I can’t help but feel an extreme sense of anxiety now that my son’s ED interview is over. Before now it was just an anonymous group of admissions officers in my mind, debating a file that may or may not have been put together correctly. But now it’s a real life person evaluating and reporting back to them about my kid, and feels so much more personal. Does anyone else feel this way? This whole process has been so overwhelming.
Which school did he have the interview. Don’t stress because most are non evaluative.
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Look forward. Forget about this interview. It’s done. And you, the parent, have no need to stress about this.
I’m sure your student will land in a great college.
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The key thing is to not take it personally. I always tell my children that if they are the most perfect beautiful purple sweater but someone wants a green sweater, their choice is not a reflection of you. So be the best purple sweater you can be and realize that there are places where people really want the purple sweater.
A quote I love is Eleanor Roosevelt’s “no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” So just know your child did their best. And where they should end up is where they will get to. If a college doesn’t extend an invite it does not mean they rejected your child, it simply means for what ever reason (could be completely unrelated to your child like demographics they are trying to achieve or types of majors, etc). So help your child use that time to see it not as a rejection but rather a simplifying of their path so they can more easily see what will best fit them.
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The main purpose of alumni interviews is to keep alumni engaged. In 95% of cases the interview doesn’t seem to make a difference. The only time it’ll make a difference is if it raises red flags about the applicant.
Assuming that didn’t happen, you shouldn’t worry about the interview.
As for the rest of the admissions process, just make sure your kid has a broad and balanced list of schools. And keep in mind that admission decisions are driven by institutional priorities. In other words, it’s not so much about the applicant as it is about what the college wants.
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Agreed. I have a friend who does interviews for Penn (Wharton), and she says it is not as big a deal as everyone thinks. Sometimes she thinks someone is great and gives them top scores, and they get denied, other times, they are “OK,” and they get in. They are really trying to get a sense of who you are beyond what is written on paper.
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My understanding is interviews are for demonstrated interest and for the applicant to get a feel for the school. There is no weight given to interviews. No need to feel stressed.
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Interviews for top schools are only a small part of the overall assessment. The alums often do submit written evals and ratings which are used by admissions, but these would not significantly hurt an applicant unless they completely bombed it. It is just another small piece of the puzzle in holistic admissions and is typically not nearly as important as the transcript, LORs and essays. Try to distract yourself with something else while you and your kid wait.
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Depends on the school: many top schools do count them as part of the overall decision
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Technically yes, but two ex-AOs I know (one from an Ivy and another from a similarly ranked elite school) have mentioned interviews have really no positive impact. In other words the interview reports won’t convert a rejection into an acceptance. But red flags highlighted by the interviewer may convert a “maybe” into a rejection.
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Agree! Rejection would never go to acceptance from an interview, but it is a factor in the whole assessment, so for some kids could and does make a difference. For most it doesn’t.
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I note this is consistent with the role interview reports were revealed to play in the Harvard litigation.
At a high level, a large majority of the otherwise reasonably qualified people got roughly equally good interview reports, and therefore it almost never made a material difference to actual admits. A very few people did not get good interview reports, but rarely were they otherwise on track anyway.
None of this rules out the possibility that in a few cases, a person was on track but then actually did something so awful in an interview it derailed them. But if so, those cases were so rare as to be pretty much statistically meaningless.
So, obviously do an interview if invited. But really, I would not worry about talking your way in, or talking your way out. Just show up and be prepared to reinforce whatever pitch you made in your application, and I am pretty confident that will do whatever can be done.
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I used to be an alumni interviewer for Penn and I’m pretty sure nothing I said mattered. lol
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Anxiety - no.
Relief and that it was good practice - is what I’d be sensing.
I’d find out where he felt he did well or didn’t. Did he make eye contact? Did he answer the questions.
And use as a learning experience for the next time, job or otherwise.
The interview is over - and if he gets in, great and if he doesn’t, you’ll never know why.
So relax…he made it through - and that’s great.
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Yes!