<p>Ask for some place else, but seriously, you do not belong at the big H if you’re uncomfortable that an elite Harvard grad is interviewing you at his house. Do you think an elitist is going to rape you or something? What are you 12 years old?</p>
<p>^The Unabomber went to Harvard…</p>
<p>^^That is a little ridiculous. She is not worried, her mother is slightly concerned. Parents get that way when their children are about to fly the coop. I am sure she is not paranoid or afraid of her interviewer raping her, but I can see how a mother who is unfamiliar with the process might find the idea of her daughter going to a strange man’s house peculiar.
Your mom seems pretty similar to mine(and most of my friends’). She is not paranoid, just slightly overprotective about things that are unfamiliar. I’d say joke about it with your interviewer when explaining the situation, but don’t come off as disrespectful towards your parents wishes. 
but hey, I’m in high school. :(</p>
<p>
ummmm… I’d highly discourage that. That would be the most awkward joke in the world:
“Hi, so my mom though you were gonna do something to me in your house. Haha. That’s why she’s here”</p>
<p>I’d go with what couple other people suggested: have your mom wait nearby in the car.
G’luck!</p>
My daughter interviewed for six Ivies–she was accepted at four. None of them had her interview in a home. I would never let her interview in someone’s home. It is insensitive and inappropriate because it puts unnecessary stress on students and families. I say, if you can’t get your lazy alumni butt out to a Panera, then Skype your interviews.
@veezee, would you allow your entering freshman daughter, meet her male advisor during the 3rd week of classes at her college in his home?
You’re entitled to your opinion but many people feel differently. I’ve interviewed 3 students at my dining room table b/c my wife had to stay late at work and someone had to be home with the little ones and I couldn’t reschedule/postpone – it was easier to have them come to my house. And if the need arises again, I’ll ask again.
My son had an interview at the interviewer’s house. Frankly, as someone who has conducted alumni interviews for many years for another top school, I was surprised that this was still allowed. Back when I started in the 1980s, it was perfectly fine for alumni interviewers to conduct interviews at home, and I did. But that has changed over the years, and since that time, all my interviews have been at Starbucks. I wasn’t worried about my son’s safety, but I was put off–going to an interviewer’s house is more awkward for the student, and in our particular case, necessitated a long, somewhat dangerous drive. I waited outside in the car while he had his interview, which went fine. If my alma mater is typical, colleges provide a great deal of guidance to alumni interviewers, including recommendations about where to interview students. I’m guessing, though, that some interviewers, especially those who have been conducting interviews for many years, don’t bother to read this material carefully and just continue doing what they’ve been doing. Another big issue is interviewers who know the students they’re interviewing or who have a child who’s a senior and applying to colleges that year. These are clear conflicts of interest, and an interviewer in one of these situations should recuse him- or herself. Yet some don’t, which I find appalling. I myself am not interviewing this year, even though my son had no plans to apply to my alma mater, simply because I knew that I might well end up interviewing other students from his school–students who could be applying to the schools he did apply to. And if I were to interview these students, that too would be a conflict of interest. Alumni interviewers need to think through all aspects of what they’re doing–who they’re interviewing, why they’re interviewing, and where they’re interviewing. In this day and age, interviews should definitely be conducted in a public place, for both the student’s and the interviewer’s safety.
@T26E4 I don’t know how you’d feel about sending a teenage daughter to drive to a stranger’s house for an interview for a job or volunteer position. Not sure how interviewing for college is that much different.
Our daughter drove to a house in a semi-secluded location at 4pm in the dead of winter for one of her college interviews (with a man) and it went fine but it was troubling to say the least. There are creeps out there and being a college interviewer doesn’t automatically exclude someone from being one as many on this thread seem to imply.
I only interviewed for my alma mater for one year and it was a long time ago but I never even thought to not hold it in a public place. At a place where I once worked, we typically would have all one-on-one conversations with persons of the opposite sex with the door half open. Not sure how I could then turn around and invite a young college hopeful girl to come to my home.
Maybe it’s because we live in New York City, and my daughter started going out to lunch on the streets of Manhattan in 5th grade, and riding the subways to and from school by herself in 6th grade, but my wife and I didn’t have any issues with the location of her interviews, which included The Harvard Club, a 5th Avenue law office, a Columbia-Presbyterian doctor’s office, a coffee shop in Brooklyn Heights, a mid-town deli, a Barnes & Noble around the corner from her school in Tribeca, and someone’s home on the Upper East Side. Granted I drove her to the coffee shop and the doctors office, as those interviews were at night and not near our home, but I think parents need to be a bit more trusting. After all, in less than 9 months, they will be sending their son or daughter off to college, where they might meet lots of creepy characters, including frat boys and professors that act like frat boys. And IMHO, those characters might be a lot worse!
@JHS
I don’t think asking any young lady to go into a situation that she might be uncomfortable with but is forced to ask herself “would I be jeopardizing my chance to get into this (possibly dream) college if I asked to change the venue?” is appropriate. Your comment that this kind of kid is not “your kind of kid” just reaffirms how these children have no choice in the matter. You are insulted because a young lady is exercising her right to be cautious? Shame on you.
Our HS kids have heard their entire lives that they should not put themselves in imprudent situations. Young girls have have been repeatedly warned about not getting into compromising situations that they would have a hard time getting out of if things went awry. Yes, they will eventually have to grow up and fend for themselves in college and beyond, but the point is, most are NOT yet trained to be comfortable going into a strange man’s house. They have been programmed otherwise and rightly so.
