Alumni Interviewer Here: At Minimum, Please Read The Website

Applying to College
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Now rereading this, I see it might be assumed that my “some random alum” is a negative reference to someone here (e.g. blossom, since that’s the particular Wharton reference I happened to work off of).

FWIW, by that paragraph my thinking was solely about certain interviewers for that “one school”. And even though I look askance at such an interviewing approach, it does speak to the fact that each Ivy is quite different – a reality lost on many HS applicants. Be careful to choose the one which best suits you, assuming you end up with a choice.

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I thought all Brown interviews were pass/fail😀

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It’s hard to believe, but I (a dyed in the wool liberal) have enthusiastically recommended applicants who were Conservative (I lived in a red state for many years and was an active interviewer). I majored in Classics and fell in love with students who were prospective engineers and chemists. I grew up in an urban environment but could ask intelligent questions (I think) of a kid whose major EC was raising livestock for the county fair and working as a mentor for younger kids in 4-H.

I am indeed a random alum, but work hard not to impose my biases on the kids I’m asked to meet.

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: )

It actually took me a moment to get that, since “S/NC” is still riveted to the side of my brain, but good one!

At a college where engineering of one sort or another is the most common undergraduate major, and med/law school admit rates are through the roof, there’s not as much S/NC going on as people might imagine. I did audit a few courses which I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to, but never did avail myself of S/NC.

There was one woman in my freshman dorm who was taking all of her courses S/NC. We assumed she was there mainly to look for a husband ; )

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Yes, my task as an interviewer was to help uncover candidates who were headed towards “a life of usefulness and reputation” in the Brown lingo. When occasionally an interview conversation veered into the political realm, I was focused on the quality of their thinking rather than the particulars of it.

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Yes my queer extremely progressive trans kid was very nervous about his very selective school interview with an older (not just by our kids standards but by ours) gentleman whom google search revealed to have spent his life in finance and being very devoted to catholic charities. My son was also nervous about having to correct the name and pronouns used by the interviewer in the first email. Well the interview went very well, there were no name/pronoun issues, and my son just got in ED! Good lesson for him all around on prejudging…

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As area chair for the local interviewing effort, I had on-line access to the 500+ interview forms submitted each year. For the most part I didn’t look at any of them, but once it a while when either the interviewer seemed a bit “three-sigma” (to use statistical parlance), or there was something really different about the applicant (e.g. dirt-poor outlying farm hamlet), I wasn’t above engaging in a bit of recon to make sure the applicant was getting a fair shake. Echoing your experience, even those few matchups which had me concerned nonetheless resulted in evenhanded writeups.

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Thanks for all the helpful tips in this thread!!

When do interview invitations usually go out for regular decision applicants with deadlines at the beginning of January? (e.g., the Ivies, Tufts, etc.)

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For RD, it can be ANY time after they apply, as late as the second half of February for some top schools. D23 already had three RD interviews for T15ish schools: all 3 invitation emails came in December and she interviewed right after the new year. She submitted two of the apps many weeks before the email came, and one the day or two before the email came. It just depends on the region and alum availability for most of these.

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Thank you! Good to know.

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I’ve mentioned on other threads but will repeat here. First I’ve done many interviews over the years for a top school. With that said unless someone here is an AO and can comment on the role of the interview everything here is speculative.

Over the years I have seen many excellent candidates, with excellent credentials, and equally excellent professionalism with respect to the interview (prompt response, great interview, great knowledge about the school or program they are applying for, great conversation , engaging questions, a thank you note etc) resulting in a stellar interview report…get rejected.

Over the years I have also seen some very poor (in my eyes) students who have been unprepared for the interview, knew little about the school or program, did not seem to stand out in my eyes, may have seemed disinterested, may have been tardy, may have not written a thank you, and have been evaluated unfavorably by me…get accepted.

I have also seen some candidates for whom my report said "could not reach candidate despite multiple attempts '(usually up to five using email or phone) or “declined interview”…get accepted.

The mystery of the process remains and the role of the interview is unclear.

So when schools say the interview is optional they mean it. As an interviewer its a bit frustrating to feel at times your input has little impact especially if a candidate has such a negative impact on you ( there are many great students so the opposite is not as big a deal).It may be why OP mentions its hard to get enough interviewers and retain them to reach candidates as some interviewers get frustrated at the results of their interviews.

Some have even speculated the interview serves more to stroke the interviewers ego and keep them interested in the school ( and possible donations) than it does to serve the candidate who can readily find out information about the school or program elsewhere. As most interviewers are not necessarily recent grads or directly connected to the current school a candidate would learn more from a recent grad or a current student or faculty member than an alumni interviewer who went to a school years ago, a school that is very different from the version the applicant is applying to.

