<p>I also wouldn't contact a GC to get info that I was expected to get from the student in the interview. That's going way beyond what an alum inteview is supposed to do. We really are supposed to write our reports from info that the student gives us. </p>
<p>If the student doesn't remember things like their exact scores, I'd write exactly what they said they remembered, or if I felt that I needed to know more specific info to rate them, I'd ask them to check their scores and e-mail or call me back with the info. The student should have their score reports at home or could check with their GC to get info from the one sent to their high school.</p>
<p>I didn't realize a university could share applicant statistics with the interviewer. That seems unfair to the applicant. I guess each university places a different weight on interviews.</p>
<p>I only had one interview. The alum was about my dad's age and has a son who is a grade bellow me. I got the impression that this was his first year doing interviews, and he was partially doing them to increase his son's chances at gaining admission to the school. My issue was not so much with his age, but the fact that he only went to this college for grad school over 20 years ago, so he really could not talk about how life is for undergrads aside from hearsay and what current students have told him. The interview wound up being mostly about me, but it wasn't so bad. Luckily I know several people at the college currently, or who have siblings at the college so I have gotten plenty of information elsewhere.</p>
<p>I had a pretty disastrous interview with a bates alum because she didn't know anything about the school since the turn of the century. she kept telling me to look online for the answers and I felt like an idiot. I don't know what she expected when she asked me if I had any questions about the school....what was I supposed to do, say no? I didn't want to appear disinterested.</p>
<p>I'm sorry you had a disastrous interview. I must say that the phrase "since the turn of the century" meaning 6 years ago brought a smile. For us "older" alumni, that is not so long ago.</p>
<p>Greg's story sounds really bizarre. I can't imagine what would motivate a student to lie about exam scores that are so easy to verify. The excuse that he "forgot" to bring them sounds first grader-ish - the dog ate my SAT scores. I can understand inflating the extent of your participation in some outside EC - the schools are not going to hire a private detective to see if you really spend 10 hrs./month at the soup kitchen or only 5. But your exam grades?<br>
It sounds like the student was very brilliant but not motivated in the "easy" courses - this has been known to happen. All in all perhaps not the most mature person around. Maybe he will grow up someday.</p>