<p>While I can see that some students might consider it awkward for a variety of reasons, it is extremely common for an interviewer to suggest meeting at his/her home. In fact, I believe that all the interviews that my children had were held at private homes. I sort of agree with ENs mom–I probably wouldn’t suggest having your parents come to the door because it might make you appear a little less mature and I’m not sure what protection it would actually give you (if your parents don’t like the guy, are you going to cancel the interview?). Moreover, mentioning that your parents are waiting might cause the interviewer to cut short the interview, which is something you don’t really want. If you really need to say anything, you could casually mention that your parents are in the neighborhood because you can’t drive yet, but that they are happy to wait around for as long as the interview takes.</p>
<p>As crazy at it sounds, I have a friend that is applying to a highly-selective liberal arts college…as the story goes on, the interviewer wanted to meet him at a hippy coffee shop… Now-a-days, colleges are trying to get a little more “friendly” with their applicants. Some like to see how you search for them in a coffee shop, how you greet them considering you’re not in a waiting room… It’s a different, but lately, common approach… The person was also texting him, which is even more personal… they just want to know their applicants better.</p>
<p>I don’t share ensmom’s assessment. When I interview, I explicitly tell students that I’d love to meet their parents, if they wished to do so. I introduce myself and offer to answer any questions at the end of the session, after I’m done with the student. I’m doing a cursory evaluation of the student but also selling my college to the student and family, if they happen to be eventually admitted.</p>
<p>I don’t find that unusual at all. Two of my college interviewers were at the interviewers’ houses (although one was a little bizarre for other reasons - and her house was HUGE, it was the biggest house I’ve ever seen, let alone set foot in. But I digress), two were at coffeeshops and I had a few other interviews for scholarship-type things that were at offices and/or coffeeshops. Most of my friends experienced the same thing.</p>
<p>I personally don’t see this as unusual. Most of the interviews I did for college were at the person’s house. My parents were a little anxious about it, so they just parked out on the street and waited for me to come out, so if anything happened I knew I could just walk out the door. But the actual interview went fine: we sat in the living room and he pulled out the interview sheet and started recording my answers. After his wife came home from work and started dinner, we ended the interview and I walked out.</p>
<p>I would call the college and ask for another interviewer. Just say your parents are not comfortable having you meet at someone’s house. I interview for my liberal arts college, and we are not allowed to interview at our homes. I have interviewed at Starbucks, a hotel lobby, the lobby of my apartment building, and a variety of other places.</p>
<p>You and your parents know his full name and his address. You are around eighteen years old. What are you worried about?</p>
<p>I’m just going to be blunt now. </p>
<p>The interviewer wants to develop a personal rapport with you. If you say you feel uncomfortable, or even inply it, it is entirely within your right, but it makes him unhappy. It’s just the same as if you tell an interviewer that a question he is asking is illegal. It may indeed be illegal, and you are in the right. But the interviewer will see that as a personal affront, which will greatly wane your chances of getting a good review.</p>
<p>I don’t see this as strange at all, just more convenient for the interviewer. At their own house, they know they will have a quiet place to talk and be able to find you easily. At a coffeehouse, it can be noisy, hard to find a table, and hard to figure out which person you are meeting.
I think you are overreacting.</p>
<p>D had 2 alumni interviews – one at a Starbucks; one at the person’s home. Both interviewers were women. With the one that was at the woman’s home, D knew people who knew the family so she felt comfortable and there were kids running around during the interview. I stayed in the car parked right outside. </p>
<p>But if you’re not comfortable, then don’t do it.</p>
<p>I did this for Dartmouth years ago, meeting at the interviewer’s house.</p>
<p>The interview went fine and I was accepted.</p>
<p>I had no prior connection with the interviewer.</p>
<p>It might be unusual, but it happens.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s unusual, maybe not. When I applied for college eight years ago I did several interviews at the interviewers’ homes. I got a chance to know what they were like, making the conversation more natural than if we were at a coffee shop. For example, a quick scan at one interviewer’s bookshelf, I noticed we had several books in common and I used that as an icebreaker. It worked pretty well.</p>
<p>Furthermore, what sort of inappropriate things do you imagine the interviewer might do when you’re alone with him/her, knowing full-well that the interview is on record and your parents know where you are?</p>
<p>I understand the concern, but I think the way to combat it is to have a parent come to the interview, park, introduce him/herself to the interviewer, and say that s/he’ll be back in [an hour, half an hour, whatever time]. That seems like the best response. </p>
<p>WRT maturity if a parent shows up, I don’t see that as a serious issue, because a person you’ve never met did ask you to his home and you are (potentially?) under 18. Heck, I’m over 18, and when I got my new headshot photos done, my mom joined me to meet each photographer. One actually told her that he appreciated it; as a young man, he feels more comfortable working with younger women when he’s met a parent first.</p>
