<p>JHS - that is unfair.<br>
Why should a 17 year old girl be expected to show up alone at a man’s house??? Even if he is an Ivy alum which you obviously think automatically gives him “God” status?</p>
<p>“Go to a coffee shop when it’s not crowded. they are not mobbed 24/7. How about 7:30 am on a Sat morning or 8 pm on a weeknight? How about a diner?
How about a local library? how about borrowing the high school’s library during the student’s free period or before or after school?
Be creative folks…”</p>
<p>Put yourself into the interviewer’s position. You’re volunteering as a favor for students and for your college. You have a job, a family, and a variety of other obligations. </p>
<p>Are you going to drive all over town and make a variety of arrangements to interview students? Are you going to get up at 6:30 so you can interview at a coffee shop or are you going to either interview in your home (which still requires some arrangements-- cleaning up, keeping kids/pets out of the way, and still requires you to spend about an hour writing a report) or are you going to not interview at all?</p>
<p>I stopped interviewing because it became too much of a time drain particularly after I started interviewing in coffee shops after realizing that I could be in danger from disgruntled applicants.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, since I’ve stopped interviewing, the applications to my alma mater – one that tries to interview all U.S. applicants, and does use interview reports as admissions factors – have increased by about 8,000. I bet there are students who’d prefer to come to my house for an interview than to have no interview at all…</p>
<p>If a student or their parent is too concerned about interviewing at an alum’s home, the student could request another interviewer, but given the difficulty in finding interviewers, it’s possible that the student won’t get any interview or will get one that is more inconvenient than was the original interview location.</p>
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<p>The same odds in the population at large, of course. What – you think that going to the Ivy League makes a difference?</p>
<p>BTW, a former neighbor of ours who was a Harvard Business School alum, pillar of the community, successful businessman, etc. wound up having sexually abused his young adopted daughter. How dumb, to think that “being Ivy League” makes a difference.</p>
<p>What do you think is really going to happen? The guy’s going to meet her at the door, introduce himself, they’ll go sit someplace in the home, he’ll offer her a soda or water or coffee, and they’ll chat about the college. What – do you think there is going to be romantic music playing? A hot tub bubbling nearby? Champagne flowing? </p>
<p>In a year, the D will have to go to professors’ offices and meet alone with professors. She needs to know how to handle herself.</p>
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<p>What the heck difference does that make?</p>
<p>"“I would very much like to meet with you to discuss my application to X University. However, my parents [if relevant, insert “, who are [name of ethnicity] and very conservative,”] are uncomfortable with the idea of me meeting alone with interviewers at their homes, and I need to respect their wishes. Is there any day on which you will be meeting with applicants at a location other than your home, and could we schedule my interview on that day? Alternatively, would it be acceptable for a second person to accompany me to your home and wait in another room while the interview takes place? Or could I switch to another interviewer in our area who conducts interviews in public places?”</p>
<p>Student could send that – and it is a very polite request – but I think that there are better ways of handling it including by having the parent wait outside in their car.</p>
<p>My experience having also headed my regions alum interviewing committee is that it’s hard enough to find alums who are willing to interview students. The student probably is fortunate to have gotten an interview scheduled with any alum. It may not be possible to find an alternative.</p>
<p>Asking an alum to have a parent sitting in another room of their house (How comfortable would people here be with having a stranger sitting alone in some room of your house – presumably a room far enough away from the interview area that the person can’t overhear the interview?) or to interview at a different location is asking a lot, and many people would just decide that they wouldn’t be able to interview that student.</p>
<p>All 5-6 interviews I had as a HS senior were at the interviewer’s homes … 10 years later I interviewed for my school for years (before I had kids) and held the interviews at my home and it never occured to me that this might be an issue at all … and never had anyone request a change either. </p>
<p>I certainly understand the concern and when I stand interviewing again (on the other end of raising 3 kids) I’ll still suggest my home but be sure to mention my wife being at home also. Logistically having the interviews at home was MUCH easier for me … while I didn’t have kids I was already pretty busy and would typically hold 2-3 interviews one night a week … travelling to multiple sites would not have worked … and interviewing in public seems like a poor interviewing environment to me. (PS - to me the most obvious solution is for any parents whom are uncomfortable they should ask if they can wait in the house during the interview in another room)</p>
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<p>Exactly. They aren’t going to do something in a way where there is a record of an interview taking place. “Hmmm … I have a thing for teenage girls. I know! I’ll get on the interviewing schedule for my alma mater, so that there will be a record that I was set to meet Janie Smith at 10 am on Saturday, January 23 and write up something about her.” </p>
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<p>That’s a VERY fair point. It’s along the same lines as H (an ob-gyn) always having a female nurse in the room when a patient is examined, and along the same lines of me, not him, driving teenage babysitters back home (when we were at that stage of having teenage babysitters for young kids).</p>
