<p>Well, judging from a quick glance at this board, a bunch of people got face to face interviews in october/novemberish. I, on the other hand, got a quick message on my answering machine YESTERDAY to call this alumni guy and have a 15 minute interview. Would I be reading into it too much if I felt a bit ripped off? I mean, I’m not exactly the strongest applicant, but at the same time the letters get mailed back in what, two weeks? This is cutting it pretty close, and I have no idea whats up right now.</p>
<p>The interviews are not meaningful overall to the process. I wouldn't be concerned.</p>
<p>Your qualities as an applicant have nothing to do with the type of interview you get, since the alumni never see your stats. So don't take what happened personally or as an indication of what will happen when the committee looks at your ap. What most likely happened to you is that the alum who got your name procrastinated and suddenly realized that the writeup was due NOW, and so he to do the interview asap. Phone interviews are not ideal but often happen when there is no alumni living in close proximity to the student. </p>
<p>I disagree with modestmelody that the interviews are not meaningful, because they sometimes can be.</p>
<p>This most likely means that you aren't going to have the opportunity to ask your interviewer questions about their time at Brown. It will be more geared towards letting the interviewer gain insight on you.</p>
<p>well, I hope he mentions it's a phone interview, because having done a lot of hiring over the years, I would have to say that phone interviews are the crudest of tools, and are only for rough screening. No one can get any insights that way, so I am guessing that the office will put even less weight on it than they otherwise might.</p>
<p>You just might not live near someone who is available to interview you in person.</p>
<p>Actually, the thing about the interviewer never seeing your stats is not completely true. Although they don't see numbers like test scores, GPA, and rank, they DO see a 2 page summary of your application, with general things like, what sports, what activities, intended concentration, stuff like that. It's just up to the interviewer whether or not they actually read it or use it in the interview.</p>
<p>That being said, modestmelody is completely right in saying that these things don't mean much. The interview won't make or break you at all.</p>
<p>^ That's good... I didn't feel any amazing connection during mine.</p>
<p>yujovi: You're wrong. I am an interviewer and I know what we get: we know the applicant's name, address, HS, phone number, email, a brief list of 3-5 extracurricular activities, and the subject area the student is interested in. That's it -- not 2 pages, but about 3 inches worth of information.</p>
<p>And when the interviewer fills out the form, he/she indicates whether the interview was done in person or by phone.</p>
<p>sly_vt, that's interesting, cuz my interviewer showed me the thing he got, and it looked a bit weighty, may have been my nerves...
But then again, it's the same stuff I mentioned, right?
Extracurriculars and concentration...</p>
<p>I just remember the interviewer reading something as sly_vt said, but it was so irrelevant to what I actually intended to show on my initial application - questions like, "what sports you might like to get involved with in brown" were a focus of my interview, when i simply put "volleyball" because I played it in middle school and didn't want to leave that part completely blank. I had to explain to my interviewer that point... I don't even remember how/where I put that information down, it was so long ago...</p>