<p>Well, so I had my interview for FU SEAS. My interviewer spent the time telling me about how Columbia's prospective students wouldn't really want to go there if they knew what the university really was like. Basically, he kept bashing the university and saying its standards are way too high and unmanageable. He proceeded to tell me that if he could do it all over again, he definitely would not have chosen to attend Columbia University. He also made fun of my AIME score, telling me "Glad you're not gonna be a math major". Although what really gets me is he told another applicant from my school that in the last 15 years he did interviews, 0 of the students he interviewed were accepted!</p>
<p>Something seems fishy. I am kind of worried that him being my interviewer might affect my chances. Why would he bash Columbia to the prospective students? Do you think it is his doing that none of his interviewees were accepted? Should or could I do something about this?</p>
<p>That sounds awful. I think Columbia's admissions office would want to know about this type of interviewer. It's one thing for an interviewer to answer your questions honestly about what he liked or didn't like about Columbia. It's another thing for him to misuse his power in this situation, not only bashing his alma mater, but putting you down. I'm not sure how to suggest you go about informing admissions, but my instinct would be to do it in a way in which you don't identify yourself, so that they don't feel this is a student who had a bad interview and is blaming it on the interviewer. </p>
<p>I guess my first suggestion would be to ask your guidance counselor's advice on this. Perhaps he or she knows somebody at the Columbia admissions office, could relate the Columbia bashing, and could ask whether or not it's appropriate for you to ask for a second interview with someone else.</p>
<p>On the other hand, to make you feel better, I don't think interviews count a lot in the Columbia admissions process. Columbia was my son's first and worst interview and he still got in.</p>
<p>You should heed sac's advice. I'm an interviewer, and I agree that this sounds horrible. There is little screening mechanism for filtering out bad interviewers at <em>any</em> college. Almost everyone wants an interview, and there aren't enough alums to interview everyone. So, they're glad to have alums help out. And, there's no way of getting rid of bad interviewers since people are afraid of complaining. I certainly would have been afraid of complaining if I were in your shoes.</p>
<p>This type of interview could be very harmful. While interviews aren't a major factor, Columbia looks for any reason to get rid of people. A bad interview is most likely going to harm you, and it sounds like this guy will give you a really bad report. </p>
<p>You have to weigh the tradeoff -- is it going to make things worse by calling attention to it and making a fuss? Given the seriousness of this, I'm inclined to think that you really can't make things worse. Columbia's not likely to accept someone with a horrible interview report, so something probably needs to be done.</p>
<p>I'd start with your counselor. If your counselor is useless, then I'm not sure you'd want to bother with him/her. Maybe your principal? If your parents are good at this sort of thing, maybe they should call.</p>
<p>While I agree with most of what you're saying, Columbia2002, I think I'd be very cautious about having parents call, unless it is to call without identifying the student, just to ask what the admissions office procedure might be about an interviewer who is bashing Columbia and telling applicants he would never go there again. The office would like to hear about an interviewer who is not representing Columbia well, rather than about an interview that didn't go well for a particular applicant. In my experience, admissions officers hate to hear from parents -- it gives them an impression of lack of independence and maturity on the part of a student, and independence is a highly valued attribute at Columbia, as you know. They'd much rather hear from a student. I suggested the gc because a gc would probably know the regional rep or someone else in admissions and could deal with it more informally. If the gc isn't helpful and the student is REALLY convinced the interview is a negative, my next step would be to suggest the student call the regional rep (if possible) without identifying himself by name, explain the situation, ask whether it might be either possible or advisable to try to reschedule with a different interviewer, then gauge the reaction.</p>
<p>Another thought -- Phantom who posts on here is a student who works in the admissions office. Perhaps he/she might sound the waters if a thread is addressed specifically to him/her.</p>
<p>stevezilla -- If your interviewer has never seen a candidate he interviewed get in, that doesn't mean he has turned in bad reports on them all. It could just be a combination of evidence that the interviews don't count for all that much and his way of telling candidates what they already know, that Columbia is tough to get into, especially in the RD round. If he does turn in bad reports ALL the time, presumably they would not value his reports very much. Don't you have to qualify just to take the AIME? It's a plus you got that far, not a minus. In the grand scheme of things, everything else in your record and application counts for more than the interview, which is as much to keep alumni ties to the university as anything. (Guess that didn't work too well with this guy, huh? They should probably write him off their potential donor list.) Good luck.</p>
<p>You raise very good points. I just think a parent may be better than nothing, since counselors at some schools are totally useless. Columbia is glad to hear from parents when the situation merits, and I think this is one such situation. One adcom told me that the office gets calls from parents about interviewers who made girls feel uncomfortable, and they're very interested in hearing about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>On whether this guy is having any impact, I guess it matters how many people he interviews. If he's done 1-2 interviews per year for 15 years, it could be nothing. But if he's done several interviews every year, there is definitely something wrong. FWIW, my "acceptance rate" for ED and RD isn't that far from the overall numbers.</p>
<p>Columbia doesn't normalize the interview report ratings. However, they look at the substance of what you say. If this guy writes that everyone stinks without backing it up, they're going to ignore him. (They also ignore interviewers who write reports filled with unsupported superlatives.) But, you never know that this guy is going to write.</p>