That makes sense, thank you so much for the advice! 
I’ll for sure keep that in mind
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If it is something I have already put up publicly, like in a LinkedIn profile, I would not be freaked out. Plenty of interviewees have asked me about law and IB careers. Talking about common interests is a good thing in an interview. If further digging were involved, like asking about my spouse or kids (unless they already knew them in the normal course), that might be off putting.
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awesome, thank you!
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Comments complement/support previous answers:
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my experience is interviewing for selective university (~3% current admit rate), mostly international students, since inception of their alumni interview program
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for recruited athletes / major (ie 8 digits) financial donors, the alumni interview has zero bearing
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the interviews are conducted by thousands of different alums; the reviews they submit are very different, and only represent a small factor in the admission decision
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declining an interview for no good reason is close to a certain deal killer (as previously reported). concur that I have never had a candidate decline an interview without valid reason subsequently being accepted. in the current cycle, I had a “decline” by email which was both grammatically incorrect, contained multiple typos, and was factually incorrect. would bet $500 the application will be rejected.
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the admission office will know both the reliability of an interviewer (if he/she has interviewed for several years), and his/her grading range
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AI program preselects roughly 15% of the applicant pool as “qualified” (at my alma mater), from which AOs will curate the final list they want. If some conflicts remain at that stage, only then will the AOs use the alumni interview reports to weigh between “equals”, particularly if very strong/poor interview grades are assigned by experienced interviewers.
Hope this helps you all in your application journey.
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Great summary! Thank you!
For those of you who believe that alumni interviews do not matter, think twice. Maybe thrice. I have been interviewing for both my undergrad and grad programs for 15+ years, and both programs have requested the interviewer to provide very thorough evaluations. If the mere objective was to keep the alumni interviewers engaged and donate, I think the job would be better served by the development office, where officers cultivate and maintain portfolios of 7- and 8-figure donors (in some cases higher, of course).
There are amateur interviewers who do it for fun - who take on perhaps 2-3 candidates a year, and complete each evaluations within minutes. Then there are serious interviewers who do perhaps 10-20 a year (my greatest admiration goes to a poster who did 130 in one season). I tend to take my assignments and follow-on evaluations very seriously. For those that clearly do not fit, I would be brief and straightforward. For high-achieving candidates who also appear to be a good fit, I would sometimes spend an hour in putting together a strong recommendation. Some of the strongest candidates still end up being rejected every year (because the programs are so competitive), but I owe the school and the candidate that much.
I also agree that the admission folks will eventually learn your standards and how you perceive/recommend the candidates, if you have do it long enough. You build rapport and credibility with the AOs over time, and the exchange could be very rewarding. On multiple occasions, I’ve had an AO reach out to me to ask questions about a particular candidate. If the interviews do not matter, why would they bother?
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Depends of the school. Cornell eliminated their alumni meeting report a few cycles back. Now it’s just a yes/no if the meeting happened.
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It really depends on the school.
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It also depends on geography. I’ve interviewed for my Northeast/urban alma mater when living in a small city in the midwest where there were very few alums and interviewers- and I know my input was considered, especially since most of the kids I interviewed had not been able to visit the campus. I’ve also interviewed from a big city in the Northeast-- with dozens and dozens of interviewers, and where an enterprising kid could find a $10 Amtrak ticket to visit campus… and my input seemed less valuable in the process.
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each school and location have their patterns, but there are general similarities applicable across schools.
from a busy 2022/23 calendar, couple clear messages resonate:
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Bombarding interviewers with messages such as “what should I bring for the interview” doesn’t covey the preparedness and maturity a university is seeking
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not following up with an email/message thank you maybe the expectation of today’s high schoolers, but it’s certainly not the expectations of an older interviewer about to write the review the applicant wants to ace
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I had an interview scheduled today with Wesleyan- i think it might have been a student rather than an alumni. the interview was supposed to start 20 minutes ago, but i am in the meeting and nobody else is! I am totally not a morning person so I totally get if my interviewer slept in, but I am not sure what to do! The admissions office sent me the link for the interview, so I cannot contact the person that is going to give me the interview. Do I try to contact the admissions office? I don’t want them to think I am a no-show, and I really do enjoy doing interviews. I find them really helpful and though they might not be that big in my application they give me peace of mind at least that I did all I could. Any advice?
How disappointing! I am sorry. I would definitely contact the admissions office letting them know you joined the meeting and waited for X minutes but no one showed up. Let them know you would be available for another interview if any are still available.
This year I had one interviewee not show up. When I contacted them they said they had a family emergency. I suspect they forgot but gave them the benefit of the doubt and rescheduled.
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At the school I interview for, interviewers are asked to communicate the proposed meeting times to candidates, which connects both parties by email. I normally use the opportunity to communicate my mobile, exactly for involuntary instances where one is delayed, as it were in your case.
you should indeed contact the admission office as stated by @Malsandhuskies
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Sorry, that happened. I agree with what others have said. I also wouldn’t dismiss the possibility that this was an alum who was also in a meeting thinking no one else was there. This happened with me and a doctor using his office’s teleconferencing setup. He apologized for the mix-up, but it didn’t stop me from switching specialists. Adults and tech don’t always mix.
For applicants nonetheless wondering about the answer to that question, I will mention that some but not all applicants do arrive with an academic/EC resume of one sort or another. They will typically ask if I want to see it, and I reply that they should first black out any grades or test scores because that’s not my department… transforming their nice neat page or two into a scratched-up mess ; )
Those resumes can come in handy when time is constrained, such as in an interview-day format. Easier to spot and zero in on things which the student didn’t necessarily realize were important, and might never have mentioned.
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Lots of really good points here. I did alumni interviews at my alma mater for a similar reason. I stopped this year for a few reasons, all personal, but I enjoy talking with teens, so that is why I did it. I always got good feedback from admissions about what I wrote on the forms.
I’d also add that please remember that your interviewer has no say over your admissions decision. At highly selective schools, their job is to relay to the admissions committee what you can contribute to the school community. Showing interest is nice, but it’s not as necessary as showing what you bring to the table. If you don’t say anything in the interview that answers that question in detail, your interviewer is not going to be able to give much useful information to the committee no matter how hard they try.
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Updating as a reminder to 2023-24 applicants:
-please check your email
-please make sure you check the email that you listed on your application!
-please check your phone(the one listed on your app), including voicemail
-please make sure your voicemail is set up
-please respond to said emails/texts/voicemails if you want an interview or conversation with an alumni
-do NOT have your parents do any of the above. You are the applicant.
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