<p>i've unsuccessfully tried to schedule an interview with my top choice school, but there's an alumni in my town who i could interview with. but it seems to me that interviewing with an admissions officer is more 'direct,' and that anything i say will be taken as is (for better or worse, heh) rather than having gone through an alumni.</p>
<p>how does an alumni pass on whatever i say/recommend me to the admissions officer(s)?
what are the pros/cons of interviewing with an alumni vs an admissions officer?</p>
<p>One is on the adcom and the other isn't, for starters.</p>
<p>Some schools only have alumni doing interviews, others might have both, some might only have admissions officers. Check with the admissions office to see what the process is at this particular school. If there isn't a formal one in place, the alum can just send in a letter - but not sure how valuable that would be unless they are a high profile alum.</p>
<p>actually i don't think it really matters, becasue in the end the alums are supposed to fill up a report to submit to the office. unless, of course, you don't think the alum will send the report the way you want it.</p>
<p>What's the school? I know that Harvard believes that alum interviews are so important that it really does want all applicants to have them (unless it's impossible for the student to meet with an alum because of a lack of alums in their area).</p>
<p>Harvard likes alum interviews because the adcoms can get insights into the students that the adcoms themselves can not get. That's because alums know about what the opportunities are in their location and can recognize when a student has done something that is extraordinary for their region (even if those things might be ordinary in Boston). Alums also are likely to recognize when students are exaggerating their activities such as acting like a very insignificant club is very significant.</p>
<p>An example could be when a student acts as if they thought up a community service project that in reality is done every year by their school, and is mainly arranged by the PTO.</p>
<p>skidmore. that's a good point, about the alumna knowing the community and whatnot. my sister actually said that she might possibly be the mother of a classmate of hers...the mentality of talking to someone's mother is more comforting than talking to some random woman heh.</p>
<p>emizzly, at the school I interview for, you are supposed to excuse yourself from interviewing anyone with whom you have a personal connexion, as in "the mother of a classmate of hers." Personally, I go further and do not interview anyone at schools which my children attend.</p>
<p>what specifically defines a personal connection...i'm almost positive my sister never talked to this person, and most definitely never had any contact whatsoever with her mother. i think she was simply someone in her grade, but no one she ever knew. plus, it might not even be her mother, it could be someone completely different. should i look into the possible connection further?</p>
<p>from what I've heard alumni interviews can hurt but don't really help.</p>
<p>Alums don't see as many candidates as adcom interviewers, so when an alum says "best person I talked to in years" than may mean out of 40 kids, not the 400 the adcom talked with in one year alone. And alum interviews aren't standardized because schools can't invest the time to turn alums into trained interviewers.</p>
<p>Alum interviews CAN hurt. You'd be surprised how many kids tell an alum they're not really interested in the school and are only applying because their parents made them, or just to see if they could get in. And as Northstarmom points out, local alums have more insight into the local scene and can detect puffery and exaggerations.</p>
<p>However I'd still recommend doing the alum interview, because it demonstrates interest in the school and that in itself is a plus.</p>
<p>Ah I'm sorry I misunderstood you! I thought you meant that interviews were done by adcoms but that you knew an alum and you thought you should do an unofficial "interview" with them since you couldn't get an official interview.</p>
<p>If you have the opportunity to do an alumni interview, definitely take it. Schools will think it's strange (or that you're not interested) if you are offered one and don't take it. I do alumni interviews for Penn, and as someone said they can definitely hurt you if you say the wrong thing or come across as having no confidence, social skills, or genuine interest in the school or program you are applying for.</p>