I feel like the answer to this should be obvious, but does it mean anything if an alum from a school reaches out to interview you? Does this reflect any judgement the school has made on your application?
Thanks
Any interview offer which came to you is being done under that university’s standard protocol. This information will be available to you under the admissions tab at the school’s website, and probably in a side bar menu item labeled “Interviews” once you open that tab.
One thing you should know is that it is always important to respond to the person who reached out to you, and you also need to go the college’s webpage to determine if the alum reach-out is selective under that university’s protocol, and only a small portion of the applicant pool is offered an interview. In that case, you may want to be sure to accept the interview so that you do not have a shadow cast over your application.
Good luck to you. Go in with a few questions of your own.
It means that there is an alumni in your area that is willing to do admission interviews. It does not mean anything in terms of your chances for acceptance. Agree with above post that you should follow through and do the interview.
In general, no. For some colleges, it may. For instance, for overseas applicants, Harvard offers limited interviews for the few students who pass some initial level of review. For the US, they are general no indication of eventual outcome whatsoever. I’ve already met with 5 students who applied early for my college. 4 of them were average or below average. That’s just how it goes
The first thing you need to do is google “ Common Data Set” and
then look in Section C7: Relative importance of each of the following academic and nonacademic factors in first-time, firstyear,degree-seeking (freshman) admission decisions.
Then look at “Level of applicant’s interest”
Is it Very Important, Important, Considered, or Not Considered?
This will let you know how important interviews are…if Interest is IMportant then doing an interview is important.
Big State schools don’t consider interest because they don’t want to keep track of that and have no problem filling their classes.
Ivy League’s, e.g. Yale, may not consider interest or only “consider” it because they think “of course you want to come here”.
It is often the private schools that give it more weight.
Here is an example on how to show interest at CWRU…look for similar things you can do for other colleges.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/1929524-how-to-show-interest-in-cwru-2016-edition.html
I do alumni interviews…I interview people in my area who have asked for an interview. I have no idea how appropriate they are for our college but I do try to portray them in the best light. We expand upon what they have in their interviews and I can often see themes in their ECs or hidden leadership. Remember the college wants people so go for the interview.
@Waiting2exhale @T26E4 @bopper Thank you for all of the knowledge. I’ve found that the colleges that have reached out to me aren’t selective with their interviews, and I have my first one scheduled for tomorrow. Thanks again.
I would search here in CC on “interview questions” to get an idea of some common ones.
Make sure you can answer “What drew you to our University?”
The other thing to think about is “What is a college looking for?”
They are looking for intellectual curiosity, community involvement, leadership, if you have overcome obsticles, interest in their college. So weave those into your answers.
So don’t just say you were French Club Vice President, but that you planned an advertised an event that 100 students attended…you had to interact with the administration at your school, etc etc.
I do interviews and I talked to someone who didn’t have a ton of Extracurriculars…but it turned out that his parents were divorcing and he spent a great deal of time taking care of his brother…so we talked about the leadership aspects of that, etc.
Also, at the end of the interview, the intervier often asks if you have any questions for them. You want to have a couple of questions ready.
Questions you can ask:
(if the interviewer attended the college) What made you choose the college?
What is your favorite and least favorite aspects of the college?
What do you wish you did at college that you didn’t get to?
What were some of your favorite traditions at the college?
Do bring your resume (in whatever format you have)…it is useful to have to cover all bases. They may or may not want to use it.