"Bad" interviewer

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>Hi Firandrain.</p>

<p>Regarding the “rate my interviewer”, I am not saying that other schools have. On the other hand, many other schools of the same caliber as Brown do not necessarily require an interview.</p>

<p>As you said, if the interviewer writes a bad evaluation, this will not determine a rejection outcome. Well, this may be assuaging for the “super star” applicant, but for the “normal” applicant who is competing for a spot, any negative element may be the last drop in the bucket. So there may be out there two equally “normal” applicants, one who ends up rejected because of an hostile interview, and another accepted because of a nice interview.</p>

<p>I agree with you that Brown offers very good interview experiences to many students. However, if the quality control of the interviews is not strong enough to provide a (near) uniform experience to all applicants, or at least a minimum level of interview quality so that the applicant does not feel that his/her chances are ruined and I better look elsewhere, then Brown loses by not fixing this.</p>

<p>Notice that the applicant I mentioned knows that this happened once… Bad luck… Mooving on… For Brown, however, the existance of “high variance” interviews will be repeated year over year, and who knows how many less-than-positive impressions on applicants this will imprint.</p>

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<p>I just want to say that my daughter had a wonderful interview for Brown. I dropped her off at the coffee shop and went shopping, waiting for her to call. It took so long that I went back and peeked in the window to see if they were still talking.</p>

<p>Every school has some curmudgeonly grads–it always surprises me that folks like this want to do interviews. But don’t judge any school based on what the interviewer is like.</p>

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<p>Brown does not “require” an interview. It tries to interview everyone, but it is not mandatory.</p>

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<p>Nope, not going to happen. I totally realize that this is the perspective of the applicant, but it is not the perspective of the admissions office. Also, you have to realize that just because the applicant felt his/her interview was “bad” does not mean the write-up was negative. </p>

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<p>Agree. But remember this is a volunteer organization. Aside from a couple of Brown employees who oversee the program, everything about BASC is volunteer. </p>

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<p>If Brown interviews 25,000 students/year, and a few dozen have bad interviews – or let’s say 1000 have bad interviews – that still leaves 24,000 positive impressions. A handful of students have commented about bad experiences, but even more have said they had wonderful interviews. Nothing in life is perfect.</p>

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<p>So far as I know, no school does “quality control” on alumni interviews. Which is why they usually have very little impact on the application. </p>

<p>It is deeply distressing to me that people are having bad Brown interviews. I encourage everyone who has one to let Brown know in some way. Those interviewers are likely interviewing for the wrong reasons (e.g., out of a sense of obligation) anyway, and excluding them from BASC would be a service to the school and applicants.</p>

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<p>Hi Firandrain:</p>

<p>I agree with much you say, but I have two comments.</p>

<p>"Quote:
for the “normal” applicant who is competing for a spot, any negative element may be the last drop in the bucket. So there may be out there two equally “normal” applicants, one who ends up rejected because of an hostile interview, and another accepted because of a nice interview. </p>

<p>Nope, not going to happen. I totally realize that this is the perspective of the applicant, but it is not the perspective of the admissions office. Also, you have to realize that just because the applicant felt his/her interview was “bad” does not mean the write-up was negative." </p>

<p>Sure, but one can only expect that, in all likelyhood, an interview that is very smooth/friendly is more likely to be positive.</p>

<p>"Quote:
Brown loses by not fixing this. </p>

<p>Agree. But remember this is a volunteer organization. Aside from a couple of Brown employees who oversee the program, everything about BASC is volunteer."</p>

<p>This justification I think is out of place. Applicants do not send applications to BASC. They send applications to Brown. So when Brown makes a decision about giving the applicant’s information to BASC and delegating authority to conduct interviews in Browns’s behalf, Brown is ultimately responsible for the outcomes. </p>

<p>A little bit more information about the interview I am referring to: It was the Sunday of one of the NFL playoffs. Perhaps when the the Brown interviewer scheduled the interview, he/she did not realize that, and then during the interview he/she was trying to rush things up so as to catch up with the games. That’s one explanation I can think of.</p>

