<p>Ive conducted alumna interviews for 15+ years in three areas around the world. I do it because I loved my college and I really enjoy meeting so many fantastic young people. But there have been a couple of incidents.. I know these are 17 year old kids and I pride myself on keeping things lowkey and conversational, going out of my way to make everyone feel comfortable. I really dont want to sound snarky and I dont mean to scare off any students (but this is the parents forum, right?). Plus Sally Rubenstone and Soozievts conversation over on the Interview Scheduling for Busy Seniors thread has emboldened me so Im going to post a couple of bad interview moments Ive had over the years maybe parents will find it helpful in prepping their students. Im only going to post two to start ....
First one: applicant shows up with older woman who does all the talking until I firmly usher her into a side room and settle her with a cup of tea. After I close the door on the study where Im meeting with the student, I say Im sure your mother will be comfortable there for the next 45 minutes and the student says in horror: Thats not my mother! Thats my guidance counsellor. This was 1996 so well before the helicopter thing. Second, applicant has a very famous last name. She goes out of her way to make sure Ive made the connexion until finally she actually says So and so is my father. Really not cool. OK, maybe thats a somewhat extreme example but Ive been amazed how many applicants name drop. Not polite. Not impressive. Any other interviewers have stories?</p>
<p>I think the Guidance Counselor scene is pretty amusing. Be a good scene for a movie… Just curious, why was a Guidance Counselor in attendance?</p>
<p>A couple of questions - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Have you had some bring their parents to sit with them in the interview?</p></li>
<li><p>What happens after the interview? What do you do as a conclusion and how much does it affect one’s acceptance or not?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>A friend interviews for one of the top schools and told me of an interview in which the young woman burst into tears and said her parents would be so horribly disappointed in her if she didn’t get admitted. (This, Amy Chua, is what you get when you tell your kid that failure isn’t an option!) My friend assured her that her parents would recover from their disappointment if indeed that were to happen, and this young woman’s life would be as full of success in the future as it had been in the past.</p>
<p>I meet the young man at Starbuck’s, give him my gift card that I use only for meeting with students, and then ask my usual, “How did MyCollege get on your radar?” He says, I got rejected early decision by Similar U. and I heard MyCollege was alot easier to get into."</p>
<p>it kept going like this …I kept smiling and doing deep breathing</p>
<p>finally, I ask, well do you have any questions?</p>
<p>“Oh, I have so many.”</p>
<p>I wait.</p>
<p>“But I can’t think of them now.”</p>
<p>I did say, as usual, well, you have my email - you can send them to me later (he didn’t)</p>
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<p>Maybe she had been stung by criticism from parents or her principal that she was a poor GC because she wasn’t getting any kids into top schools. So she decided to try new tactics and put on a full-court press. It’s about the only scenario I can think of that would explain this bizarre behavior.</p>
<p>Maybe it was a private counselor, and because the famous parent thing, parents were very busy, and so couldn’t get them to interview and private counselor drove them and coached up to the interview?</p>
<p>^^ It’s not entirely clear from the post, but I took it that the famous parent episode was a different applicant from the “Helicopter GC” one.</p>
<h1>3 regarding parents going to interviews.</h1>
<p>It may not occur to interviewers, but holding interviews at home or in hotel rooms can be concerning to parents: most specifically when a male is interviewing a young woman.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is married to a man who interviews for a “very high ranked” university at home. They were both a bit put off by the moms who came to the door with their 17-year-old daughters. </p>
<p>(!)</p>
<p>They get it now. These are not necessarily overly involved parents. The parent is shown to an adjacent room.</p>
<p>Student interviewer working in the admissions office over the summer at Swarthmore. He sits down with a high school applicant who gets talking and proceeds to tell him about how she and her friends like to pick on the gay kids at her high school.</p>
<p>1) I don’t know what on earth made her think this would come across well in an interview…</p>
<p>2) … at Swarthmore? I mean, could you more conclusively demonstrate that you haven’t done even a nano-second of research and know absolutely nothing about the school’s culture? I mean, Swarthmore isn’t known as the Quaker version of Liberty U.</p>
<p>3) And, completely oblivious to the fact that her interviewer was openly gay. Hello! Earth to applicant! Buy a vowel from Vanna White or something before you go interview…</p>
<p>Needless to say, this was one of those rare interviews that blows an applicant completely out of the water. You really don’t want somebody scrawling “Gay Basher” across your admissions folder in bold magic marker at Swarthmore. So the next time you see a kid with 800 SATs and all the other trappings rejected, remember that there could be “the rest of the story” somewhere in the application folder.</p>
<p>I interview with a panel for a scholarship program. Financial need is one of the necessary criterion for the candidates. We were interviewing a student who had indicated that the family was living entirely on welfare and that both parents were unemployed.
