<p>My D got interview but we have to drive 2 hours to a hotel in Hartford to do an interview where you signed up like job interviews for slot? Only ivy that has done something like this, all the others did personal interviews within a few miles or at her school. I am pretty shocked that its gotten to the level where they are doing them in batches–hard for the interviewer to do a great job seeing 10 kids in a day. Anyway, I was glad she got one but now we have to spend 5 hours-whole Saturday for a 50 minute interview, they honestly did not have one in Boston? Weird. It feels odd to say its not important but then if you get scheduled 2 hours away and don’t show it will matter-even though they say it doesn’t-she did sign up for it as its not like anyone called us–an email saying this is it (take it or leave it I guess)…so she is gonna go, but feel like we might as well just go to NY get an extra visit in and interview on campus if we are gonna go from near Boston to Hartford its only another 2 hours to the real McCoy. Anyway, happy to get one but sure hope no snow tomorrow and there are “flurries” in the forecast…ahhhh! Good thing she likes the college so much.</p>
<p>Do you think they interview every applicant or just those who have a shot?</p>
<p>i am an interviewer, and i have coordinated one of these regional interviewing days.</p>
<p>a) we don’t interview students based on if they have a shot, why because we don’t receive any data or information about who does or does not have a chance. it is based on proximity often between interviewers and interviewees.</p>
<p>b) interviews are not mandatory, they offer another perspective for admissions officers, at times it helps a candidate, at times it can hurt a candidate. and no family should ever feel compelled to attend if it is not possible, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t do anything reasonable for it to happen.</p>
<p>since i know how columbia admissions interviews work, to waitlistman - your daughter chose to attend the event, but was never required to do so, nor was attending this regional interview her only option for receiving an interview ([Interviews</a> | Columbia University Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/firstyear/interviews]Interviews”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/firstyear/interviews)). second, if you received a request to go to hartford, this means that your daughter must go to school in the state of connecticut (specifically north and northeast CT), because columbia does things regionally, which means that even if we had an event in boston, your daughter would have been invited there, and not to hartford, in fact i can imagine very few scenarios where the hartford alums would be interviewing boston kids (not saying it is not possible, but i probably would have heard about it if this was the case).</p>
<p>the town in the most northeastern part of ct is 1 hr from boston, and 50 min from hartford, so i am trying to figure out how truthful your statement is here. i welcome you to send me any information, i’d be happy to run interference, but i am having difficulty believing the accuracy of your statements, it isn’t how columbia operates, and especially not how the chair in Hartford operates. if you are being accurate, i’d be happy to help out, but if you’re pushing lies, this is damaging to potential students and i’d prefer it if you’d own up to things.</p>
<p>and columbia admissions doesn’t offer interviews on campus. there are too many candidates for everyone to receive the real mccoy.</p>
<p>c) i prefer the regional interviewing days, they are easier to manage in terms of getting a large number of students, and alums. often as an alum the hardest part is scheduling students (and students that are bad at phone or email responses). it is easier for the interviewers, it allows and guarantees more students can get interviewed. it puts them in a setting where they can usually meet other students who are applying, and more than one alum at a time. and also from an alum standpoint, it is good to know that there are other alums doing the same thing that you are doing, instead of all of us being isolated into our silos or coffeeshops.</p>
<p>d) in an interview, maybe because i have pretty good experience here, i know pretty much how i am going to write my interview report after the first few questions. the thing is - the interview is not about telling the interviewer everything about your life, nor is it really about repeating your CV. it is about how does a student with relatively little prompting begin to talk about themselves, and do they do so in a compelling way. an interview that lasts longer than 30 minutes is not better from that standpoint than one that lasts for less; though it might be more interesting to speak longer. i think students and sometimes interviewers think that it is their job to go through the cv and figure out details for everything, but that seem a bit too pedantic, really. i am more interested in where someone’s eyes go when they talk, how they try to bring me into the conversation, the words they use and how they describe their interests. because that is the kind of additional information that the admissions committee would not have, and speaks more to a students potential to engage in a classroom setting.</p>
