<p>I had my interview about a month ago, and it has been bothering me ever since. I truly think it did NOT go well. It was an alumni interview, which i wouldn't mind at all but my interviewer had clearly never interviewed anyone before. He asked me no questions about myself at all. He did not discover anything about my activities, my classes, nothing. Other interviewers have asked about my family, my interests, all kinds of things that wouldn't be on my application. He simply asked whether I had any questions about the school and then we kind of sat there for 20 minutes. I know interviews are sort of luck-of-the-draw, but I really feel that this interview is, if not hurting my chances, certainly not helping them. Is there anything I can do about this? Carleton is my absolute #1 school and the only reason preventing me from applying early decision is financial aid. I just feel like I was cheated out of the opportunity to show my personality that interviews are supposed to give applicants. I know I waited kind of a long time to think about this but it didn't really worry me at the time. As I have gone to more interviews and finished my applications though I'm really becoming worried about this and I would hate to think that this was hurting my chances in some way. Do I have any options?</p>
<p>Interesting. My son also had a similar experience with an alumni interview. The person said she didn’t know what to ask! My son does so well in interviews and this was a disappointment for us, too. It is bizarre that Carleton has such untrained or inarticulate interviewers. </p>
<p>Other than the interviews, I’ve been impressed with the Carleton admissions office. I think they are making an effort to increase their outreach and geographic recruiting, so perhaps you can contact them from an approach that they might find it helpful to know about your experience, and not from an “i was cheated” approach. </p>
<p>I’m not sure, though. Maybe you should also post this on either the Admissions forum or the Parents forum in order to get more opinions.</p>
<p>Alumni interviewers typically to not get any formal training in interviewing. I don’t know about Carleton, but the LAC I do alumni interviews for sends alum interviewers an “instruction manual” of several pages. Alumni interviews in any case are supposed to be about 50% PR for the school and 50% interviewing the applicant. Your having had an alumni interview at least shows “demonstrated interest” in Carleton on your part. I don’t think it would be worth while to try to ask for another interview. The quality or character of your interview is unlikely to hurt you, and I think it must be the very rare case where a superlative interview is the deciding factor tipping someone into the admissions pile.</p>
<p>I agree with dadx3 - I don’t think the interview will hurt you. OTOH if you feel the interviewer can’t provide an accurate picture then you should definitely arrange another one. You’ll want to get right on it, though, to make sure you can set it up this month. You’re best bet, probably, is to call the admissions office and ask for a couple of names in your area.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I think I’m just going to let it go as far as the interview is concerned. It might not help me but I don’t think it will hurt me and I feel like contacting the admissions office might be too extreme.</p>
<p>I think that’s a wise response. My son applied ED to Carleton but had to do his interview by phone (no alums in our area). He had a similar experience - plus, it was very difficult to get a sense of how it went because it was by phone. It’s a good thing he shrugged the whole thing off as an “oh well, interesting . . .” experience and did not base his opinion of Carleton on the interview. He continues to love Carleton (sophomore now).</p>
<p>If you dig thru info on the Carleton Interview process here on CC, you’ll see it doesn’t make much difference. It is more of an info session. With that being said, the interviewers do need to fill out a sheet rating the candidate, however I was told this would only be used if there is a situation were a candidate is on the border.</p>
<p>With all that being said, if you visit Carleton, you can always request an interview again. I’m and alum, and have given an interview before. I think I actually recommended one guy to go get a real interview at Carleton. With this being said, Carleton assures people that visiting Carleton and getting interviews there makes no difference. From what I’ve read here on CC, there is no reason not to believe them.</p>