We stopped cold when we got to one of our standard questions (“What are your plans for the upcoming summer?”) and the candidate told us that she was going to work under the table for her dad’s company.</p>
<p>Why was the Guidance counsellor in attendance? She was the boys counsellor at his very big public high school and as she left, she said to me in front of the boy Im here because this is the first viable Hispanic candidate weve ever had from XXX High and I wanted to make sure hes treated right. I was speechless for a moment before assuring her that her student would be treated as respectfully/carefully as any other. </p>
<p>Re parents coming along: no, Ive never had a parent come to the interview. But if one did, Id settle them in a side room with a cup of tea and then go into another room for the interview. . I interview at my house, at the students school or in a coffee shop (my least favourite as I prefer more privacy). I generally offer the choice of venue.</p>
<p>Re the girl bursting into tears: oh dear. But youd be surprised how many students have answered the question ,Why this college? with a straightforward, because my parents want me to apply. Not a good answer.</p>
<p>My friend who is an alumni interviewer for Brown told me that one of her least favorite responses but frequent responses to “Why Brown?” is “My HS friends are all going there.” She finds that very naive and presumptuous but especially common from one private HS.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think we parents worry and obsess much more about clothing our students than the interviewer. S dressed very casually, in his regular slightly faded clean cargo shorts and a hooded sweatshirt for his interview and seemed to have gotten along swimmingly–got accepted and nice merit awards.</p>
<p>Totally agree that ‘what to wear’ is simply not important. Also no need to sweat over ‘thank you’ notes. I make sure applicants have my email and phone numbers for any follow up questions but other than that, I don’t expect to hear from them. </p>
<p>At least that answer to why Brown (‘because all my HS friends go there’) offers the information that that HS has a track record with Brown and leads easily on to other questions (have you visited them there? What do they like/dislike about it?) “Naive” doesn’t bother me at all - the kids I meet are usually around 17 years old - but what does bother me is pretentiousness, pompousness, rudeness. A naive 17 year old can be enthusiastic and winning - a pompous one is a bit worrying.</p>
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<p>My SIL also interviews for Brown. The worst response she ever got was the predictable one: “My parents made me apply to all the Ivys.”</p>
<p>samuck, I appreciate your perspective on 17 year olds. Probably because my son was not particularly mature at 17 when he interviewed, but was bright and could be engaging and friendly.</p>
<p>I probably worried about clothing for son’s interview as others had mentioned. We encouraged him to dress nice but casual (nice slacks and polo) instead of the way he typically dressed at his public hs. Interview was a fair distance from home and H and I ended up driving him there. We dropped him off (at a coffee shop) and he called on cell when finished. We came back to get him and met his interviewer and had a nice, short conversation. Maybe some interviewers would not be receptive to this or would consider it a negative, but he seemed very easy going and friendly.</p>
<p>Not quite an interview situation, but I’ll throw one in:</p>
<p>My D and I were visiting a LAC during an official visit day. At lunch, we sat with another prospective and her parents. The academic dean came and sat at our table. He promptly started peppering the kids with questions; since this was my D’s first college visit, she was a little flummoxed. But - her reluctance to speak was completely eclipsed by the other student’s pretentious attitude.</p>
<p>The dean asked: Why do you want a liberal arts education?</p>
<p>The student replied: I don’t really have time for the liberal arts. I want to be an anesthesiolgist, and I just want to take classes related to my major and get done as quickly as possible. I took liberal arts in high school, and I’m done with poetry and critical thinking and all that stuff.</p>
<p>acesmom, I cant believe any interviewer would view a parent dropping off and collecting a student as a negative or would somehow mind having the opportunity for a quick chat with the parent. High school seniors are busy and it can be hard fitting in these interviews so a parents help re transportation is great. What I DID mind was the one student who called me repeatedly to ask how to get to my house (Id emailed directions for various routes, plus at that time lived only five minutes very safe walk from a rail station). He then asked me to change the already agreed upon day because his father was having a party and wanted him to be there. As it turned out, the father ending up hiring a car and driver for this kid although Id worked out there were plenty of options for him to get there by public transport and Id offered to meet him at the station. The whole thing created quite a negative impression (needlessly it seemed to me).</p>
<p>Got2BeGreen - ‘done with critical thinking’! Hah!</p>
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<p>I imagine it’s exactly the answer the kid wanted to give.</p>
<p>I’ve had an interview or two with parents present, but my school only does informational interviews instead of more admissions-centered ones, so it didn’t bother me much. I usually try to answer any questions the parents have first, then ask if they can give me some time to talk with the student alone. (As a note, I’m a male less than ten years out of undergrad, and it’s generally parents of female students that do this, so I’m a little understanding.)</p>