<p>“A college can vet interviewers all they like, but c’mon – just because someone hasn’t made a pass at a teenage girl in the past doesn’t mean they won’t.”</p>
<p>Likewise for the interviewer, just because no candidate has ever accused the interviewer of making a pass, doesn’t mean the accusation won’t be made in the future. Yet the interviewer continues interviewing at home. Go figure! ;)</p>
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<p>I’m currently a grad student and do alumni interviews for my undergrad school. I have my own office due to a bit of luck with assignments, and this is exactly why I hold all my interviews and office hours in public places.</p>
<p>I’ve typically done interviews either outside the coffee place on campus, or, if they can’t make it until later in the night, at nearby restaurants that tend to be less busy.</p>
<p>Also, what are peoples’ thoughts on parents tagging along for interviews? I’ve had a few parents stick around (always for girls), and I’m perfectly fine with it since our interviews are more of an information session than formal interview, but I tend to see a general vibe against that here.</p>
<p>Finally, in my experience, the schools don’t do any sort of vetting or what not. All I had to do was fill in a check box on my annual alumni response form.</p>
<p>“Finally, in my experience, the schools don’t do any sort of vetting or what not.”</p>
<p>So much for my theory at “the schools.” Perhaps there has never been an incident to trigger a need for vetting.</p>
<p>Regarding pet allergens, removing the pet from the room does not prevent a reaction. The pet sheds fur and skin cells (dander) which provoke just as bad a reaction as the animal itself. So by the time a kid can politely ask for an unexpected pet visitor to be removed, it is too late. You’d have to remove the carpet too. Some kids have especially severe reactions if they have other health conditions (asthma, respiratory infections, CF etc).</p>
<p>What about teaching our kids how to mitigate risk instead of averting risk?</p>
<p>When D1 was doing interviews a few years back, I told her that I was concerned that she was going to stranger’s home. But then I told her find out as much as she could about who she was meeting and we could figure out if it was ok. As it turned out, most of those interviewers have interviewed many of her classmates or they were alums of her private high school. In getting those information D1 felt a lot more comfortable in going to their homes. We also did things where she texted us before she went in and texted us after she was finished.</p>
<p>My recommendation - absolutely not. Last year my son went to an interviewer’s house, interviewing for Yale. Interviewer answered the door in boxers and offered him a drink, twice. My son declined the second offer with a “I’m pretty sure thats illegal.”</p>
<p>S had an interview last weekend with an alumni which occured on a bench outside on a cold rainy day because the interviewer could not find the room where he was supposed to be conducting the interview. Of course, neither one of them had coats on. It was a rather quick chat, about 25 minutes. For those who have daughters, I highly recommend warning about how to handle uncomfortable situations in college. There was a professor at my university who I would often see following me around campus but had no idea why, because I had never had him for a class. One day he came up to me and told me that he thought I looked just like Jennifer Beale. It was pretty creepy. I also worked in the admissions office one summer and had a high level dean constantly making inappropriate remarks to me. Eeveryone in Admissions seemed to know it was a problem but it was tolerated because of his position. When I returned a year later after graduation, he was gone and no one would discuss the circumstances of his removal.</p>
<p>I wonder if the seemingly sliding scale of risk has something to do with being from an urban, suburban or rural area?</p>
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<p>I was invited to be an Ivy alumni interviewer, and I wasn’t vetted at all. (Don’t worry, kids, I turned down the invitation.)</p>
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<p>They don’t know me from a hole in the wall, but if I had said yes to the invitation, I might be interviewing your kid today.</p>
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<p>This is ridiculous. It is entirely appropriate for a young woman (or young man) to be cautious about getting into situations that might be risky and from which it would be difficult to extricate themselves. An interview in the interviewer’s home is one such situation. There’s a reason why my alma mater and some others insist that interviews take place in public places.</p>
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<p>Not if she’s smart, she won’t. Smart young women on college campuses avoid isolated places, ask friends to walk them home if it’s late at night, carry money and a cell phone, and limit their alcohol intake. This eliminates a lot of the dangerous situations.</p>
<p>My opinion is that if a student has a really bad allergy to pets, it is their responsibility to ask the interviewer if they have pets. They need to get into the habit of asking this question themselves, because they have a lifetime ahead of them of going to homes of people they may not know well – like for parties held by coworkers, community volunteer meetings, etc.</p>
<p>Also – sometimes it is really difficult to schedule these interviews. Some kids have killer schedules – they are in theater productions or on sports teams that practice for long hours after school, they hold down jobs, etc. Not all communities have coffee shops or libraries that are open early Sunday morning or after 5 pm at night. I’ve learned my lesson and now hold interviews outside my home, but it has definitely complicated things for me. </p>
<p>I’ve also done some phone interviews this year, and I don’t think they are as effective as face-to-face ones.</p>
<p>just catching up…
Geeps-
What school “requires” an alum interview?? Can you name any? All local alum interviews that I am aware of are purely voluntary, and predominantly informational.</p>