<p>We live in northern MA, i am not lying, she got an email and it was only one, and this was only place it was offered- we drove 4 hours yesterday–PM me and I can give you location but :“PUSHING LIES” about a school my D is dying to go to-yeah right? Nobody ever accused me of lying on CC or being a ■■■■■-that is the accusation, why would i waste my time “pushing lies” about school my D likes?. Again I live in MA not CT. …i dunno-but i cant reply w/o giving personally identifiable info. Why the negativity–i was simply saying i felt it was unusual to offer so far, it must have been a glitch–she interviewed with a junior from engineering dept and event was at 10 Columbus rd. Hartford, CT. SHE does NOT live in CT. Please, this is hard enough w/o you accusing me of llying on this forum, frankly you should have PMd me rather than putting this out here. Send me a PM if you are so voracious in accusations. I request that a moderator take a look at this to see if I am lying–i am not a ■■■■■ here. Yeesh…thanks for your help but the tone is totally out of line-run interference? So now I have to argue with an alumni over being a liar or not-great situation you are putting me in, do not jeopardize her admissions for your arguments here—spreading lies? That is just really over the top.PM me, I was not trying to insult your school, simply was wondering if it was a mistake and it sounds like it was…PM me once again as I do not want to post her town…too much information online is advised against specifically on CC guidelines. It was a 20 min. interview and she said person was very nice…</p>
<p>waitlistman </p>
<p>you write PM me four times. that is by far more than necessary, and just makes your message odd (like most things in life, people that know they have the truth on their side, rarely find it necessary to reiterate simple facts). i wont pm you. if you really want to, you can pm me. all you need to do is forward me the message you got. i am just saying this seems out of character for columbia. ‘run interference’ is pretty normal language “run interference: to deal with problems or difficult matters for someone else”</p>
<p>i wrote very clearly about either end of the spectrum - that it seems odd on the one hand, or that you must be odd. it is not like columbia to break rank and to have one region have an interviewing day for multiple regions (though i wouldn’t be surprised if it happened, just saying it is odd). so you can be aghast about all this, or you can read my message with care.</p>
<p>ultimately that is your choice.</p>
<p>and i think it is important for most students to know regular protocol. columbia arranges students for interviews into regions, we have regional chairs that assign candidates, and for the most part those regions are bounded by states (or there are multiple regions per state - but never a region that crosses state borders - and that is often a source of difficulty, but we must use some kind of border). your situation is not common, a fact all students should know regardless of the truthfulness of your account. therefore if someone is proposing to interview a student in a way that seems odd, i hope the student knows that (s)he could ask me directly if it is truthful or not, instead of potentially putting him/herself in an undesirable or false situation.</p>
<p>You wrote (representing Columbia alumni interviewers):
“or that you must be odd.” Thanks, but I don’t have 1,700 posts on this forum so I am only a lowly parent of a student who I hope is applying to a college with friendly alumni that don’t toss out accusations even in the 50/50 spectrum. I knew what you meant by run interference but it seemed silly at this point–i mean besides, you said you would not PM me once i became angry that you pretty much called me a liar…then added insult to injury by insulting the quality of a post made at 5 am (I woke up and checked my mail and was pretty upset by the tone of your statements).</p>
<p>So, now “I am odd” because your school’s system is operating differently than you or I expect it to based on the exact information you pointed me to on their web site it is odd, but not my fault, its just the fact that she got invited, maybe because they map my town into a slightly more rural part of state of MA and so Hartford (while an hour further than Boston) might seem not unreasonable. We did not have a problem going there but I admit, I did not plan to spend 5 hours yesterday for a 20 min. interview. Was glad she had it. There were several MA license plates there, shuttles taking student interviewers (maybe some alumni but very young if so) back and forth to a hotel or someplace. Anyway, if you doubt my honesty, ask the moderator “entomom” who has known me for over a year if I am an honest person, I have no reason or agenda to make this up, you however have treated me very unfairly and accused me of misreading your post. It is pretty clear that you say I am lying and if not, you then go on to say my multiple requests of PMs validate your insinuation.</p>
