had mine today. It went fairly well, I thought; my interviewer was very easy going and open. There was one question she asked me, though, that I had absolutely no idea how to answer. I just started at her saying “uh…uh…uh…” for about 15 seconds. Oops LOL</p>
<p>misspandaz: if you haven’t been contacted by the 19th then it’s likely that they ran out of interview slots. All interviewer evals for ED are due by the 19th.</p>
<p>@ SBR: Aww, I see then. Well, I sent them an e-mail through the admissions website requesting one. But if not, then oh well. Hopefully, I can still get in without one. :)</p>
<p>misspandaz- Alumni interviews matter less than people tend to put emphasis on them (people freak out so much about these!) They basically act as an additional letter of recommendation from a trusted source, as they’re the alumnus of the school. If you don’t get one, it won’t really affect anything.</p>
<p>I never had an interview and I got in…
My friends got interviews and they were rejected.</p>
<p>I am a Duke alumni interviewer, and would like to clarify a couple of points:</p>
<p>1) Alumni interviewers do NOT have access to your application, grades, essays or SAT scores
2) I would suggest you do NOT bring your resume to the interview. When students bring them to the interview, I politely decline.</p>
<p>We are instructed by the admissions committee to be blinded as much as possible so that we can remain objective. The alumni interview only makes up a small portion of the total package that the AdCom reviews, so I’m not sure how much weight it is given. Don’t stress and be yourself.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>