<p>An alumini interviewer just contacted me yesterday. She's 27 and works as a reporter for a local newspaper. How should I prepare for the interview? Should I look up some of the articles she wrote and bring it up in the interview?</p>
<p>that seems kind of cliche, u should just be yourself and prepare a few questions to ask her</p>
<p>She is an alumna who is not going to evaluate you. She is going to answer questions about her experience at cornell. Just get her talking about her time there and she will paint (metaphorically) a beautiful picture of the school for you. Think of her as sort of a college admissions/cornell shrink haha. Just ask her questions about her time there.</p>
<p>Also, I'm notorious for making this correction:
alumni: male/neutral plural
anumnae: female plural
alumnus: male/neutral singular
alumna: female singular</p>
<p>So interviews can't help or hurt my chances?</p>
<p>What kind of questions should I ask?</p>
<p>I think it would be really hard to make the "information session" hurt your chances at Cornell. They just send a note to Cornell Admissions saying that you two met, nothing else. BUT, if you come of completely bomb the session by saying something completely out of line, like "I hate Cornell. I just applied to it because it was an Ivy," then I imagine the alumna would definitely make a note of that. Ask any questions that you have about the school. The interview can last anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour. It all depends on how interested you are in Cornell to ask many questions.</p>
<p>Yeah, like VU said, you'd have to do something pretty horrible to screw up, like say "I hate minorities" or "I don't want to go to cornell, my dad is making me apply."</p>
<p>Ask questions about thing like favorite memory, school spirit, where they lived on campus, if they were in a fraternity. The goal of the interview is to help you feel out cornell, not to evaluate you as an applicant.</p>
<p>The interviewer will have read this</a> manual.</p>
<p>Wow Sparty . . thanks for the link</p>
<p>yeah the Cornell</a> Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network might be useful too, but you're not going to find out secrets. Like they say, it's an "informational meeting," not an "evaluative interview"</p>
<p>yea the interview pretty much doesnt matter..they ask you at the end though if there is something you want to add to your app that you forgot or just came up. </p>
<p>I wore a hoodie to the interview and it took the person who interviewed me a few min to realize I was actually the kid she was lookin for.</p>
<p>hahaha yeah I would recommend looking presentable for the sake of giving a great first impression and also respect for the almunus, but hey, BigRed, whatever float(s/ed) your boat!</p>
<p>haha yea i actually had forgotten it was a college interview. after a minute of talking with her i realized i was wearing a hoodie that didnt even say cornell on it </p>
<p>but it worked out anyway</p>