We live on the west coast. My son had an hour long alumni phone interview with a man back in New York. He said he thought it went very well. However, a few other students from his school had interviews in person with local alumni. Does anyone know if this is common? Or are all alumni interviews treated the same way?
Phone and Skype interviews are very common and there is no difference between them and in person. It simply depends on the number of alumni who are available in your area vs the number of applicants in that same area. If the number of applicants greatly exceeds the number of available alumni, some applicants will receive phone interviews from outside of the area instead.
Very common. Do not think two seconds about it. Well, I can tell you that your son must be appealing and interesting, as no one spends an hour on the phone talking without reason because time is too important to waste. Your DS must have been giving some substantive responses and really engaged the interviewer. Good luck to your DS.