<p>I had a Harvard interview at the dude’s house. He was probably in his sixties, but he was very lively and quite pleasant. And I could understand him wanting to have the interview in his home where it is much quieter, instead of at a Starbucks where it is often loud and crowded. It actually ended up good for me, since he had a lot of artwork in his home, and we ended up talking for a while about my art extracurriculars.</p>
<p>The only thing that went off-course was that he asked for my SAT scores and GPA in the beginning of the interview.</p>
<p>Also, I have a Dartmouth interview scheduled at someone’s house as well, and he graduated in 2008. I don’t think it’s a big deal. But that’s just me.</p>
<p>Do what feels comfortable to you. I highly doubt the interviewer is trying to make you feel uncomfortable. He/She probably thinks as many others would that it’s not a big deal. If having your parent come would make you comfortable enough then just do that. If even then you feel uncomfortable, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that you reschedule the interview somewhere else.</p>
<p>This past weekend I had an interview at an alum’s house for Dartmouth and I was extremely comfortable. My interviewer was atleast 65 years old but he didn’t seem to have an mobility issues so I think it might just be the way things were done for him</p>
<p>I had an interview at the guy’s house once and it was perfectly fine, he had a nice big house that was clean so you didn’t feel uncomfortable, he offered me a drink - to which i politely declined. He had pictures up from, his college days and then pictures of him and his fraternity brothers on some kind of vacation trips together like 10 years or so after graduation. We showed me pictures of him and his frat brothers at college and discussed the stories behind the pictures that gave me an interesting insight on college experience.</p>
<p>It was pretty casual, we talked about college life and the questions went both ways, I asked him a lot about his college experience which he was honest about (although he had graduated around 20-30 years ago from the school) and he asked me what you would expect from an interview. In my opinion, this was my best interview out of the 7 that I have done. </p>
<p>My advice: it depends on the school its for, if the school your interviewing for is a big name school then chances are the interviewer is doing pretty well financially and will have a room in his house that you will feel comfortable in, he is representing his school (and his schools reputation). If you arrive at the house and it looks sketchy, obviously go with your gut, maybe keep your parent nearby.</p>
<p>Up until about three years ago, it was very, very common to have students come to the interviewer’s house (or office). That is how I did my college interviews in the '90s and how I conducted them when I started doing them all those years ago. However, in the past few years, there has been a big child-safety push, and now many schools require that their interviewers meet with students in a public place. This was a big shock to many long-time interviewers, and I remember going to an alumni interview conference just a few months ago wherein some middle-aged interviewers were downright perplexed by the change.</p>
<p>What a coincidence. Mine is for Dartmouth as well </p>
<p>I wasn’t really worried that much about the “safety” part of it; I can’t imagine that an alum would use these interviews as a way to prey on teenagers or anything. It’s more about just feeling more awkward in someone’s house… I’m nervous because I haven’t done any interviews before and I feel like I might feel more nervous and say something dumb, but it seems like people have had good experiences with this kind of thing…</p>
<p>And the guy lives in a really nice part of my town so the “sketchy neighborhood” factor isn’t really there.</p>
<p>I only once interviewed in my home because I needed to be there with younger kids but the interviewer is volunteering time and it takes less time to interview there and avoid travel time elsewhere. The only way I see your changing the location is to say that your parents insist on meeting in a public place which might bother the interviewer. I choose to interview at a coffee shop that is convenient to me choosing applicants that are close to my home/office. Nevertheless, I devote a lot of time to my alumni interviewing program and I support the idea that the interviewer should be free to interview at a coffee shop, a library, her home/office, or even the student’s home although I can’t imagine ever choosing that last option myself. One of my colleagues did choose that option thinking it enabled the student to be most at ease but stopped doing it when she heard that it forced the family to do a massive home clean-up in preparation.</p>
<p>My D had an interview for Harvard last year with an alum in his home who lived just a couple of miles away from us. It did not strike us as odd, and she said it was perfectly comfortable. Perhaps it is just me since no one else seems to have commented on it, but I think it might reflect negatively on the applicant if the parent accompanies them to the front door. If the OP, or the OP’s parents, are uncomfortable about the home interview, I think it might be preferable to at least suggest a public meeting place before considering having the parents accompany the OP to the alum’s front door.</p>
