<p>It has not been 40 years since the 80’s!!! I graduated high school in 1988 and I am 42!! Sheesh! Trying to age me already? I feel old enough!</p>
<p>My MOTHER is in her 60’s and she graduated college in the 60’s.</p>
<p>Haha you know its weird, I just had been offered another alumni interview and the interviewer offered to meet at his house nearby. This was the first alumni interview I had been offered since I had found this topic in the first place and before reading this topic, it hadn’t occurred to me that none of the interviewers wanted to meet in a public place like Starbucks, they all want me to meet at their house (this is the 3rd)… Its a bit weird now that I think about it.</p>
<p>Although I meet my interviewees in public settings, I have started to opt for places like Shoney’s, and we even moved to a quieter booth last time because there was no privacy. Last time I interviewed in a coffee shop, we moved to a quieter area. Have you ever been looking at books at B&N or trying to get your email written in a Starbucks and overheard an interview? I have…and it was very annoying/uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Seriously, what are the chances of something even remotely bad occurring in a standard college interview? People just need to stop overreacting about these types of issues. Whether the alumnus is a male or a female also likely doesn’t matter, as he or she may have their own family to consider as well. Consider it a privilege to be invited into an alumnus’ personal home.</p>
<p>/rant.</p>
<p>And to be frank, venues like Starbucks aren’t really the best places for interviews. The best(IMO) would be a quiet local cafe; the atmosphere is more “neutral” in the sense that neither of you would feel li</p>
<p>It’s interesting how threads develop a life of their own on CC. The last post by the OP was at the bottom of page 6 five days ago.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately we live in an age of risk management and risk aversion. Why put yourself in a situation where there is even a potential for a false accusation? I am a health professional and would not even consider seeing a patient without a staff member in the office, ever and haven’t for over 25 years. If I have to come back for after hours emergencies, I bring an adult with me. It is not paranoia but a byproduct of being careful. When we take risk management courses, they even recommend that course of action. As fir the college interview, I can envision a scenario where a senior desperate enough to get accepted could make a false accusation in hopes of leveraging that into an offer of acceptance. Or heaven forbid the interviewer turn out to be a harasser/abuser, wouldn’t you feel more comfortable with your child in a public venue than a private home??</p>
<p>My two bits: Its perfectly ok.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Well…this is part of the interview. The whole point of going away to a highly selective college is to take you out of your comfort zone and put you with a bunch of strangers in an unfamiliar environment. You have to learn to adjust to that, starting now. Colleges that use interviews know that kids may get nervous. That’s normal. But they want to see how you handle yourself on your own. What happens when a professor invites you over?</p>
<p>The one location that Harvard forbids for the interview is the student’s own home. The main reason is that you can’t tell a parent where they can be in their own house, and if the parent is hovering (or God forbid, sits down), we can’t see how the student functions on his own.</p>
<p>@seahorsesrock I was thinking the exact same.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the replies. I wasn’t expecting so many!</p>
<p>Anyways, I just had my interview today (I decided to just go to the alum’s house) and it went pretty well. The guy was really nice and welcoming, and I never felt even a slight risk that anything wrong/inappropriate was happening. The interviewer is married but I don’t think that his wife was home anyway. We sat in his living room and the fireplace was running. The quiet atmosphere was actually less stressful than I thought, and we had a pretty good conversation.</p>
<p>For anyone who’s wondering, my dad walked me to the door before he left (the guy lived in a gated community so the house wasn’t visible from the street) and the interviewer didn’t seem to have any problem with it. Overall it was a pretty good experience, and it actually made me feel kind of stupid for having reservations early on. Both sides of this “debate” have been covered pretty comprehensively on here, but if anyone is wondering about going to an alum’s house in the future, just keep calm and interview on. :)</p>
<p>Same situation here, only the interview is a woman, and she requested to meet at 6:30pm?</p>
<p>What to do?</p>
<p>Also how did you act in their house? First time at an interviewer’s house so kinda nervous?
I.e. do we accept a drink, do we say stuff like ‘oh what a lovely house’…</p>
<p>“What to do?” Honestly, Sparky, have you actually read this thread? </p>
<p>Accept something to drink if you’re thirsty. It’s not a trap. Decline a drink if youre worried it’ll just make you have to pee 20 minutes later. If the interviewer has put up a pot of tea specifically for the interview, take some, even if you won’t finish it, unless you’re a Mormon. If you’re a Mormon, just say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m a Mormon, and we don’t drink tea.” If the interviewer offers you a beer, decline. That’s a trap.</p>
<p>You don’t need to chit-chat about the house. That isn’t the purpose of your visit.</p>
<p>He offered me some water or juice but I politely declined (it’s not a trap lol). And I didn’t comment on the house. I wouldn’t say anything if I were you. Of course, if you see like an interesting sculpture or one of your favorite books on their bookshelf, it could be a conversation starter. Just use common sense. It’s about the conversation you have; nothing else. Good luck!</p>
<p>I just had my MIT interview at the interviewers house. We had a fun time .
There was nothing to be worried about.
Though we scheduled for an hour it went for over 2 hours cause we both wanted to know more about the other!
Her sister was also an MIT alum so that was another plus.</p>
<p>We finished by me having lunch with her family .</p>
<p>Zero worries.</p>
<p>I know this is a little old at this point, but I’ll throw this in anyway. Some interviewers like to see how candidates do under pressure or unusual circumstances. One of the people at my high school who graduated a year before me (maybe two) had her interview at the person’s house, was dresses nicely, and her interviewer showed up sweaty and dressed like he’d just come from a workout! At the end, he explained he did that because he wants to make sure candidates won’t go haywire under unusual or distressing circumstances, which college certainly can be.</p>
<p>Ask if your parent can go with you. As a disabled person, I still do alumni interviews outside of my house even though it is a bit inconvenient. But my college interview when I was in HS was at the interviewer’s house. My father drove me as I didn’t know the area where the guy lived, and he stayed during the interview (and for once kept his mouth shut!).</p>
<p>The Ivy I went to <em>requires</em> alumni interviews NOT to be conducted at the interviewer’s house, they MUST be conducted in public places. I would question, in this day and age of “stranger danger”, why an alumni interview must be at their house.</p>
<p>That being said, I never use coffee shops either, too noisy and too much potential for camaraderie (I suppose some schools would use that for recruiting). The two main locations are at the student’s HS, usually a conference room in the main office or a guidance counselor’s office, or a public library meeting room. I would suggest those locations if a coffee shop will not work for the interviewer.</p>
<p>"I just had my MIT interview at the interviewers house. We had a fun time .
There was nothing to be worried about.
Though we scheduled for an hour it went for over 2 hours cause we both wanted to know more about the other!
Her sister was also an MIT alum so that was another plus.</p>
<p>We finished by me having lunch with her family .</p>
<p>Zero worries. "</p>
<p>Maybe zero worries for you, but completely unprofessional on the part of the interviewer. This isn’t supposed to be a date. Even MIT mentions many locations without noting the interviewer’s house: [Interview</a> | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/interview]Interview”>Interview | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>Alumni interviews aren’t performed by professional interviewers. They are done by unpaid volunteers.</p>
<p>My son went along with an interviewer’s suggestion: 8pm, at his house, to be considered for Dartmouth. My son arrived and two men, both supposedly Dartmouth alum, double-teamed him, peppering him with questions.</p>
<p>I thought it was odd. I still think it was odd.</p>
<p>I should have done what one writer here suggested: walked my son to the door and said, “hey, howdy, how long?” But my son would rather die a thousand deaths than have me be involved, be seen and heard, whether friends, at school, or this.</p>