So I had my Columbia interview yesterday… and it was horrible. My interviewer kept staring at his watch and his phone and really didn’t seem too interested in what I had to say. He kept cutting me off when I tried to answer his questions. And he ended the interview after 15 minutes. I saw him call someone afterwards, so he may have cut the interview short because he had a conference call to get onto or something, but either way, I’m freaking out. I have never had such an awful interview and I’m really worried that this will negatively impact my application. I don’t think I said or did anything to push him away, but I don’t know if something was wrong with me or the interviewer. Can someone please give me some advice???
I would not worry one bit. How important would you think the interview is? Not. It is PR for the college. If you get accepted, you are more likely to accept their offer if you had a good interview with an alum. Unless you (not the interviewer) was truly obnoxious or inappropriate, the interviews do little one way or another.
Don’t worry about it. If he was that distracted he will more than likely say it was fine. Although those alums are volunteers, aren’t they held to some kind of standards? I would think that they have to fill out some kind of questionnaire. I would think that if he didn’t get the info from you, he’ll fill in the blanks. But, that is my opinion.
Yes they have to fill out a questionnaire but the questionnaire isn’t a test of the interviewers knowledge of the applicant-it is about what the interviewer thinks of the applicants fit to the school.
The admissions office says it makes no difference to your chance of admission whether or not you get an interview. If this be true, logically it means they don’t even read the interview reports.
Probably your interviewer overscheduled himself, was preoccupied with whatever he had to do next, and was too thoughtless to tell you he was pressed for time and offer you a chance to meet again when he was less stressed. That’s the charitable explanation. The uncharitable explanation is that he’s simply a jerk. However, jerks would be averse to volunteering any time at all for something that has no benefit to them except to make a sort of noncash contribution to the school and help out an applicant unknown to them.
Suggest you write a gracious note thanking him for the interview, as if it went wonderfully; and if he’s not a jerk he would remember his manners, be ashamed of shortchanging you, and write you a great report by way of atonement. Not that it really matters anyway. To put applicants at ease, I tell them I’ll always write a great report unless they try to murder me during the interview. I do write reports thoughtfully as if they would be carefully considered by the adcom, even though I believe they aren’t.
Don’t worry about it. The interview has very little weight in the admissions process; the information the officers need to know about you is already in your letters of recommendation. The interview is more of a way for you to get to know the school better.