I expected it to go smoothly. Chit chat a bit, a couple questions about myself, and maybe a good laugh or two.
But it didn’t even seem like an interview.
It lasted about an hour long and was pretty much him lecturing me on the government and how schools are really not schools and implied that at Brown you weren’t going to get a good education. In fact, the interviewer badmouthed Brown and pulled up negative stuff about the university to show me on his laptop.
I was so shocked and so surprised. It didn’t seem like an interview at all. I have no idea what he learned about me! I don’t know what he’s going to write! The entire time I pretty much nodded and said the occasional “ooh” or “wow, I never thought of that” or “why don’t they teach this at school?” and sometimes tried to jump in and show him that I was thinking about what he was telling me. But I don’t know. I might have completely blown it.
He didn’t ask me “why brown” or “what are you r extracurricular activites” or any sort of questions at all. It was pretty much him lecturing me. He didn’t want to know anything about me, so it felt.
Was this how it was supposed to go? I’m assuming not. I have no idea what he even has to say about me or report about and the fact that he was saying bad things about Brown and almost trying to dissuade me really left me so shocked. Was this purposeful? Are any interviews meant to just make you feel completely surprised and stressed to see whether you can handle it??
Any commentary would be nice - especially if someone else has gone through the same experience. I hope I haven’t screwed up my chances.
You did not screw up your interview. Your interviewer messed up (assuming your account is accurate). This person should not be interviewing.
Every year we get stories like this, and I encourage applicants to alert Brown about these alums. Applicants are afraid to do this, thinking that it is going to hurt them with admissions – no matter how much I assure students that making a report will not hurt them. So, if your interview was as bad as you say it was – call Brown. I’d call Alumni Relations. Report this person.
If you do nothing … whatever this person writes up about you won’t affect your admission.
Maybe he was afraid of being too much of a cheerleader; you know, he wanted to be “fair” and ended up stuck on the bad stuff.
Weird.
Someone should look into it, though so that other applicants don’t have to go through same.
I’m sorry your experience wasn’t the best. If you look through CC you will find all kinds of stories about interviews that didn’t go well. Your strong application will have much more bearing on the decision than the interview!
Thank you so much for your responses! I left feeling really taken aback - I’m glad to just know that this wasn’t a common occurrence. I hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else!
@fireandrain Thank you in particular for your advice. I’ll consider making a call to the office in the next few days.
yikes OP, that sounds awful - I can’t imagine ever running an interview like that. @Justonedad, I answer questions from applicants honestly - no need to go out of my way to dig up dirt online (are we talking about news articles or like random forums and stuff?). I’m embarrassed and ashamed to hear of this person’s behavior.
Applicants: these are the only ways you can really screw up an interview (with me at least). Demonstrate you know nothing about Brown beyond the words “ivy league” “open curriculum” “liberal,” and even if you did that, probably the only ways that my report would have any impact on the ad com is if I mention that you did one of the following: assault me, call me racial slurs, insult me in some other way, tell me about how you’d really rather go to [other school name]. In other words - relax and enjoy a chance to talk to a Brown alumnus/a about Brown, what it did for them, what you hope it will do for you, and what you plan to do for it.
As an interviewer for +25 years, I agree 100% that you should report the alumnus. Simply cut and paste what you wrote here. That’s appalling – his unprofessionalism and his exploitation of your time.
I am so sorry you had this terrible experience and agree that this had nothing to do with you at all and it sounds like you were a real champ in handling this unpleasant surprise interview. No they do not try to do trick interviews. If you read through the pinned thread at the top about interviews with Brown alum, you will see they are overall positive with some awful ones that pop up from time to time. I agree this is reportable. fireandrain is a long time Brown interviewer and I’d listen to her and report it. Brown certainly would not want this alum to represent them in interviews any longer and it won’t change unless they hear about it. Sometimes you can get offered another interview and they will surely set this one aside. Report it after results if you feel more comfortable. My own daughter had a wonderful chat with her alum, a french professor at a local college, who was so complimentary. A girl this year I know had a less that ideal situation, multiple interviewers with schedules of students coming through every 15 minutes, ug. But the man was very sweet and kind to her and said she will be a wonderful addition to any campus.
