<p>As you know many of the colleges these days offer Alumni Interviews. Are these interviews must or optional? Does it have any bearing of admissions one way or the other?</p>
<p>Don’t you kind of figure a lot of that is going to depend on the university or college in question?</p>
<p>In general, they’re optional, but encouraged. I think if you’re offered one, you ought to do it. If you’re not offered one, you shouldn’t worry. It won’t be held against you. Many universities, including the one I used to interview, don’t screen applicants before they assign them to alumni interviewers, so getting or not-getting an interview offer doesn’t mean anything about your chances.</p>
<p>Alumni do write up interview reports for the admissions committee, but in general they’re given very little weight in the committee’s decision.</p>
<p>My D is doing her first alumni interview tomorrow. I was glad to hear that the interviewer is from the class of '12, so his insight will be much more relevant than someone who graduated 20 or 30 years ago. I don’t know how much it means in terms of admission, especially in this case, as the school is more of a safety. We’ll see how it goes.</p>
<p>sschickens: If I may defend the “old hares”. Yes a recent grad may have more info for your DD about campus but some of us older alums who have met dozens and dozens (or even hundreds) of students may write a more balanced and cogent report than a newer alum who may be over excited just to meet another applicant. Ultimately, I think there can be great interviewers from both newer as well as older classes.</p>
<p>I agree with T26E4. Our D found that the “older” alumns often have had years and years of experience with interviewing; they ask better questions and most importantly from a student’s perspective, their feedback is probably “trusted” by the admissions staff more than a younger alumni who hasn’t had a lot of experience. An experienced “old” interview who raves about a particular student has already had many other students go on to attend the school. Now… if the goal of the interview for your student is to gather information about the school itself, current day – that is a different scenario.</p>
<p>T26, fair enough - thanks for your perspective, and I will keep it in mind moving forward. I turned 55 yesterday, so I certainly didn’t mean to come across as an ‘ageist’
@mom2b2b - your last statement is more what I was thinking. With this school being more of a safety, I told my D to ask as many questions as possible about what the school is like today, and a younger alum would paint a more accurate picture, imho. I’ll let you know how it goes.</p>
<p>You folks may be on to something. The interviewer didn’t show.</p>
<p>Oh, wow. I kind of shared T26E4’s position on the old-hare question, but I certainly wouldn’t have wished this on your daughter. So sorry that happened–or, rather, didn’t happen!</p>