<p>@alreadyapplied - “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.”</p>
<p>Gotta love MIT!!</p>
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I’ll be blunt–I wouldn’t understand. I’d think that the kid or his parents are paranoid, and/or that if he’s too uncomfortable to go to a stranger’s house, he’s sure not ready to go to college.</p>
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I wouldn’t look favorably on an applicant who was afraid that I might be a pervert or a predator.</p>
<p>You’ll have to decide for yourself whether this interviewer is more likely to be like me or like those who think it’s fine to ask him to change the location.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice, everyone! I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I’m not really worried about the guy being a predator or anything like that. My parents and I know his name and address, and he’s giving his time to represent his school. Who would volunteer as an alumni interviewer just to prey on teenagers?</p>
<p>I was just curious whether or not this was a common practice and from a lot of these responses, it seems normal. My initial reservations were probably because I’ve never heard of it before, and I was wondering if it negatively impacted the students’ comfort level. It seems like the noise of a Starbucks was more troublesome for a lot of people. </p>
<p>I don’t mean to overreact or seem immature, but I’ve never had an interview before and I was just curious about this practice. I don’t want to risk upsetting the interviewer by seeming untrusting; that would be a lot worse than just going through with it…</p>
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<p>Hunt, obviously you’re a grown-up and you can do what you like, but I think it might be time to rethink your position. I no longer do a lot of things I used to do. Twenty years ago, while I was a young male teacher in a girls’ school, I took half a dozen teenage girls, by myself, to Boston to the Harvard Model UN. I look back and wonder, what the hell was I thinking? </p>
<p>I no longer teach school, but I still tutor a lot. I won’t meet a student in a house–mine or the student’s–unless there’s somebody else in the house (my wife, my teenage daughter, one of the kid’s parents). I’m not a dirty old man, but I have no interest in allowing a teenager to make an unfounded accusation that I am one. That sort of thing will ruin a person’s life. </p>
<p>I haven’t interviewed in the last few years, but if I return to it, I will plan always to meet students in a neutral, public location. I think it protects me, in addition to avoiding a situation that might make an applicant uneasy.</p>
<p>Please just go to the interview. It is not uncommon to have rules against this in place now in colleges (I interview for Furman and it is on the No No list) but it is equally common to carry on interviews in living rooms of Alum. You have A. a cell phone, B a time frame, C parents who know where you are and are not far away. </p>
<p>Relax…this is Old School interviewing and in the scheme of things, --this time and place and interview is not where I would employ the “gift of fear” (name of a book that is worth reading as fear and listening to your own instincts is an adult skill set we should be talking to our sons and daughters about)</p>
<p>Please do employ The Gift of Fear in many other aspects of your future life. Not this time. </p>
<p>Alum interviews are entirely Human and Flawed experiences. The MIT wife-beater story is entirely believable. I know a young woman in a major city whose two Ivy interviews were in the the same house (very upscale)…married couple interviewing for diff schools. Be prepared for interviewers to be entirely different from each other and many will ask blunt and borderline questions while others will err on restraint and rule following. My son’s Duke interview went like this “give me your list of colleges applied for in order of your personal preference so I can tell Duke where they are on the list” What? He got into Duke and the guy wrote him a glowing reference (Duke was not his first choice). You just never know.</p>
<p>I’m not going to falsely accuse him of anything; that idea seems kind of ridiculous to me. I really want to go to this school… I don’t want to jeopardize my chances in any way. He mentioned in the email that his home is where he holds most of the interviews, so I doubt that there have been any problems with him; it seems that this is the way many interviews were held in the past. Like I said, my parents will be driving me anyway so they will probably at least introduce themselves and leave to run errands or something.</p>
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<p>Collegebound, I never meant to suggest that you would. I’m sorry if it seemed I was implying such a thing.</p>
<p>But make no mistake: the idea that somebody could accuse a person in a position of influence–especially a middle-aged man–of behaving improperly with a young person while they are alone is far from ridiculous. It does happen, and when it happens, it’s completely ruinous. </p>
<p>Certainly, most middle-aged men are not predators, just as most young people would never dream of making a false accusation of this kind. But the sad fact that so many notorious molesters are men tends to make people believe that any accusation against a middle-aged man is probably true. Heck, even I am inclined to believe that such an accusation against a middle-aged man is probably true. All the more reason to take this fairly simple precaution against being the target of a false accusation, IMO. (Obviously, Hunt’s mileage may vary.)</p>