Alumni Interviews

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>People seem to be sweating the alumni interviews, and I’ll throw in my two cents, for what it’s worth. I’m an alumni interviewer, and have been for 30 years.</p>

<p>First, regarding mechanics: the interviewer receives only your name, high school and contact information. They receive nothing that is on your application. They know nothing of your academics, or of your extracurricular achievements. </p>

<p>Admissions tries to have an alumnus interview every applicant. You haven’t passed a checkpoint if you get a call for an interview. You also haven’t been kicked aside if you don’t hear from an alum. Getting volunteers all over the country and all over the world to interview 25,000 students is a complicated task. Some kids are going to fall through the cracks, and that has nothing to do with the caliber of your application or your likelihood of getting in.</p>

<p>An alumni volunteer for each region is sent a list from admissions of students in their region who have applied. That volunteer tries to find alums near the student’s home to interview them. So you have volunteers coordinating volunteers.</p>

<p>Some kids sweat it when they don’t hear right back from the alum who is supposed to interview them. Don’t sweat that. These are usually busy people who are trying to squeeze time from a busy schedule to interview you. </p>

<p>Because they’re busy people, do respond quickly and do your best to accommodate them if you can. I have had applicants who I’ve had to work hard to track down, and a couple who simply never called me back after many attempts on my part. Blowing off the interview will hurt you, because that message will be relayed back to admissions.</p>

<p>Regarding how to dress: the simple trick is simply to ask the interviewer when you set up the appointment how you should dress. </p>

<p>When it comes to the interview:</p>

<p>Most kids who apply to Princeton are exceptional. They often come across better than people I interview in my real job for executive positions, surprsingly. </p>

<p>An alum isn’t seeing the competition the admissions office sees, so most applicants appear to be good to excellent to the interviewer. Most of the time, the alumni interviewer will send back a report that ranges from very good to glowing. </p>

<p>The interview’s purpose is to try to get another look at the applicant. Another function, I believe, is to keep the alumni connected to the school; it’s part of the continuous development (fund-raising) program.</p>

<p>I’ve always wondered how much weight they can give them, considering that most reports come back very good (as do teacher recommendations). However, admissions is looking for any tool they can to find out what the real you is like, and I assume that they do their best to glean a little from every piece of information that they get about you. </p>

<p>Regardless, a bad interview will hurt you. Most interviewers will excuse a high school kid who is nervous. The thing that will hurt is rudeness (I’ve never experienced that), or negativity and complaining (that’s rare, but I have experienced that).</p>

<p>Make sure you listen as well as speak, and ask some questions about the school and why it is different. Try to avoid saying anything that could be confrontational regarding the school, and there’s no reason to insult another school (it won’t make you look good to a Princeton alum to speak negatively about Harvard’s recent cheating incident, for example). Also, be prepared to tell why you want to go to Princeton, beyond that it’s known for having a great English department or US News rating or whatever academic accolade you’ve read about. Stanford, Harvard, Williams and Princeton all have much different locations, giving each of them different flavors, even if they all have fairly similar students attending them.</p>

<p>Overall, don’t sweat the interview. Go there and be yourself. Have some fun talking about what you’ve done in your life, and what you want to do. Learn some more about the school. Your alumni interviewer actually wants you to get in – we all hate seeing good kids get passed over who live in our towns. And almost all of the kids who apply come across as good kids.</p>

2

<p>I don’t interview for Princeton (though I plan to upon finishing here) but I do interview for my undergrad alma mater (another top school). That said, I think my experience is applicable. In my own experience, the worst thing you can possibly do is stare blankly at the interviewer when they ask why you want to go to Princeton (or wherever) and why you’re interested in your prospective major. More often than not, students spit out some generic response that is applicable to pretty much any school in the top 25. You certainly don’t have to have a JP or thesis advisor picked out but at least mentioning Princeton’s unique thesis requirement shows that you’ve done research beyond US News rankings. As the above poster said, simply saying Princeton has a good economics department is empty because (a) so do Harvard, MIT, Stanford,… and (b) you can probably can’t tell the interviewer what that actually means and how it will affect you. Finally, have questions. I hate it when I pretty much instruct the student to ask me anything and everything on their mind about the school or my experience and they have nothing. I think the advice is pretty obvious but it’s too easy to mess up. Anyway, my two cents.</p>

3

<p>All great points, Yanks Dolphin.</p>

4

<p>I have my interview today. Boy am I nervous!</p>

5

<p>My interview went fantastic. I was definitely way too nervous than I should have been. Think of the interview as a conversation with someone who will be able to give you more insight on the school. It should not even be called an interview. It is ok to be nervous since that shows u care about it and you want to do good, but do not start freaking out. Trust me, it will go smoothly. I hate speeches at my school but I was really relaxed and felt that the interviewer wanted to be there and help me out. Good luck to everyone! I have the Harvard interview on Friday :)</p>

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<p>Oh also, if you don’t get an interview or it’s strange (I got a phone interview, one of my friend’s interview lasted all of 8 minutes) don’t worry. People get in without interviews or with weird ones all the time!</p>