<p>I can’t believe someone would think an invitation to someone’s home is to show off. Are we in 3rd grade? My daughter interviewed at a Harvard alum’s house. My daughter commented on the fact that the house was a bit messy with dog and kids running around. It was I who made a mental note of the address and knew it wasn’t the best area. But the interviewer was at the top of her field and clearly enjoyed her work. I don’t think anyone is saying an Ivy alum equates a “God” status, but to assume they have all pursued careers for monetary reason is also silly too. What we are saying here could apply to any college interviews, not just for Ivy.</p>
<p>“It’s an ivy league alum. What are the odds they’re a pedophile?”</p>
<p>The student more than likely is 17 or 18, not a child. </p>
<p>The possibility of rape or molestation presumably is what is the concern here, not pedophilia.</p>
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<p>Actually, I’d have no problem with a stranger sitting alone in some room of my house. I would try to suss whether the fear came from the student, though, or the parent.</p>
<p>After my freshman year in college, I had my best interview with a NU alum in his house – it was a lovely area, I drove myself, I couldn’t remember to save my life if there was anyone else in the house at the time – and I got an internship at the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis as a result. No regrets!</p>
<p>The overprotective part of me doesn’t like the idea, but the practical part of me says that you have to assume good about people til proven otherwise.</p>
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<p>This is not the same situation. Meeting alone with someone in an academic building full of people in adjacent offices is not the same as meeting alone with someone in that person’s home.</p>
<p>“ctually, I’d have no problem with a stranger sitting alone in some room of my house. I would try to suss whether the fear came from the student, though, or the parent.”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want someone to be able to go through my belongings, etc. I also tend not to be the neatest person…</p>
<p>I think a home interview is awkward at least for female interviewees when the interviewer is male. The interviewee has no idea if anyone else will be in the house. My kid had an allergic reaction to a pet at the one interview done in someone’s home… IMO the deficiencies of a public setting are more than offset by a greater sense of security. I suggest at least waiting outside in your car.</p>
<p>I would fear that dictating where this volunteer is going to interview might result in not getting interviewed.</p>
<p>Interviewing at the home of an alumni has been around for a long time. I remember getting dropped off at a house for an interview back when I was in school and seeing a classmate getting picked up. We were all scheduled back to back. </p>
<p>When an alumni interviewer has a full night of interviews, I can understand them not wanting to sit in Starbucks for hours and hours. </p>
<p>By the way, back when I first started in admission, I used to interview students in hotel rooms (in the living room of a suite, not in a bedroom). I’d always bring the parents and the student in to chat for a minute, then send mom and dad down to the lounge to hang out while we interviewed. Once in a while, I could sense that a parent was uncomfortable and invite them to stay. Obviously, times have changed. I don’t think that (interviewing in a hotel suite) would happen now.</p>
<p>These days, I’ll go to some hotels during travel season (my current school does not interview) and see colleagues from other schools interviewing kids in those lounges, which are usually pretty loud. There is a style of hotels that has an atrium and I always feel so badly when I see a student trying to talk over a water feature while a glass elevator comes and goes next to them. A private space seems so much better to me.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you are very worried, why don’t you go to the door to meet the alumni and go from there.</p>
<p>If there’s a concern, I do think that the parent’s dropping the child off and introducing oneself to the interviewer and then leaving or sitting outside in one’s car is a good way of handling the situation.</p>
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<p>Eh, if someone wants to start something, it can be started anywhere.</p>
<p>I agree that sitting outside in the car may alleviate or defuse the parent’s fears somewhat – but to be honest, if, inside the house, the interviewer is truly overpowering the teenage girl and forcing her to do unspeakable things, being outside in a car isn’t going to do much good. Unless said girl has her hand on a cell phone at all times and has pre-entered the words “Help me” on a text and is just waiting to push the button.</p>
<p>It might also be worthwhile to check around on the college’s web site (or perhaps even e-mail the admissions office) to see whether turning down the opportunity to meet with an alumni interviewer counts against the student. (At Cornell, the one Ivy I’m familiar with, it doesn’t.)</p>
<p>If you find out that skipping the alumni interview does not count against the student, then turning down the interviewer’s invitation is a reasonable alternative.</p>
<p>“This is not the same situation. Meeting alone with someone in an academic building full of people in adjacent offices is not the same as meeting alone with someone in that person’s home.”</p>
<p>Don’t kid yourself. A drunk professor tried to kiss me when I was a college student dropping off a paper in his office during the daytime. Years later, I read that he was sent to alcohol rehab after a student turned him in for sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Many professor’s offices are in isolated areas. There also may not be anyone else nearby during office hours. The other professors may be in class…</p>
<p>So far Brown, Harvard and MIT have all had their interview’s in alumni homes. I think there are pluses an minuses. I remember once being in one of the smaller reading rooms at a local library when a college interview commenced. I didn’t see why I should have to move (I was there first and besides it was fascinating), but I really didn’t think I should have been privy to all that information.</p>
<p>I think the biggest danger is actually for the interviewer if the student knows where they live they might get harassed by an unhappy rejected applicant.</p>