<p>My Dartmouth interviewer contacted me via email some time ago, over a week ago. She (I assume it was a she) told me congratulations for finishing my application, and told me to call her for an interview. Her email was rife with misspellings and was overly cheery, as if I had actually won admission to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I suppose that was not all that troubling at first (I have dealt with rude interviewers), but then I asked her to do an in-person interview near where I live (Dallas) or a phone interview. In her reply, she ignored what I said and told me that we should do Google Hangouts as she was travelling to Louisiana or thereabouts. I am not used to Google Hangouts and do not like it. Instead, we managed to schedule a phone interview. An hour before it began, she emailed me and told me that she could not do it that day, and told me to take a laptop to a nearby community college where we could do Google Hangouts. I was now a little uneasy and told her no, let's just stick to in-person or phone interviews. She told me that she could not do anything until April. I basically said forget it then (I wrote it much more politer than that) and thanks for offering, as I wished to be polite.</p>
<p>She has not emailed me back, and I do not care to do an interview with her. All our correspondences were by email. She never told me in what city she lived and tried to get me to leave the house and go to a college when I could do Hangouts at home.</p>
<p>Is this normal? Was I being rude myself? That is my question...I have met squeamish or hurried interviewers before, some that were rude and simply forgot about my interview or others who asked me to go to their workplaces, but never an interviewer like her. Her style of writing and overall bearing made me nervous. Perhaps I am just paranoid or freaking out for no reason, but I would like to know if anyone else has had a similar experience or if I did the wrong thing.</p>
<p>The interviewer should set the standard of the interview, not you. If she wanted to do a Google hangout, you should have just sucked it up and done it. </p>
<p>^ That was generally the case with my other interviews. However, I am glad I did not do this interview. I have not used Google Hangouts, and the only reason I know what it even is is because a friend mentioned it to me. I believe she was trying to lure me out of the house for some reason, or else videotape our interview.</p>
<p>Check Dartmouth’s policies before you assume the worst. I know some schools say that interviews are optional and declining one does not hurt your chances.</p>
<p>Contact the Dartmouth Admissions Dept. directly. In a respectful manner (giving the benefit of the doubt to the interviewer), explain what happened. Then ask for clarification on how alumni interviews are generally conducted. Indicate that you’d be happy to do an interview with another alumnus/-a who has more availability.</p>
<p>I would cut the interviewer some slack for the misspellings in her emails. She might not be a native English speaker. On another note, given her busy schedule, she should probably notify the local alumni association not to assign more interviewees to her. But that’s not something you have any control over.</p>
<p>Most Ivy League alumni interviews are handled by a committee that’s part of the local alumni association. I have to believe that Dartmouth has a large alumni presence in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It’s a major metropolitan area, after all. It shouldn’t be too difficult to set you up with another interviewer.</p>
<p>If you’re patient, I’m sure you could get this thing resolved in an afternoon.</p>
<p>@desie1 and @ Bartleby007: I will probably call Dartmouth and ask for another interview and if she really was one of their interviewers. I don’t think her name appeared on the alumni club she said she was with. </p>
<p>@bodangles: Dartmouth says its interviews are optional and voluntary, so I don’t think my refusing would be a problem.</p>
Local alumni clubs don’t always keep online member rosters current. My alumni club (another Ivy in a large city on the West Coast) doesn’t even provide such an online list – it’s a matter of maintaining member privacy.</p>
<p>The chances of the woman “impersonating” a Dartmouth alumni interviewer are very, very, very low.
Think about it. That person would have to get your contact information, know that you had applied to Dartmouth, and figure out that you were waiting to do an interview. Then she would have to demonstrate enough patience…to attempt to set up a Google Hangouts session. There’s also the question of what sort of advantage could be gained by interviewing a high school kid.</p>
<p>I think the more likely scenario is that the woman is a non-native English speaker who is a Dartmouth alumna and just handled her interaction with you very awkwardly. No big deal.</p>
<p>^^ Agree. Can’t see why she would want to get you out of your house for some nefarious purpose since it’s highly unlikely she’s the front person for a burglary ring (like the ones that read the notices of funerals and burgle the deceased’s home during the ceremony). Good advice from Brtleby007. </p>
<p>I don’t care if it’s the almighty Dartmouth or Apex Technical School, if you feel uncomfortable in a situation you should,as sensitively as possible, go with your instinct and do what feels right for you. As was already suggested, contact admissions and ask for another opportunity. I may be wrong, but for some reason the idea that the interviewer is a non-fluent alum who is also using a pretty new and savvy social networking site like hangouts doesn’t jive with me. </p>
<p>@JoBenny, you were right - I guess my instinct on the lady was correct. One of my buds had an interview with the same lady today. They used Hangouts as well. He said that she wanted Hangouts so she could be sure his parents weren’t feeding him info, and so she could videotape it to use for a movie she was making. I’m glad I didn’t go- I definitely don’t want my video taken. I will ask Dartmouth for another interview, though. </p>
<p>Zzwicker, do explain the situation to the Dartmouth admissions office. </p>
<p>You shouldn’t have to agree to participate in the interviewer’s movie for an alumni interview. It explains why she wanted to use Google Hangouts, but that’s uncalled for on her part. </p>
<p>What Periwinkle said. Also, this person should not be a Dartmouth interviewer, and I half hope she reads this posts (or maybe not) because using video of people without their permission is a great way to get sued. </p>
<p>Wow. That is so inappropriate. Even if the students are asked first and the videotaping is completely optional…If it were me I would feel uncomfortable saying no…like it might put me at some sort of disadvantage with admissions if I didn’t agree to be filmed. </p>
<p>That’s an absolute over step. What a ridiculous abuse of authority. I can’t imagine any student feeling the freedom to decline such a situation.</p>
<p>Please call Dartmouth right away and protect fellow students from this outrageous scenario. </p>
<p>Are you SURE she was videotaping this for a movie? Or was that just a theory on the other person’s part?</p>
<p>The whole thing sounds strange, but from where I sit it sounds as if the pair of you share the credit to some degree. Google Hangout is just about identical to Skype. Sometimes it works better. S and I used to use it to talk because for some reason Skype tended to have a lot of lag and frequently broke up.</p>
<p>Consolation, from a quick search online, it seems Google Hangouts offer the ability to record the hangout. If the interviewer did not feel comfortable in English, or wanted to replay parts of the interview later, I could see (for her) the attraction to having the whole thing “on tape,” as it were. (However, that makes this interview very different from all the other students’ interviews, whose interviewers cannot replay the interview at a later point.)</p>
<p>I will assume the interviewer did not plan to use the Google Hangouts On Air feature, which allows users to broadcast hangouts on the internet. Nevertheless, the service seems to offer that option. </p>
<p>Again, we’re back to the question of confidentiality in an alumni admissions interview. I will sound stuffy, I suppose, but the interviews are not supposed to send applicants into a panic. The interviews are not to be used to buttress the interviewer’s career. If you’re in the same city, you should do the applicant the favor of showing up in person. If you can’t agree on a time, the alumna should notify the office which gave her the applicant’s name.</p>
<p>The applicant should never feel, “gosh, if I refuse to allow my interview to be used in her movie, maybe she won’t like me.” </p>
<p>Uh, yeah I agree with y’all. I never really agreed to the interview. Just for clarification, I politely declined. I’ll ask Dartmouth for another, and try to explain the situation to them as well. Thanks for all of you guys’ input.</p>