There is a very funny old thread of interview horror stories and maybe when some time passes you can think of this in a funny way and add on. Some of these were terrible at the time and the kids are laughing later. I’ll see if I can find it. Meanwhile, if you want to know anything about Brown, ask away.
Thank you very much for your insight - all of you. I went and talked to my college counselor today and she agreed that we should report the alumn. While she will be the one making contact with the school, she’ll also send a summary I’ll write about exactly what happened in the interview. I hope that this will not affect the decision very much or at all, but I do feel that the university probably doesn’t want alumns who speak negatively about Brown to be interviewing…I was able to listen with a grain of salt because I’ve visited/researched/met students and absolutely loved it, but I’m sure that other interviewees could be heavily influences by what he was saying.
Yup, it wasn’t the most pleasant interview I’ve had, per say, but hey - I guess it makes a good story. Thank you for making me feel a little less frazzled about what happened!
To anyone wondering, I did report it and the admissions office behaved incredibly well with the information. They not only apologized numerous times (which was not needed; I understand that they can’t control what happens in interviews of course), but they thanked me for making the decision to speak up, gave me a phone call, and even a phone interview with an extremely sweet (and definitely better representative of Brown) alumna. They told me that had I not spoken up, they wouldn’t have known, and then further thanked me when (after asking the other students who were interviewed by the same guy) they found out that he had said the same things to other students. I’m really glad to have given these other students a second chance for a good interview as well, since I’ve definitely been there!
If you have an extremely strange and odd interview (to the point where you couldn’t even count it as an interview) for any university, I would say report it - and through your college counselor as well to make it more official. It doesn’t affect your chances of admission at all, and you get a second opportunity for a real interview as well - and maybe even help other prospective students who went through the same thing a second chance :))
OMG – thank you, thank you, thank you adrenaline girl!! Finally someone has the guts to put aside their fears and report a bad interview. And see – it worked out just fine! Even better than fine.
For every other applicant who hemmed and hawed, and was afraid that if they reported a bad interview they would be targeted for rejection – see what happens when you take control and do something!
Because I’m sure this will happen again, I now know I can encourage students to report it and I will be able to say what happens.
And kudos to Brown for how it handled it. Above and beyond, by calling other students and arranging additional interviews.
@fireandrain yes, definitely use my experience to back up your argument on reporting interviews! it doesn’t affect your chances, and the way Brown handled it was really awesome – made me like the school even more! Thank you for pushing me to report it – I was pretty sure I would, but hearing it from another person just helped.
I’m very glad I decided to report it. I would do it again if I went back in time.
And if anything, reporting the interview only shows your respect for the school. No university would want someone walking around and saying negative things about them. It’s just being respectful, and was tooootally worth it! I got many, many emails from many different people regarding the interview and they were very very sweet about it!
Report an interview if it seems strange. Just do it – it’s actually not bad at all!
@JustOneDad - sorry. I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean to imply any of your comments were directed at me. I was addressing this comment of yours:
My point is that - as an interviewer - I can avoid being a mindless cheerleader for the university by simply answering applicants’ questions honestly. I won’t pretend Brown is perfect (although I do think it’s the closest to perfect of any school ) An interviewer who is digging around the internet for dirt to show an applicant is not “avoiding being a cheerleader” they are going out of their way to be overly negative and unprofessional.
i’m an alumni interviewer, and my stance is that the interviews are really more of a way for you to find out about the college than to evaluate you in any impactful way. long story short, they don’t carry a lot of weight. so don’t sweat it.
when i first applied to brown (and was rejected – i transferred in later), my interviewer said to my mom that “she knew I was going into college I wanted, but that she hoped I chose brown.” and like i said, I didn’t get in…don’t sweat it.
) An interviewer who is digging around the internet for dirt to show an applicant is not “avoiding being a cheerleader” they are going out of their way to be overly negative and unprofessional.