<p>Do interviewers give any inidications as to one’s chances for admission? My interview went on for an hour and a half, and I had thought that I had done really well, but my interviewer spent the last five minutes talking about how 31,000 people applied for 1500 spots, meaning that excellent candidates would not be accepted.</p>
<p>Did she basically tell me that I am going to be rejected?</p>
<p>Powerbond: no. Your interviewer knows nothing about your chances of admission. He/she was probably just trying to explain how tough admissions is these days.</p>
<p>Mine also let me know how many students had applied! I do realize that the odds are slim.</p>
<p>lol I googled my interviewer as well. Interview was on the twelfth. He went to Brown, Yale Med, and Harvard for a fellowship, and he said he also taught there (Harvard) for a while. He was mad cool and his kids were so cute :)</p>
<p>Many of my friends interview, and we talk about the results. Everyone is totally mystified by who gets in and who doesn’t. We interviewers know absolutely nothing about someone’s chances.</p>
<p>I always end my interviews giving similar statistics, telling students that most people are happy where they end up, there is no one “perfect” school, etc.</p>
<p>I also end my interview with some talk about how insanely competitive things have gotten and how college is awesome compared to high school, no matter what. I think it’s pretty standard.</p>
<p>I had my interview earlier this week and I have mixed feelings about how it went. I was conducted in my school’s library, which was not the original location I was told it would be held, so I was about ten minutes late. He apologized for the mix-up, but I’m still worried that my tardiness didn’t make a good first impression.
Overall, my interview went fairly well. However, he started by asking if I had applied anywhere early. I was deferred from an elite liberal arts college early decision, which he seemed to be a little put off by. He also asked me what other schools I am applying to, my GPA, and my test scores. I know he technically wasn’t supposed to ask me these questions, so I was wondering if my answers will affect my chances of admission? Brown is a reach school for me and I would love to attend if accepted, and I was very realistic about that in my interview.
Also, both my father and grandfather are Brown alums, which he was interested in hearing more about. As much as I tried to steer the conversation away from my legacy connections, he kept returning to that. At the end of my interview, he asked for my father’s contact information to talk to him about doing alumni interviews.
I’m worried that my interview focused too much on my father’s experience at Brown and the other colleges I am applying to. How will this affect what he writes about me/my chances of admission?
Thank you!</p>
<p>@avs: It sounds like you had a bad interviewer, which probably means his interview writeup is going to be undetailed and not very useful to the admissions office. To the extent that he talks about your scores et al, the admissions office will almost certainly just ignore it. I really don’t think it’s going to hurt you.</p>
<p>I agree with mgcsinc. This may be one of those interview reports that admissions will skim and then ignore. I’m sorry about that, and I think it’s a shame that some alumni do such a crappy job of interviewing applicants. He asked you questions that he is specifically not supposed to ask you. And I encourage you to report him to alumni relations, so that he is removed from the volunteer list.</p>
<p>However, it will not impact the admissions decision. Your chances of admission will not decrease because of what this alumni said.</p>
<p>While e-mail interviews are definitely not what interviews should be, if you will notice, the students asking about them are I think all foreign students. It is very difficult due to distance logistics to have alumni close enough to do in person interviews, and it’s better to have e-mail interviews than none at all available. SKype when available on both ends is better, but not everyone has that. I interview in one Central American country that I know well, but I’m only there briefly, and travel is difficult. (the same might be true for say North Dakota or some other “under- alumnied” area.)</p>
<p>Do applicants ever decline to be interviewed (other than recruited athletes), and if so, how is that viewed by the admissions committee?</p>
<p>The official line is that it doesn’t hurt you. It does suggest a lack of interest, though. Are there particular extenuating circumstances?</p>
<p>Thanks for this great thread! Well my question is, does a students style make a direct impact on your opinion? Like long messy hair, versus short and neat kept? Or a dress shirt and tie versus gym shorts and a polo?</p>
<p>An interview is an interview! So yes, appearance does factor in, but attitude does more. Dress should be appropriate to the environment, situation. About the only time gym shorts would be appropriate would be if the interviewer and you were agreeing to meet say, on the field after a game or meet you had, or something along that lines. I once had a student show up in ratty pants, flip flops and slovenly shirt. Worse was that they were late, seemed to not care about the interview and kept looking at watch, anxious to go. I wrote the worst report I ever had, said they seemed to have no interest in getting in to Brown, and they did not get in. (don’t know if they would have met other criteria, but my report certainly did not help their case.) On the other hand I do tell students that I do not expect them to dress up suit and tie sort of dress, as the interviews are not in a formal place, and I want them to be comfortable.</p>
<p>Fireandrain: this helped me very much!!
I was just wondering what your opinion is on how heavily the act and sat scores effect your acceptance into brown. If you could just get back to me I would appriecate it very much :)</p>
<p>Thank you so much! The interviews have been the biggest mystery for me, but now it doesn’t feel like walking into a black hole!</p>
<p>Thanks very much for the info! I really appreciate that :)</p>
<p>[BAA</a> - Volunteer & Give: BASC Interview Contact Form](<a href=“Volunteer | Alumni & Friends | Brown University”>Volunteer | Alumni & Friends | Brown University)</p>
<p><a href=“Volunteer | Alumni & Friends | Brown University”>http://alumni.brown.edu/volunteer/basc/handbook/documents/Interviewers_favorite_questions.pdf</a></p>
<p>Do they read any of your application essays (the interviewer?)</p>