I recently received an email from a Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador who contacted me to set up a meeting. She states that it is informational and that she will not be evaluating me. However, I am skeptical and I feel that she might still report back to Cornell University about what we talk about and whatever she reports might affect my admissions chances.
I was wondering if anyone could offer me insight on whether or not this is just an interview but labeled as just an informational meeting, and anything else about this type of meeting (how many people get contacted for meetings, etc). I did not apply to any Cornell schools that require/recommend interviews.
There’s a thread someplace else here with essentially the same situation and question.
I have never been an alumni interviewer myself. But I paid attention as a member of an alumni club when I lived in the Midwest. And FWIW my wife has been an alumni interviewer for a different school.
At the alumni club, they received a list from admissions of all the students who were applying to the university from their area. Then they divided them up. I think they tried to offer interviews to all the applicants from their area.
The interviews were virtually entirely informational, for the benefit of the applicant. The interviewers did submit reports of the interview, including their impressions of the student, back to admissions. The general feeling was this carried very little weight, if any. However, not actually being at the admissions table, there is no way to say for sure that no report ever carried any weight.
If they aren’t even submitting reports back to admissions at all now, that’s possible I suppose. But they used to, at least.
In that area, they didn’t get that many applicants to Cornell. I’ve no idea if everyone gets offered an interview coming from a region where there are tons of applicants to the university. I imagine they try to offer this opportunity to as many applicants as they can, given the bodies available, and their available time, to do this volunteer work.
My wife also submitted reports of her interviews back to her university (not Cornell). She has no idea of the extent to which admissions took her comments into account. They didn’t tell her.