<p>You “won’t PM” me? Why, that to me shows clearly that you in fact would rather SHOOT THE MESSENGER, than to find out and maybe fix the problem. I am happy to provide you my name and address offline. I do think you owe me an apology but based on your reply I hardly expect one. IT is sad that humans have to be so hurtful to one another and arrogant as well in these types of forums. It lends credence to the whole notion of elitism which I thought was the opposite of what Columbia was all about.</p>
<p>I am almost positve that there are many alumni here in Los Angeles. My kid got an email from a guy and he said pick a day. She waited a few days, responded and got the day and time she asked for with that guy.</p>
<p>a) if i doubted your honesty i don’t need to talk to a moderator, i can verify the information myself.</p>
<p>b) i was not going to message you because it was weird how much you were ‘begging’ for me to do so. it is highly unnecessary. </p>
<p>c) your messages continue to reassert this point. </p>
<p>d) columbia has alums from all kinds of backgrounds, with all kinds of personalities. some are chipper, some are loving, some are harsh. if you are so brash as to accuse your interaction with me as standing in for all alums, you are wrong. </p>
<p>i am just representing the alumni interviewing process. there have been accusations in the past of students getting unsolicited interview requests by non-affiliated people. students get emails with false things all the time, and it is my goal to make sure that students know that they should always verify the legitimacy of things, and if something seems out of character, that they should inquire, and use something like CC to do so.</p>
<p>e) good luck to your daughter. i am sorry that you find my posts so odious. i am sure she will do fine, and her deferral from dartmouth might suggest it wasn’t a good fit.</p>
<p>f) i would be curious, are you yourself hispanic? i guess i was interested by the fact that you describe your daughter as a ‘Latino child’ using latino as an adjective, instead of as a ‘latino’ using it as a noun. using it as an adjective sound rather pejorative. we latinos/hispanics, often use it as a noun. though i do find some of your posts intriguing on the matter.</p>
<p>Well, anyway… good luck to all who are applying. It sounds like there are a lot of stressed kids and parents out there. Remember, in a couple of months this will all be over.</p>
<p>D has not been contacted at all for an interview, but has already interviewed with 7 other colleges. We live in a relatively large city in CA, but she isn’t worried. She feels that it is perfectly understandable that the alumni interviewers are probably a bit overwhelmed.</p>
<p>you say that a) if you needed to verify my truthfulness you did not need to contact a moderator? Okay, so you admit that I was always honest from the beginning, Great case closed, your points b and c are hearsay and diversion to distract from your own rudeness. However by further pandering to me by now pretending to care about my Ds deferral and bringing that up on this board you have crossed another line in etiquette-and you call me odd? Good god man, all I am is a parent stating what other people state here, and it happened to be odd that we had to drive 2 hours each way to an interview when I live closer to major cities. Why couidn’t you just address me offline rather than making this a public battle of wills. So i proved my point but now seems you are my enemy. Don’t care but if it affects my D in any way I will care. My uncle is an alumni there and I am childhood friends of a famous professor there so mind your manners okay. End of discussion. Have a nice life.</p>
<p>geek- -you already know the answer that I am the gringo parent and it is certainly not meant to be a pejorative useage. In fact, I consider myself to be latino as I speak spanish fluently, spend most of my time with latino friends or family etc. and because my kids are latinas I reverse inherit their race, got it? Normally I would just say Colombian but on this board when discussing URM stuff it seems to be a nicer term than hispanic IMHO. So much for getting to the original issue and me “begging you to PM me” slow on the uptake, I was “begging you not to start a flame war but no avail” the point was to PM me before you made the insulting post, if you cared to resolve the issue in a dignified way you would have simply read the PM I sent you, verified it and posted a simple agreement it was a glitch. Hindsight…</p>
<p>“It sounds like there are a lot of stressed kids and parents out there. Remember, in a couple of months this will all be over.”</p>
