<p>DS has had 2 alumni interviews for T5 schools. We are in a sparsely populated flyover state. Both have been with 70-80 year old men (attended college in the 1940/50's), one of whom was hard of hearing. Both interviewers ran through a list of standard questions (how did you find out about this school? why do you want to attend? how would your friends describe you?) and were done in 20-30 minutes. Barely touched on DS passion for physics, his sport which he is nationally rated in, or really much of anything. DS is not a big talker, but he has had great interviews with others who have been interested in hearing about his interests. Neither were really able to answer any of his questions about research opportunities or really much of anything about current status of things at the schools. Didn't seem like either have visited the schools lately (we're across the country). One for a Tech school did not seem to have internet access at home. After the first one I thought it was a bit unusual, but after the second one, I'm wondering if this is more common than I thought?</p>
<p>Both schools consider interviews in their evaluation process, one significantly.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I did not attend the interviews. I met one briefly after driving DS 100+ miles to the interview.</p>
<p>I suspect that being an alumni interviewer may be recreational for some alums–a way of feeling they are still connected to their college and making a contribution to it. It has always seemed to me that alum interviews are not especially helpful anyway: unless there is at least a brief training process and some monitoring on the part of the admissions office you and the college really have no idea what the perspective of the interviewer is–anything from a flighty young thing who can’t see the value of a person with a personality at odds with his or her own lifestyle to an older alum who may be out of touch with the school or has expectations that no longer fit the social and academic reality of the place. </p>
<p>I would think it unlikely that an alum interview of the nature you’ve described is considered to have any great weight other than showing willingness to travel to get there. I don’t know how common it is; my children mostly interviewed on campus; two of the three off campus ones were good–one was with a traveling staffer and the other a local and very nice alum. The least successful was with a local alum who was still active in school affairs and had a daughter attending at the time but just didn’t seem very positive or encouraging. (Yes, the first two, same school, different children, led to acceptance and unexpected merit aid, the third led to an outright rejection, which was probably going to happen anyway no matter how the interview went.)</p>
<p>I used to do alumni interviews like these for my alma M. The AO prefers they be done by younger alums or older ones who have been keeping in touch with developments at the school.</p>
<p>The gents will write up a report on their impressions of the student’s personality and how he came over. If your DS did not get much chance to “come over,” who knows what they will base their report on. </p>
<p>I wd consider visiting the schools’ websites, finding their alumni ass’n pages thru it and finding the regional alum officers through those. If you can track down the person running the program in your area and very nicely and tactfully explain that you fear your son did not get a chance to communicate well with the gentlemen, maybe they can assign him another interview with live bait. </p>
<p>Stay away from the AO; they don’t run the program and they are busy enough right now. </p>
<p>The interview programs are run locally by an alum volunteer (or small team) who coordinates the interviewers and hands out assignments, and sends in their reports – online nowadays–to the AO. The local team level is where they already will be aware of any shortcomings among the interviewers. It is often a problem finding volunteers to do these in parts of the country distant from the school, and the program takes what they can find in such situations. </p>
<p>This is a good opportunity to point out to your DS that it is smart for him to make sure the other person knows about things like his passion for physics and whatever else turns him on, in these settings. It won’t be the first time in his life he has to “sell” himself to a stranger. Make sure his passions go into the essay.</p>
<p>BTW the interviews very rarely are what gets the student in or out. I have been told they are used to confirm the impressions the AO is already getting from letters, the essay and do on. </p>
<p>Sometimes they do alert the AO to a standout student—either one who stands out in good ways but these have somehow been missed, or one who has some red flag personality issues. </p>
<p>I once interviewed a young man who told me that his father, an alum, was making him apply to the school, he did not want to go there at all, and while he knew I had and must have loved the place, he really did want to go to Other School where Dad had also allowed him to apply.</p>
<p>He knew he would have to go to dear old A Mater if he got in.</p>
<p>I asked him if he wanted me to report this to the AO. I was going to keep it quiet if he wanted me to, because what if he didn’t get into the other place? But I told him I could also make sure the AO knew about the situation with Dad. I said, “choose carefully…”</p>
<p>He did–he had me tell the whole thing—and he called me months later to thank me. He had not been accepted at A Mater and he had been at Other, and he was going there.</p>
<p>ihs76,
I wouldn’t worry about these interviews at all. I have come to learn that many schools, including T5 schools, use these interviews to keep the alums interested in their schools. Unless your son was incredibly rude the interview really won’t harm (or help) him in any way. If the schools are using interviewers who graduated 50 years ago, it’s probably because they don’t have any young alums in the area who have agreed to take on this responsibility.</p>
<p>The schools probably had very few alumni in your area that they could call upon to do interviews. (When we lived in an out-of-the way area, H was called by an alumni assn. member several hours away who asked him to “volunteer” as an interviewer–H was not involved with alumni groups and hadn’t been within 1000 miles of the school in 20+ years.)</p>
<p>The schools will consider the age/class year of the interviewer. Don’t sweat it. Who knows? These interviewers may still give your son rave reviews even though your son doesn’t feel he was able to fully express his interests/personality. Unless you want to ask for another interview, it is out of your hands. If all other parts of the application are good, don’t worry. IMO, “Sparsely Populated Flyover State” trumps “Weak Interview” :)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it, if the tech school in question is MIT I think they mostly use those interviews to weed out the really anti-social and consider the refusal to do an interview a red flag. </p>
<p>In any event sparsely populated states often receive a significant advantage - I remember one chart a couple of years back where the acceptance rate for Wyoming at several well known schools was 100% because there was often just a single applicant! (And colleges love to boast they have someone from every state.)</p>
<p>I know alumni interviews don’t amount to much. Last year I interviewed five prospective students. I recommended four of them. The one I didn’t recommend got in. I made a note saying she had next to zero interest attending the school and seemed to be a very poor fit for what they were looking for. </p>
<p>Actually, checking up on the student directory I see she isn’t currently attending. What a surprise.</p>
<p>Anyway, alumni interviews are supposed to be, as far as I understand, a way for students to at least get some connection to the school if they aren’t able to make an actual visit. When I “interview” students (it’s really more of an information session) I try to talk about things different than what you’ll see in the info books or read online. Give descriptions of the neighborhoods surrounding the school, talk honestly about the food there, the quality of the dorms, ways to get to and from the city if you don’t have a car, what happens after freshman year, and those sorts of things.</p>
<p>I know my school, having experienced explosive growth in applications for two years in a row, is really scrambling to find alumni interviewers, particularly in outlying areas. Unfortunately you kind of have to take what you can get.</p>
<p>Thanks for some of the background info. I wasn’t actually worried per se but thought it was strange that they were using this type of interviewers. We’re talking maybe 200,000+ people in the 150 mile radius of our town so you’d think there’d be few alumni.</p>
<p>I had been thinking about volunteering for my alma mater (the one with the 50% inc in apps this year) but thought maybe I wasn’t ‘qualified.’ After these experiences, I think I might just be OK :)</p>
<p>JRZmom: interesting story.</p>
<p>RacinReaver: that’s surprising about your experience. You’d think they’d take that sort of information and use it.</p>
the interview really won’t harm (or help) him in any way. If the schools are using interviewers who graduated 50 years ago, it’s probably because they don’t have any young alums in the area who have agreed to take on this responsibility.</p>