<p>Hello - I'm an alumni interviewer for Duke. I just received my first ED assignment yesterday. Since the interview season has just started up, I thought it would be helpful to post a few helpful tips for students:</p>
<p>1) Respond promptly to the interviewer once they reach out to you
2) Be flexible with interview dates/times -- we are volunteers and don't get paid and often juggle our busy work/family schedule
3) Don't stress out -- the interview is laid back
4) Help us help you -- give me useful tidbits to include in our evaluations. Especially things about you that are not mentioned elsewhere in your application. We want to know about you as a person, what makes you tick, and especially why you want Duke.
5) Take it all in -- we alumni like to talk about Duke (naturally). But please have several important questions to ask us, this shows us your maturity, intellect and sincere interest.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I am a Duke ED applicant hoping for an alumni interview. Duke’s website effectively says that if you are not contacted within the first two weeks of November for an interview you will not be contacted. Is this accurate, and when do you generally receive your final assignment (also how many per year)? Also, how widespread would you say the alumni interview network is? As a follow up, what percentage of ED applicants would you guess receive an interview?</p>
<p>ED interview and assessments must be completed by 11/23. So, yes, if you don’t hear something by mid-November, it’s unlikely that you will get one, but there are always exceptions as sometimes the alumnus is simply busy. The final assignment varies from committee-to-committee and person-to-person, but can be as late as a couple of weeks before the deadline. The number of interviews per year that an alumnus conducts again varies depending on how many applicants are in a particular region and that alumnus’ availability (they can state a preference of how many interviews they can handle).</p>
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<p>Don’t know the ED numbers, but overall 18,185 applicants were contacted and 16,185 were interviewed last year.</p>
<p>For RD the Duke website states that interviews are offered on a first come first served basis to those who apply by Dec 20. Does the chance of getting an interview decrease steadily as Dec 20 approaches or do most (East coast - metropolitan area) have a chance?
Thanks</p>
<p>As you can see, there are some areas where there are lots of alumni who can interview (esp east coast, california, FL, etc). But in others there are very few alumni who can interview.</p>
<p>Because the # of alumni in each region vary, the # of interview slots does also. This means in some areas, not all students will be interviewed. In my area however (northeast) our committee almost always reaches everyone who has been ‘promised’ an interview.</p>
<p>Regarding what % of ED applicants receive an interview: no idea, but the admissions office would probably know.</p>
<p>@wyanokie: the east coast RD students have a great chance of being interviewed. Get your RD application in early! </p>
<p>@ellisnp: to answer your question about how many students/year that alumni interview: this actually is up to the discretion of the regional chair and the alumni. Some have more time than others. I typically do 3-4 ED and another 6-8 RD students each year.</p>
<p>This year the Duke AIMS system was modified to allow us (alumni) to specify how many students max we wanted to interview for ED and RD rounds.</p>
<p>I usually do about ten interviews annually, BUT in Northern Virginia we are fortunate to have a large and very active alumni interviewer group, which assists each other when unexpected personal/professional demands arise. </p>
<p>Applicants should understand that, in general, the interview is both enjoyable – it’s not an inquisition – and a relatively minor element in the aggregate assessment process. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I would’ve thought this was obvious, but if an interviewer emails you, make sure to use complete sentences, proper grammar, and punctuation in your responses. You don’t have to be overly formal, but don’t use a bunch of slang and abbreviations. Even if your interviewer is a younger, somewhat recent alum, emails that look more like text messages probably won’t make a great first impression on him or her.</p></li>