<p>Truer words have not been said. Your id is something I need to keep in mind, dignity is all that people ask to be left with, at least a little…Dylan has a great song called Dignity…i wish your D and all others luck, and don’t worry about the interviews…alumni who interview may often be noble, they may be nosy, they may be patriotic, I do respect the fact that they volunteer to do something to try to serve the greater good and so just part with that thought and leave some dignity behind…</p>
<p>a) you can’t reverse inherit race or ethnicity. you have a position of privilege, you are able to, when you want to, select to hang out with latinos, but are never put in a situation in which anyone would negatively treat you as one. your misunderstanding of power dynamics and of historic and present forms of discrimination is very problematic.</p>
<p>b) i don’t wish to start a flame war, but i think there are important facts that should be known and discussed in a reasonable manner. i think it is clear from your posts that you didn’t wish to be reasonable and that is why i kept my responses here in the forum of public opinion. it is always your choice if you want to continue this barb, or if you desire to deepen the wound by saying such absurd (and honestly hurtful) statements such that you consider yourself a latino. unbelievable.</p>
<p>c) there are many universities (yale for instance) that do not consider colombians underrepresented minorites, this is an aside, just to let you know. the status of urm, therefore the decision by the university to treat those students as a disadvantaged group is not uniform. schools that consider all latin americans minorities often do so because they perceive it to be a linguistic issue that creates and develops unfair power dynamics to be very real, but some schools think that because immigrants from south america are disproportionately wealthier immigrants, and more recent immigrants, that they do not face the same degree of prejudice, outcasting and socioeconomic difficulties that mexican, puerto rican and other caribbean peoples face when coming to the US. in this regard it is all around the question of affirmative action, and who benefits and who does not.</p>
<p>Of course I cannot “reverse inherit” -that was meant to be my personal feeling of the experience of the experience I live. “I am in a position of privilege?” This is really getting absurd, you pulled in all this extraneous BS to begin a debate with me now on race, you effectively telling me I don;t understand the experience of having a spouse who gets discriminated against all the time, hardly from a family of wealth and came as a non-native speaker. You should take this to the hispanic student forum where I think I have shown very well I understand the power dynamic. Your statements continue to astound and I will not discuss my personal issues with you so you can draw out and mischaracterize things on a forum it has no place being discussed. Its pretty clear to me that you have given every reason in the world to divert from the original point, which was simply if there was a mistake in choosing a site, Really bizarre dude. Later.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize my question has led to such a debate…</p>
<p>I’d like to interrupt for a moment to say that I actually received an email a couple days ago about scheduling an interview - a personal email this time, asking me to contact someone. I just called and left a message, so as long as we succeed in scheduling something (I’m so busy I don’t even know when to schedule it now), it looks like I freaked out over nothing. big surprise :p</p>
<p>But I wonder why I was given two interview opportunities? If I had been able to secure a spot at the regional one, would I still have received this email?</p>
<p>so there is still a chance that i might get an interview? hooray! (i think they are my strong point)</p>
<p>katz, the answer is no. if you had secured the one before you would not have received another request.</p>
<p>Katz, not only that but now somehow I am red flagged with a bad rep. when admissionsgeek brings up stuff about my d’s heritage not in this thread, draws me into an argument when after his 1st post I PMd him telling him my town which verified the truth of what I said. Now to tell you a different opinion, after driving 4 hours and waiting an hour, my D got a letter offering a local interview, I know I will be told I am lying again, but that is the fact. I suppose now my rep will go to what-black and blue-and why? Because I dared to dispute being called a liar by a person who claims to be an authority yet rather than resolve issues off line which I did, continues to read my life story of posts and brings in issues that are totally out of line to be posting on a simple Q and A about interview. Beware of this site…read the posts on Princeton vs. Columbia, nobody there has red reputation, why? Got me—apparently defending your integrity rates you a bad rep.</p>