With all that being said other than an AO no one really knows the role of an interview. That aside if you do an interview simple courtesy is nice.

Bottom line is students shouldn’t worry about the interview and be themselves. Often times the decision to admit has already been made (school wants a particular candidate to fill a program, quota (minority, first gen, national or international distribution, financial considerations, athlete etc.). Have fun, be courteous, and professional you never know how far it will get you.

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In the case of Brown, that really came to a head for the 2021-2022 school year: A three-semester schedule with no first-years present for the Fall semester, remote classes only, one student per room/meals delivered outside the door, and movement restricted to little else but going out for weekly covid tests. In announcing that interviewing was being suspended, the AO pointed out how no alum could converse with an applicant as to what the classes or campus is like, because none of them had ever experienced what was being put in place.

As for the particulars of college admissions processes, for Brown at least there’s very little in the way of quotas or decisions being made ahead of the interview period. I was always being pushed towards the end to get interviews for my region submitted soon, because the AOs were about to start reading the files. Recruited athletes are about the only category which gets handled differently as to timing, but even those admits are conditional – the AO wanted to know about any who refused an interview.

For everyone else, it’s a matter of individual AOs reading their slice of the applications pie and selecting ones which are impressive enough to be taken before committee to champion. By this point they’ve already had to leave behind many applications they really liked, and in committee far more of their selected applicants will be eliminated as well. With an admit rate of 2-5% depending on the program applied to, only a fraction of the applicants who would do quite well at Brown can be admitted.

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Question for you about Brown. Brown has an “optional” or so it states “optional” video requirement. How optional is this video? And does not submitting a video equate to automatic rejection? Is a student that’s shy, not tech savvy, or simply not want to do the video disadvantaged ?

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I asked a Brown admissions officer that exact question. They are truly optional. Some applicants don’t submit them and are still admitted.

(end of what the AO had to say – now me talking)

I would recommend that the applicant at least make one, set it aside for a few days, and then listen to it but not watch it (a most self-conscious age, and besides the AOs are pros – they could care less what you look like). If, in the applicant’s judgement, it communicates something not presented elsewhere in the file, then go ahead and submit it. But either way, simply having made one can help bring into focus for the student where their head’s at regarding a particular college.

My guess, from what I think I understand of the overall selection process, is that a video is an “additive” to the file: If it’s great for whatever reason, it can be a plus in helping the AO to see the value of the applicant beyond what they otherwise would have gleaned from the file. If it’s average (by definition, the majority of them) or otherwise a time waster, then they just ignore it and return to scrutinizing things that really matter such as teacher recommendations.

So unless it’s really damning (I did once flag a sociopath from an in-person interview), probably won’t hurt. But do the poor overworked AO a favor, and don’t stretch it to two minutes if what you have to say takes less.

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Total tangent and this is rhetorical, but I am dying to know how you could tell someone was a sociopath from the interview!!

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It started as an odd feeling a few minutes into the interview. They were talking about things I don’t normally hear (sorry, no specifics here) and in a manner which reminded me of a video made by the “Santa Barbara shooter” in his car before walking around Isla Vista killing as many UCSB students as he could… because everything was someone else’s fault and they should pay… even "they"s he had never met.

The interview mostly consisted of me listening to one grievance after another, and that took a while – I’m not sure we even made it to the Open Curriculum ; )

For once I was glad Brown doesn’t allow in-home interviewing anymore, because I wouldn’t want this person to know where I lived.

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If that candidate had high enough scores they could likely gain admissions and significant financial aid at the University of Alabama who has more NMF than any other school and basically buys smart kids.

I guess this is a tale in support of the holistic approach to admissions screening vs auto merit.

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I’m confident that Bama would figure it out eventually… like by the time a third roommate goes missing.

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hi! I have an interview soon and I was wondering if it’s generally accepted to ask questions not geared towards the school? My interviewer’s ideals/platforms are really interesting and kind of align with mine (i swear I’m not being creepy haha you can learn about it with a quick google search and minimal scrolling) so I’m thinking about asking for advice or something along the lines of that. (it’s not something like “biology,” it’s niche-ish)

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Some interviewers might be put off by your having researched them. Others might see it as showing initiative, especially if that leads to conversation involving a mutual interest.

Perhaps best to simply bring up the interest you are referring to, but leave it to the interviewer as to whether they want to offer advice based on their background. If it’s someone like me, you won’t be able to get them to shut up. Others…?

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