<li><p>The interviewer wants to know about you, so the best thing you can do to prepare is know yourself. Spend a few minutes before the interview thinking about the things that you’ve enjoyed most about your high school experience, both in school and outside, why you’ve enjoyed those things, what challenges you’ve overcome and what you learned from them, what you look forward to doing in college, and why Duke is where you want to do it. Obviously this is stuff that you already know, but spending a few minutes intentionally thinking about all of these things will probably help you articulate them a little more clearly during the interview.</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re really having trouble thinking of questions to ask, consider asking about the interviewer’s time at Duke (e.g., what were his/her favorite things about the school, what did he or she appreciate most about the student body, etc.). Of course the interview is about you and not the interviewer, but we’re interviewers because we love Duke. Naturally we also like to talk about our time there. Plus, hearing about first hand experiences often gives you a much better picture of the school than reading websites and admissions brochures.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ll repeat the advice from previous posters to relax and not stress. Remember that the interview is very unlikely to change whether or not you get in, and the interviewer genuinely wants you to do well and enjoy it. </p></li>
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<ol>
<li> Do not provide an unsolicited resume. Duke guidance specifically asks us not to request one, probably because the interview is supposed to be a “blank sheet of paper” to begin, and we NEVER have access to your application and associated documentation (e.g., GPA, standardized test scores, class rank, EC, recommendations, curriculum and its rigor, and so forth). That information will develop during the conversation’s natural course. </li>
</ol>
I just finished my batch of interviews for the 2014-2015 year for Duke undergraduate admissions. Deadlines for us to submit our evaluations are tomorrow. So I’ve been busily writing up my impressions of each student.
Here is a list of “blunders” from this year’s batch of students that I thought were memorable:
QUESTION: What is one thing you would change about your high school: ANSWER = not enough ketchup in the cafeteria.
QUESTION: What do you want to know about Duke: ANSWER = how easy is it to get B-ball tickets for Cameron indoor?
QUESTION: I’m not that familiar with the programming language that you self-learned. How is this different from an object oriented language like C++? ANSWER: To be honest I don’t know the language that well at all really, I just watched a few Youtube videos.
QUESTION: Why do you want to go to Duke? ANSWER: I’ve already been accepted to Georgetown EA and want to see if Duke will give me better merit based award.
It still surprises me the dumb thing that students sometimes say during interviews.
@sgopal2 You have to be kidding me. Maybe its because I’m in NYC so the average applicant to Duke is probably a bit sharper than applicants elsewhere but I seriously cannot imagine anyone giving those answers to your questions.
Putting aside unfounded NYC biases (I was born there, but departed as soon as I could), here’s my favorite from this admissions cycle’s interview season:
Q: Have you visited Duke?
A: Yes, it was wonderful and I really liked the NEW HAVEN community (okay, understandably it’s sometimes a stressful situation for some seventeen year olds and she immediately – and contritely – corrected the faux pas, but come on . . .).
@jwest22: I wish I was kidding. But these are honest to goodness answers that real students gave me this past interview year. Here are some other true incidents from years past that made me laugh:
Student (from another country): tried to give me a beautiful hand embroidered map of his country as a ‘gift’ after the interview. It was beautiful silk and filled with what looked like precious jewels. But I had to turn down the ‘gift’.
Student (from another foreign country): missed interview appointment twice, rescheduled twice. On third attempt, she showed up 15 mins late. Apologetically since it was close to valentines day, she brought a gift bag, with a box of chocolates and a thick envelope inside. I never looked inside the envelope, but graciously turned down the gift.
QUESTION: if you had a free day with no scheduled school/work, what would you do? ANSWER: I’m a big sports fan, so I think I would go over to UNC Chapel Hill and paint a big blue D on the chapel steps.
QUESTION: Do you have any questions for me about Duke? ANSWER: I’m really worried about student debt and want to know if I go to Duke and get a degree if I can get a good enough paying job. How much money do YOU make?
The large majority of the students I interview are graceful, intelligent and witty. But every once in a while there is always a hidden gem.
@sgopal2 @TopTier I couldn’t help but laugh at every single one of these (especially the UNC comment). I envy your interview experiences. While they’re quite unfortunate for the student, i’m sure they’re memorable and somewhat entertaining for you.