<p>I have a couple of questions about the interview process for you CC veterans! DS1 and DH are heading out over Spring Break to visit several campuses and gather data on schools to add to the list. The intention is for DS to do the tour, have lunch on campus and sit in on a class or two in his intended field(s) of interest. He does not plan to interview on this round of visits (but that also depends on your feedback!).</p>
<p>Which type of interview is best (and in what circumstances)?</p>
<p>1) On-campus with admissions officer
2) Local (on DS's home turf) when the school's regional admissions officer/head of admissions is in town for school visits
3) Alumni interview held locally</p>
<p>We are wondering what the differences might be in term of questions, formality, weight the interview carries, etc. Any pitfalls or advantages to a particular modality? We are willing to travel back to a school for an on-campus interview over the summer or into the fall, but obviously, time is limited.</p>
<p>I can only speak for the college I interview for, Yale. Yale does not offer interviews with admissions officers, even on campus. They have seniors who are trained to conduct interviews. Just mentioning this because there may be other schools where interviews with admissions officers simply aren't an option.</p>
<p>Alumni interviews and on-campus interviews genuinely carry the same weight for Yale. The advantage of on campus interviews is that you're talking to a current student who can better answer your questions and who may be less intimidating for a high schooler to talk to than an adult. On-campus interviewers have training that the volunteer alumni interviewers don't have (although alums do get a guide), so you're less likely to get a really wacky interviewer.</p>
<p>Interviewing on campus will help your application for schools who give weight to the interest you show in their institution. I think there are some old threads that discuss which schools give a boost to people who show proper interest.</p>
<p>I believe that Harvard does not grant on-campus interviews, even for locals. All interviews are done by alumni. I think that is true of MIT also.</p>
<p>My guess is that an interview with an admissions officer or rep, whether on campus or at a regional session, is going to be more valuable and carry more weight if the student is going to make a strong impression with the interview. The bottom line is that it's an opportunity to talk to a decision maker rather than a distant proxy. I mean, if you were interviewing for a job, who would you rather talk to: the president of the company, or the screener in the personnel department? </p>
<p>I doubt that on-campus vs. off-campus makes much of a difference if you live any great distance from the campus. The reason that the ad officers go out visiting is to meet students who might have difficulty coming to them, and in some ways the interview might be more memorable to them because of the context. That is, the interviewer might tend to associate the interview with the place and the city, and have that connection come to mind later reviewing the file and she sees the name of the high school -- whereas on campus interviews (if offered) might tend to run together in her mind. On the other hand, I think my daughter owes a lot to her on-campus interview, partly because she probably impressed everyone with the fact that she had traveled on her own from the opposite coast to be there. </p>
<p>The problem with the alumni interviews is that they are kind of iffy in terms of who you get -- and my kids both had problems with alumni interviews that never happened because of difficulty contacting or being contacted by the interviewer. Both were with colleges that said that interviewing was important; and in both cases my kids were accepted anyway .... so its not all that crucial. But I think its better to go with an ad com rep if that is an option. </p>
<p>It's a good idea in late summer and early fall to visit the web sites of the colleges your kid is interested in to get an idea of the travel schedule of their reps. One irony is that my daughter flew off to visit Wellesley the same week the Wellesley rep was visiting her high school -- so sometimes you might be able to save yourself a trip with good planning.</p>
<p>My daughter usually would contact a couple of professors from each college before our visit for a meeting. Majority of them were happy to meet with her. They also gave her very good information about the school and concentrations she is interested in. Some of them have even written to the admission on her behalf. It is also a great way to write "why this school..."</p>
<p>I think there are pro's and con's to doing on campus interviews early in the college search process. </p>
<p>First, it's important to ask each school if their on campus interviews are evaluative or informational. Informational interviews won't play a major role in the admissions process; evaluative ones may.</p>
<p>If a student hasn't visited many campuses, or isn't quite clear what he/she is looking for in a school, they may not be ready to start evaluative interviews just yet, especially if questions about what th</p>