I suspect it will take just one well-publicized assault or impropriety (or even “alleged” assault or impropriety) for colleges to suspend the practice entirely. For the interviewers reading this, why not be ahead the curve?
You would think that attitude might apply to something like Harvard’s final clubs (http://www.thecrimson.com/column/the-red-line/article/2013/9/25/sexual-politics-harvard/) or Princeton’s eating clubs (http://planetprinceton.com/2014/12/01/two-officers-ousted-from-eating-club-at-princeton-university-after-email-scandal) where it seems creeps are abundant. As I said before, I think there are more 20-year old creeps on college campuses than the 40/50 year old’s who are interviewing applicants – especially when an applicant and their parents can google the interviewer and find out everything about them before the interview, including their employer, their Facebook page and their Linkedin account.
It’s important to keep in mind that some colleges—mine and another top college I interviewed for—now specifically ask interviewers to conduct interviews in public places. So interviewers who disregard these requests aren’t doing their jobs. And even if a college doesn’t specify where the interviews should be held, making the situation comfortable for the applicant is paramount. Whether or not there are “creeps” among college interviewers is irrelevant. Applicants should meet interviewers in public places and should not have to worry about jeopardizing their chances for admission if they ask that an interview be conducted in a public place instead of an interviewer’s home.
^^ Much better said than me but not sure how a girl possibly finding herself alone in a house with a creep is “irrelevant”.
@gibby no argument from me about what you posted about the college scene but really not the issue here. Just because things may be terrible in finals or eating clubs doesn’t make the outdated practice of interviewing at home appropriate. Yes, one can try to do research about the interviewer to determine the level of danger, but why is this even necessary?
Every year, on almost every school forum, someone posts a question about being asked to go to a person’s home or office after hours and whether they should do it. Since CC captures a small percentage of college applicants, imagine how many kids actually have to wrestle with this issue every year. Why does this practice even still exist? Yes, 40/50 year-olds behave infinitely better than 20-year olds but they should also know better too. What happens if a young girl falsely accuses them of misconduct even though they did nothing wrong and had nothing but the best of intentions? Their reputations will be forever stained and it was only because they put themselves and the girl in that position by not thinking prudently about what an appropriate setting should be.
FWIW, my daughter did extensively research her interviewer and even google-mapped and tried to street view the house. None of what she found out made it any easier to drive to the house in the semi-woods knowing it would be dark before the interview was over. I guess she should have asked to move it to another location but that might have insulted her male interviewer and she would not have been his kind of person.
The original post is four years old. If the OP had a problem, it would have been headline news in 2011. Today, applicants can risk asking for a public venue, or learn to cope with an experience outside their comfort zone.
And, yes, parents, you have much more to worry about on your child’s campus party/dorm/frat/club scene come fall.
Clearly, not the point.
Unfortunately, when an uninformed interviewer makes such a request and is turned down, it is a risk to the applicant. But, it shouldn’t be.
I thought they were doing this by going to the nerve-wracking elite college interview in the first place. I guess you would advocate some having to add on another layer of stress on top of this for no good reason. As Planner said, making the situation comfortable for the applicant is paramount - not teaching them a lesson about going outside of their comfort zone.
This goes without saying but that still doesn’t make the situation we’re talking about appropriate. And at how many of these party/dorm/frat/club scenes is there someone our child “thinks” holds a key to their future telling them they have to attend or else? Presumably, our kids can exercise their free will if they want to go to parties and bear the consequences of their choices if something bad happens.
^^ I agree 100%.
Between my two sons, they had about 10 interviews.
All were in public places.
I see folks’ point that most interviewers, probably near all, are good, decent folks. But not all. As well, most applicants are relatively-normal, reasonably-bright young kids, but I’ve seen a few students here on CC that I wouldn’t want to interview alone in my home, for fear that they might misconstrue something innocent.
Modern managerial practice is when a superior meets with a subordinate, it’s best to try to arrange it so that it’s mostly in view of others, to avoid any misunderstandings, and to discourage bad behavior on the part of the small number of folks who aren’t either good or decent.
I just don’t know why folks would interview in their homes, alone.
As for the perspective that someone might think, “I would have the idea that this kid was not my kind of person…,” all I can say is “wow.”
Well @ falcon1, what is the point of rehashing a 4 year old thread? The home interview policy has clearly been discouraged by the majority of colleges in this day and age.
Students who are so fearful of “stranger danger” that they (and their parents) cannot cope with a private residence, (even with mommy gripping her cell phone while parked in the interviewer’s driveway), have a choice of just applying to local U’s which do not require interviews.
There is no inherent right to have every step of admissions geared to make students feel warm and fuzzy. The idea that an Ivy-level alum, in his or her house, poses a security risk is simple paranoia. Until you can prove even one “incident” has ever occurred, the fear remains groundless.
Yes, adcoms are looking for reasons to reject applicants. Exaggerated fearfulness and lack of perspective seem decent reasons to pass over an applicant.
Some young women may be uncomfortable with this set up. It’s really not for grown men to determine whether that discomfort is appropriate or not. It puts the young women at a disadvantage in the interview process because the young male applicants aren’t as likely to find it uncomfortable. The young women can’t win here. They endure something that makes them uncomfortable (beyond the nerves that both they and the young men might normally feel during a college interview), which in turn may affect their performance and make them look bad, or they ask to change the venue which may reflect badly on them as well. I’m glad to see that colleges are discouraging this practice.