<p>collegebound8899,
I had this same situation occur several weeks ago with a student I am advising. A highly selective school and a male alum interviewer requested that my student, a girl, come to his home. I suggested that she have her mother or father come to the door with her, greet the interviewer and then say that she/he would be waiting in the car outside. There was no problem at all. The guy did have his kids running around the house.</p>
<p>Why would it look bad for my parents to say hi to the guy? It’s not like they would come inside or anything, and they’re going to be dropping me off anyway (I don’t have a licence yet.)</p>
<p>Yep, this is sort of a tricky situation. If you have an address, you should also be able to find a name, which is excellent. Look him up, see if he seems safe, etc. There is a perfectly viable chance he is handicapped, in which case it may be offensive to ask him to meet somewhere else.</p>
<p>It was only a few years ago that the school for which I interview, along with others in the region, established ethical and safety guidelines asking interviewers to conduct meetings in a public place. If a home or business is the only place to meet, the school asks that someone else be present in the building and a parent should be allowed to remain on the premises if they prefer. </p>
<p>Of course, the interviewers for these schools have to <em>read</em> the current guidelines. If your interviewer has been doing this for more than a few years, he may not be aware that anything has changed. </p>
<p>I have been meeting in public for my own safety and security for years, but if you want to know the truth, it’s a lousy experience compared to the old style home interviews. It can be loud, I have to get there at least an hour early to make sure I get a table, and even then, I can’t always find a private corner. There can be interruptions - sometimes the student runs into people they know. Not ideal, but an unfortunate necessity today.</p>
<p>All my children’s interviews were in private homes. It’s more conducive to a private conversation than Starbucks Panerra etal… The only time I worried was the interview that ran 3 1/2 hours…I was worried DD had gotten into a car accident since she had only recently gotten her license and the interview was less than a mile away…no way I thought an interview could be that long but it was…</p>
<p>Until about 2 years ago, I worked in the Admissions Office of a very high-profile college, and one of my roles was to manage the alumni interview program. In conjunction with several of our peer institutions, we decided to ban all in-home interviews for the safety of the applicants and also for our own safety (no one wants to be sued!). I met with a lot of push-back from the alumni who had “always done it that way” and those who wouldn’t sign the contract stating they would only meet in public/visible locations were promptly kicked out of the program. Sounds harsh, but after speaking with more than one college who found out years later that they had convicted felons or sex offenders on their volunteer team, we knew it was the right thing to do.</p>
<p>I think you’re perfectly within your rights to call the college and politely ask if this is standard practice, and if it would be OK to request a location change. (Also a nice way to tip off the college if the volunteer isn’t following the rules – I’d be mad as heck and very, very apologetic to the student if this happened in my old job.)</p>
<p>You could also speak with the volunteer directly and use my favorite phrase: “I’m sure you can understand” as in, “I hope I won’t inconvenience you too much by asking to meet someplace a little more public. I’m sure you can understand that a teenager might be a bit uncomfortable going to a stranger’s house.”</p>
<p>I know that coffee shops can be noisy, so other suggestions we made were public libraries that have small meeting rooms you can reserve, spaces at a local school if people will be around, community centers, a conference room at the alum’s work if other people will be around, a cafe with multiple rooms (sometimes Panera will have a couple of separate rooms that are quieter), a park bench if it was warm out, or even the food court at a low-traffic mall if it wasn’t too loud. Or try to schedule at an off-time when the coffee shop won’t be busy.</p>
<p>If a home was really the only option, we required that the student bring a parent and that the parent remain in the home the whole time.</p>
<p>I’m sure everything will be great, but if you’re uncomfortable, you should definitely speak up. No college will fault you for that and frankly I would look favorably on an applicant who was mature enough to politely advocate for themselves. Good luck!</p>
<p>My top choice school (MIT) interviewer had me come to his house, which quite frankly, was in the ghetto. I was in a suit and he conducted the interview in a wife-beater and sweats. Oh, and his roommate offered me beer. Looking back, I wish I asked for another location.</p>
<p>I recently had a H interview at Starbucks. It wasn’t very crowded, but from time to time there was an incredibly loud grinding noise coming from the coffee machinery thingy. Plus, I wasn’t very comfortable on a stool. Still, great experience.</p>
<p>There certainly could be positives to a home interview.</p>
</p>