<p>I went on several “Ivy” interviews and most were in the interviewers home. Why would you expect someone who is donating their time to interview you would make a trek to a public place and be uncomfortable. I can’t imagine that anyone would question this in the slightest. At 18 a kid should be savvy enough to handle going into someone’s home without a problem. If not, then maybe they should reconsider whether they can even consider going away to college. Just sayin…</p>
<p>Oh quit being so overprotective. Your daughter is almost college age and when she goes to college, she is going to need to know how to make these decisions on her own without mommy and daddy shadowing her every move. Ask your daughter if she is comfortable with it…let HER decide if she thinks it is a good idea or not. I personally think it is fine. But I am not her and you are not her…let her make her own decisions and use her own judgment.</p>
<p>sorry.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>When I applied to Duke many, many years ago, I was interviewed by an alumni couple at their home. They were very gracious and the interview must have gone well from their perspective since I was offered admission. I understand your hesitation, but I truly don’t think it’s a big deal. I don’t think it’s inappropriate and I certainly wouldn’t be concerned for your daughter’s safety.</p>
<p>Decades ago, I was interviewed by a Yale alumni in his home. He was an Ob-Gyn in his day-job, and no, there was no nurse present. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience; he as much as informed me that there was no way Yale was going to admit me. (He was right, but as I did manage to graduate from a peer school, I’ve always felt he was unnecessarily dismissive.)</p>
<p>My mother was waiting in the car outside the house. I didn’t have a driver’s license yet.</p>
<p>The likelihood that an interviewer would commit a sexual assault under these circumstances strikes me as approximately equal to the odds that the interviewee would be struck by lightening between the car and the house.</p>
<p>Have your daughters ever gone to summer camp? Have they ever stayed overnight at the house of a relative, or a friend? Have they ever gone to a friend’s house to play? How about a youth retreat at church?</p>
<p>Have they ever had a meeting with a male guidance counselor?</p>
<p>Have they ever ridden a bicycle? </p>
<p>Have they ever eaten a sandwich? Or a peanut? Or an oyster?</p>
<p>Have they ever gone on a date? Have they ever ridden in a car driven by a teenager? </p>
<p>I’d wager that any of these activities are statistically more dangerous by orders of magnitude than an interview in the home of an alumnus of any college in the country.</p>
<p>"For those who have daughters, I highly recommend warning about how to handle uncomfortable situations in college. There was a professor at my university who I would often see following me around campus but had no idea why, because I had never had him for a class. "</p>
<p>Sons need education about this, too. As I mentioned before, a professor in my area was accused of sexually assaulting a male college student whom the prof invited over to his house. The professor was accused of slipping something into the student’s drink and then sexually assaulting the young man.</p>
<p>A former student of mine recently told me that years ago, when he was in college a male faculty member of administrator who was a mentor made some kind of pass at him.</p>
<p>Males can be even more uninformed about how to avoid this kind of situation because unfortunately, many parents assume their male sons are safe or any danger due to sex will be of being falsely accused of being a predator, not because they were sexually victimized.</p>
<p>“Also, what are peoples’ thoughts on parents tagging along for interviews? I’ve had a few parents stick around (always for girls), and I’m perfectly fine with it since our interviews are more of an information session than formal interview, but I tend to see a general vibe against that here.”</p>
<p>Fine for informational interviews, but not appreciated in the kind of assessment interviews that my college, Harvard, has alum do. In fact, that’s something that Harvard asks alum interviewers to try politely to avoid.</p>
<p>“Finally, in my experience, the schools don’t do any sort of vetting or what not. All I had to do was fill in a check box on my annual alumni response form.”</p>
<p>My experience, too, was that there was no vetting including by the local alum committee or by Harvard. Who were the interviewers? Interestingly, most of the interviewers on my local committee were faculty and retired faculty from local colleges. Although probably the majority of applicants in my area were pre med or prelaw, in general doctors and lawyers didn’t volunteer to interview. The volunteers tended to be people who had chosen careers involving the education of young adults.</p>
<p>I’m curious-Just how common is it to have interviews in a personal residence and is this regional? We live in Northern NJ and my daughter’s interviews have included:</p>
<ol>
<li> Travelling on the train to meet at Starbucks in NYC on a Sunday morning</li>
<li> Meeting at a Starbucks in the mall on a Tuesday evening (drove herself)</li>
<li> Meeting at an office at 4pm on a Thursday (drove herself)</li>
<li> Meeting at a Hotel Lobby in NYC with an admissions officer visiting NYC from Europe (train and subway)</li>
<li> Meeting at a Hotel in NYC with the US representative of a European school (train)</li>
<li> Meeting at Columbia University (for the same European school) (train and subway)</li>
<li> Telephone interview for another European school</li>
<li> Meeting at the guidance office at her High School</li>
</ol>
<p>With the exception of # 6 which was arranged by the school, all other interviews were initiated by my daughter. She travelled to all of these herself with the exception of #5. As this one was her first interview last fall, she was 16 at the time, and was a little unsure as to how she would recognise her interviewer in a busy NYC hotel lobby, I went with her, waited until the interviewer arrived and then departed to the bookstore across the street. She txt’d me when it was over.</p>
<p>As part of my job I am constantly meeting strangers in public places but I’ve yet to have one of my clients suggest that I meet them at home.</p>
<p>It still just seems a little weird to have a professional type meeting in such a personal space such as a home. I think that more than anything sets off my sketch-alarm. Maybe other parts of the country are different.</p>