<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>After much research and many conversations with friends at Duke, I've decided that Duke is the ideal college choice for me, and I'll 99.9% be applying there Early Decision. I have excellent stats and (hopefully) strong essays, so I believe I stand a good chance. However, what concerns me is the alumni interview. I go to school near Princeton, NJ, where Duke alums abound, so the chances of me being offered an alumni interview are high.</p>
<p>The problem is, I consider myself a below average interviewee. So the interview will either hurt or not help at all with my application. I'm wondering, since applying ED is already the best indicator of demonstrated interest, if rejecting an alum's interview offer would be a wise idea. Would the admissions officers look down on me for not interviewing? </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>My advice to you would be to interview. Rejecting an alum’s interview offer might arouse suspicion. Your best bet would be to attend the interview and present yourself in the best possible light. Interviews are nothing more than screening tests. As long as you come across as being reasonably articulate and levelheaded, you have nothing to fear. Just play it safe by steering clear of controversial topics.</p>
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No, not wise.</p>
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Yes, it gets indicated on the interview evaluation.</p>
<p>Honestly, don’t stress out too much about the alumni interview. It doesn’t matter all that much, so as long as you don’t completely bomb it (don’t be rude or completely ignorant), you should be okay. You don’t need to be a super outgoing talkative person - just demonstrate interest and be prepared with being able to explain your extracurriculars, your passions, what interests you about Duke, and have some good questions. You’ll be fine. The interview gives you another opportunity to learn about Duke and ask questions, and serves as a way for the admissions committee to learn a bit more about you beyond your application (almost like another recommendation). Good luck!</p>
<p>bluedog, thanks for answering. Are you an alum interviewer? How long does it usually take for interviewers’ recommendations to be processed / make it into the application file?</p>
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<p>Yes.</p>
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<p>Instantly after they submit it as far as I know. The submission is online.</p>
<p>Right, then I will interview in December. </p>
<p>@MBVLoveless : I’m an alumni interviewer for Duke, and agree with @bluedog. If offered an interview, take it. The interview can only help you, it rarely hurts you. We write up a paragraph about our discussion and assign a rating for each candidate, this is all done online and instantly submitted to your file.</p>
<p>There are a handful of people who I’ve offered interviews over the years who either politely declined or failed to show up. None of these students were accepted.</p>
<p>No need to prepare ahead of time, but have something to talk about.</p>
<p>Loveless: I, too, am a long-term Duke alumni undergraduate admissions interviewer and I fully endorse the advice already provided by sgopal2 and bluedog. I wish to add one thought, however. Reading between the lines of your original post, I get the feeling you’re somewhat too anxious about Duke’s interview (I know how important this is to you, but please try to relax). Duke’s AAAC has more than 4,000 interviewers globally, so what I’m about to provide obviously is a generalization, but it is fundamentally true. Your interview will almost surely be a conversation, not an inquisition. We endeavor to answer your questions and to get a feel for you individually – beyond the application’s voluminous paperwork and documentation. Normally, interviews are not intended to intentionally “trip you up” with impossible questions and/or other assorted baloney. Further, we never know – nor should we – your GPA, standardized test scores, etc. Therefore, there will be no comments or questions regarding the B received in Chemistry or the 800 on the reading comprehension test. Be yourself, be polite but not obsequious, be very enthusiastic about Duke, ask smart questions (that hopefully are not easily ascertained on Duke’s webpages), relax, and – honestly – treat this interview precisely as if it were a discussion with a longstanding family friend who attended Duke a generation ago. </p>
<p>I was an accepted student this past year and I wholeheartedly agree with the previous comments - take the interview! It’s usually a very laid-back and casual atmosphere. It’ll feel more like a friendly conversation than an interrogation. Plus, not only will it supplement your application, but it will also give you the opportunity to ask the alumnus any questions you have about life at Duke - things you may not be able to find online.</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless : Note that alumni interviews for ED applicants actually starts earlier (Nov). Start doing some mock interviewers once you start school in the fall.</p>
<p>@sgopal2: No, I will ask my interviewer to delay the interview until after Thanksgiving Break due to end-of-term academic commitments. I would expect my interview to respect that! :)</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless: The deadline for alumni to return their interview assessments for ED candidates is typically mid-Nov, at least in my region (central NJ). Sometimes there is flexibility, esp the year in which Hurricane Sandy hit, the admissions office gave us a few extra weeks for ED interviews.</p>
<p>But I wouldn’t count on being able to schedule your interview after Thanksgiving, as it may be AFTER the deadline by which evaluations are due to Duke Admissions.</p>