<p>To put things in better context, the applicant interviewed with 4 Ivies, 3 top-10 LACs, the state flagship, and a couple other schools. Brown was the second-to-last interview, so the applicant was already well acquainted with the process. That’s why the applicant felt off-guard when the Brown interview (expected to be relaxed, human, embracing) ended up being the worst experience.</p>

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<p>As another alumni interviewer, let me also apologize for the experiences of the students who had poor interviewers. Brown has been trying to make this a better experience for all, by giving much more guidance to the volunteer alums, suggested questions (which are not supposed to create a list of questions to rush through!) and general guidelines. With the expanding number of applicants, I have noticed that my region has many more new interviewers, and a regional rep who seems rushed (maybe overworked) and does not take as much care in assignments. Please do not judge the school just by the interviewer, even though I know that you are worried about how that interviewer is judging you. (If you only met one student on campus, would you judge the whole school based on that?) And do let someone know about your experience. Perhaps that alum just needs more feedback or training, or maybe to be “included” in another way, instead of interviewing. The interviewers get no feedback, unless the student or their family directly says something (which they rarely do, and that obviously is only when it is positive thanks). I do agree that it would be nice if Brown improved the whole communication process with their alum volunteers, and the interface with admissions.</p>

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<p>Since Brown (or any other university that I know of) does not ask the interviewees for feedback, it is impossible to draw conclusions regarding how many people have wonderful, mediocre, or lousy interview experiences. In the case of my son, he loved his Brown interview and the opportunity to discuss the university and himself. He did have, what he called, a horrific interview with Yale. I discussed with him how to make this an opportunity, rather than an occasion to just place blame on the interviewer himself. We reviewed what happened, discussed how you field a fast ball if it comes your way, and made sure he prepared more carefully for the remainder of the interviews. All the rest went splendidly, but we will never know if any made a difference one way or the other.</p>

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<p>My interviewer thought I was another interviewer and showed me his list of questions.</p>

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<p>Just as there is a range of personality types in the student body, you will find the same in the alumni population. Everyone brings something different to the table.
In response to interviewer request, BASC has provided a list of suggested questions to spark the conversation. Sounds like some have unfortunately adopted the “laundry list” approach.
It is the goal of BASC to provide a positive experience to the student interviewing, and I think most of us work really hard to make that happen. It reflects badly on Brown when interviewers are inappropriate, and believe me, Brown wants to know about it.</p>

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<p>I have to say that I posted previously in the thread that I had a bad/confusing interview last year. It felt as though Brown had already decided that I and several of my peers who had similar experiences weren’t worth interviewing and told the interviewer to proceed as such. She asked NO questions about me. Just told me about herself and her daughter and asked me to ask her questions. I had, as always, prepared questions for her and asked them all, which she politely answered, but when I asked her if she had any questions for me she just said “no”. </p>

<p>This year however, I had a wonderful interview (I’m a re-applicant). My interviewer had similar interests to mine and we had a fascinating and engaging conversation that went on three times as long as it was supposed to. I really, genuinely enjoyed myself and felt like she would be able to convey an insightful opinion of me to admissions. She asked things about me and my values, shared her opinions on subjects that were important to me etc…</p>

<p>So, what an interesting contrast…</p>

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My Brown interview was very bad as well. I had a young woman alumni (class of 2008, I think) who really did not know what she was doing! When I asked about campus safety and mentioned an event that happened at another university as a reference, she started attacking me almost. It was like she was calling me an extreme conservative (which I’m not) and judging me based on that assumption. She completely turned me off to Brown! If that is who they choose to represent them, then I am worried.

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The university doesn’t choose. Any alumnus/a who wants to interview can. The only way someone is prevented from interviewing is if they get multiple complaints (I assume).

I’m sorry you had such a bad experience and I hope you don’t let one person color your thoughts about Brown too much. If you get in, at least wait until after ADOCH to make a decision. If you have any specific questions you want answered (such as campus safety: in brief, very safe but is an open campus in an urban environment so crime obviously does happen) start a new thread or two (rather than keeping this old one alive) and there are several regular, frequent alumni posters (myself included) who will be happy to answer your questions.