Or maybe you already serve as an alumni interviewer or have in the past…
I’m curious. After getting on CC, has what you’ve seen here made you more or less inclined to do alumni interviews for your alma mater?
Can you say what factors or posts have influenced your feeling the most?
More inclined. I did it before I had kids and enjoyed it. I would love to do it again now that I am older and have college aged kids.
I would like to meet and talk to these young, ambitious, talented kids, put them at ease, sell them on my alma mater, but even more than that leave them feeling good about their futures wherever they end up. My kids have had mostly good interviews, but the bad ones, boy they hurt. I think I could pull the best out of the students I interviewed, yet at the same time manage their expectations.
I wouldn’t answer a thank you note. If a kid asked a question, I would follow up, however.
No real interest and CC hasn’t changed that. But I live in the same metro area as my school so I really don’t have any fear they are lacking for interviewers here. Maybe if I lived in a place where their alums were less common I might feel differently.
A friend of mine and her H (both alums) run the Long Island interviewing for our school and enjoy it.
Most of the time, the kids you interview will make you feel like you are wasting your time. They ask questions easily answered on the website, “Do you have a study abroad program in London?” or “Can I triple major in neuroscience, biology and psychology?”. You will direct them to the webpage where all their questions are answered. They are all tennis-playing/homeless shelter volunteering, earnest kids, who stay up late at night to make sure that they get every last point on every last extra credit question on their homework. They have a parent (or two) devoted to their every wish and need- their lives are meticulously scheduled by a grownup to maximize their study/achievement/volunteering time. They’ve built schoolrooms in Haiti and sorted donated clothing in Cambodia. And are starting their own 501-C3!!!
Once in a blue moon, you will interview a kid who knocks your socks off. First Gen, a kid who has had to scale walls and swim the seven seas to get a decent HS education. A kid who gets him or herself up at 5 am to take two city buses which transfer to a suburban rail train which gets to a magnet school or similar by 8 am. Is doing an Independent Study in Mandarin because he is interested in Chinese History, even though his school doesn’t offer it, and his family is from Guatemala so it’s not a heritage language. Then repeats the train/bus process at the end of the day to fix dinner for a younger sibling until the parent gets home from work and then homework. And volunteers at a neighborhood drop in center helping the elderly fill out medicare forms, or teaches geometry there to adults trying to get a GED. Was going to go to local directional State U, but the AP chemistry teacher talked about your alma mater so thought it was worth an interview.
This is a kid who can’t afford the Greyhound bus fare or the $60 in gas and tolls to do a couple of college visits. But might be the most directed, mature, ambitious teenager you’ve ever met. Well read, humble, work ethic out the wazoo- not because he’s on a treadmill of achievement created by parents, but because that’s just the way he’s wired.
And you will write a letter to the admissions committee explaining that they must take this kid, and volunteering to work with the local alumni committee to make sure there is a special fund made available to cover bus fares home, a new winter jacket and boots, incidentals, and anything else that the need based aid package won’t cover.
You will see this kids picture in the local paper announcing that he is attending your alma mater in the Fall on “full merit scholarship” even though your college doesn’t give merit scholarships, and you will be so happy that you volunteered to interview!!!
I have been doing interviews for quite a few years. I’ve never experienced what Blossom describes above, in fact, I’ve often seen stellar candidates who didn’t get in (although I’ve never seen a candidate who I didn’t think was a good fit be admitted). I know that is the nature of my alma mater and its admission rate, but it’s still tough. Thus, I don’t always feel like my recommendations makes much of a difference. This year though, for the first time ever, I actually wrote on my eval. form - “please take this candidate!” So, I will be interested to see if that candidate is indeed admitted - but since most interviewers don’t have access to GPA and scores unless a candidate chooses to share them, there are always missing pieces to the puzzle.
Nothing I read on CC would influence me one way or another when it comes to this - it’s a very personal decision and I’m sure the experience varies by school. If you’re interested, why not try it for a year and see if you like it?
I did some decades ago when I was a much younger alum, but stopped after one year.
I was stunned that everyone I interviewed had a 4.0 and was ranked first in their class, and did not have the scores or extracurricular activities that I thought would make them a good candidate. I was also surprised that none of the ones I interviewed had bothered to visit the campus, even though it wasn’t all that terribly far away from us.
I just thought that life is too short, and this is a waste of my time and theirs. (Much like Blossom above, but many years before.) The only students from that high school who were admitted were ones who didn’t interview with alumni, but went to campus. (I know this has changed now,since most schools don’t offer campus interviews.)
When my child applied many years later, and in a different school area, the alumni interviewer came to our house, and was very cordial to my son and me. He was also a high profile alum and his children would have been development potential admittees several years later. I would imagine that his opinions on applicants might have carried more weight than mine, but whatever he wrote didn’t carry the day in this case. (Everything worked out just fine for my child anyway, as it usually does for highly qualified candidates.)
In any case, I think its a fine thing to volunteer to do if you feel its worthwhile. I’m just not sure that it is anymore.
There is nothing on this forum that would influence my willingness to be an alumni interviewer…if my schools had them.
Getting to have an interview seems to make the students pretty happy.
Most of them, anyway.
Well it certainly makes them nervous @justonedad 
I did them before joining CC The only difference joining this website made was to open my eyes to how many IMHO bizarre ways the whole process is perceived–either more or less important than it actually is. I interview for one of those schools with a sub 10% admit rate, so mostly my kids don’t get in even though they are all very smart and talented. I harbor no illusions that what I write will affect the outcome. Mostly I do it because it’s fun talking to smart, talented kids, as well as incredibly interesting sociologically speaking (read I’m nosy) to see who is applying and because I like helping out my alma mater, and because I think the kids leave knowing more about the school than when they arrived.
I do agree with Blossom. In the 15 years I’ve interviewed, I had just one kid that totally knocked my socks offf, but I kind of enjoy the earnestness. I love discussing Eagle Scout projects.
I am an alumni iinterviewer and have just gone through the college process twice. I think I am familiar with the mindset of the students this way. As far as CC I can see the scheduling issues from their point of view. They might be saying “I asked for an interveiw and haven’t heard!!” and I am thinking but your interview just got through the Xmas season and now has bronchitis and doesn’t have the energy right now!
That’s a fair point. And I suppose it gives you a chance to make your school appear to turn out swell alumni, depending on how you’re perceived by the applicant.