<p>@sgopal2: Really? The deadline for ED application is November 1st, so only giving applicants 2 weeks to do the interview is a bit harsh! My school is on a trimester system, whereby the fall term ends on the 21st, so the weeks before that will be extremely busy. After Nov 21st, I’ll go back to my country in Asia (we have already booked the ticket) for Thanksgiving break until December 1st. Are you sure interviewers can’t be flexible?</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless : I’ve been doing alumni interviews for a long time. The ED deadline for alumni to enter into AIMS (the online database) has traditionally been Nov 15. There is some flexibility in this, as I stated above. But unless you can count on another hurricane hitting the east coast I wouldn’t count on being able to defer your interview until after Thanksgiving. You might end up with a sympathetic and understanding reviewer who is willing to bend the rules, but do you want your application to be completed and sent to committee 2 weeks AFTER the deadline?? Your application really won’t be voted on by the committee until it is complete. Your regional reviewer might read through everything but won’t make a firm decision until after your packet is complete (this includes the alumni interview).</p>
<p>Looking back, I remember starting the ED interviews as early as beginning of October.Why can’t you do your interview earlier??</p>
<p>Why won’t my application be voted on until the interview is completed, considering the interview is nominally optional?</p>
<p>And what’s wrong with completing my interview component two weeks after the deadline? It’s not like I don’t have respectable reasons…</p>
<p>And idk I might change my mind regarding my ED choice in the last second, so I don’t want o rush my interviews / I want to have the time to prepare. just asking</p>
<p>But if what u say is trye, sgopal, I guess I’ll just have to try my best haha. Was gonna further prep for it during thanksgiving, but guess not.</p>
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If you decline an alumni interview, then your application would be considered complete once the last piece comes in. It would then go to your regional reviewer, then to a second reader, and finally to committee.</p>
<p>However if you sign up for an interview, then your application would still be read, but not forwarded to committee until complete. Your application would not be complete until the alumni interview is done. Even if the regional interviewer recommends you be admitted, it still needs to go to a second reader and to the committee to make final admit/deny/defer decisions.</p>
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These are the rules. I don’t make them up. Again you can try and plead your case, but I’m not sure if Admissions will make an exception in your case. There are lots of other kids who have gone through the same deadlines who also attend trimester schools. </p>
<p>The interview isn’t honestly that big of a deal, I think you are making more of it than it needs to be. No preparation is needed. If you come across as being nervous, it may reflect poorly upon your chances. Just be yourself.</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless: I, too, am a long-term alumni interviewer, a former Alumni Association Vice President and Executive Committee member, a former Annual Fund Executive Committee member, and a current Co-chair of Duke’s second largest regional alumni community. I provide this information so you’ll understand that my comments are based on in-depth knowledge.</p>
<p>Your several times expressed attitude seems to be rather “individually centric” rather than “Duke focused.” I’m certain you are bright, but perhaps you’d better understand this situation if you viewed it from Duke’s – and the assigned alumni interviewer’s – perspective rather than your own. In the '14 - '15 undergraduate admissions cycle, Duke will probably receive approximately 33K applications and accept about 11 percent of those candidates. Tens-of-thousands of those who are denied would do extremely well at Duke and are absolutely worthy of admission. Under these circumstances, why would an exception be made for you, when literally thousands of other ED candidates will be able to accommodate Duke’s deadline without complaint or difficulty?</p>
<p>Further, have you thought about the alumni who voluntarily conduct these interviews? Fundamentally and without exception, they are highly accomplished and very busy people who have extremely full lives: personally, professionally, with other service commitments, and so forth. Without question, it is much more difficult for an alumni admissions volunteer to accommodate your interview than it is for you to ensure a couple hour (including transportation) schedule availability.</p>
<p>I am NOT trying to be harsh or unaware of how important your undergraduate application/decision processes are to you as a teenager. However, if you’re intelligent and perceptive enough to attend Duke, you should also be wise enough to understand that your desires will frequently need to be altered to accommodate larger and more-critical matters (this is indisputably true for MUCH in life, clearly not just for this relatively minor Duke ED interview).</p>
<p>@TopTier: I understand what you’re saying. I guess I was stressing out so much about the interview that I just wanted to waive it or get a decision before the recommendation made it to my file. But I just came back from a WashU interview and thought it turned out quite decent given my shy personality, so I guess I’ll request to interview with Duke earlier in the term to avoid complications. After all, if interviewing doesn’t help me, it most likely won’t hurt :P. </p>
<p>^ ^ ^ ^
Just to ensure you understand Duke’s procedures, you do not request an interview. Rather, when your application is near-complete, an automated process provides your name and some VERY superficial information (never GPA, standardized test scores, curriculum, recommendations, ECs, etc.) to a regional Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee team; a specific AAAC interviewer is then normally assigned, who will contact you and attempt to establish a mutually satisfactory schedule and venue for your CONVERSATION (almost assuredly, this will NOT be an inquisition or a series of difficult questions). Please understand that occasionally – dependent upon your location, the team’s interview volume, and the number/availability of AAAC volunteers – you will not be contacted, in which case you have the option to submit an additional letter of recommendation. Finally, your interview isn’t overly critical AND it should be enjoyable; you might do well to view it in the context of a bilateral discussion concerning Duke, with a relative who is an alumnus. </p>