Interviews - the other perspective

Parents Forum
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<p>My son came away from most interviews feeling pretty good about the experience. Ironically he was least satisfied with his Tufts interview, but they accepted him and he'll be attending in the fall. I thought this was an interesting document showing both what a typical alumni report may look like and how useful or not useful they may be to the admissions office. This document gives you a little peek behind the scenes at Tufts: <a href="http://taap.tufts.edu/PDF/TAAP_InterviewCritiqueUpdate11%2009.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://taap.tufts.edu/PDF/TAAP_InterviewCritiqueUpdate11%2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For students, I think the main message is to make sure your interview doesn't just rehash what is already on the application.</p>

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<p>Thanks for this. I am going to be applying to colleges next year, and I’m a bit nervous for the interview process. This was a big help :)</p>

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<p>Personally, I think interviews are a little over-hyped. They give admissions officers some more data points (if they don’t rehash what’s on the application, as this shows), but they aren’t really a make or break part of your application at most schools. If anything, they’re a tool schools use to sell themselves to the students, because if an interviewer is welcoming and inviting and creates a bond with the student, gets them excited about the school, the more likely that student is to have a positive attitude when touring, a positive attitude about applying, and a positive attitude about attending. It’s very important for the school, but I think less so for the applicant.</p>

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<p>Poor Lily.</p>

<p>This is great, thanks for sharing</p>

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<p>What smithie said is pretty much true for the school I do interviews for. We’re told our reports will be used minimally and the main purpose of the interview is to let prospective students learn more about the school and life as a student that may not be as easy to obtain from a website and promotional brochures. Here’s a list of the question’s they ask us to answer.</p>

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<p>For what it’s worth, Tufts never contacted our son for an interview, but he was admitted. He has chosen to attend Davidson College, which doesn’t use interviews at all.</p>