As you all know, Vanderbilt has this alumni interview sign up portal where you request a particular person near nearby to interview you. Well, the problem I have is that I have gone thru 3 requests and not a single person cared to contact me.
Is this the experiences many of you have? Do you have to go thru more than a dozen names before finally someone will respond? Since you can’t request more than one at a time, so this process can take months…
Also, I googled those alumnus on the interview portal, many seem to be in some sort of semi employment states, ie, they are mostly between jobs or may seem to be unemployed. I am a little concerned about this naturally as it’s clear at least in where I am, Vanderbilt grads don’t seem to get good jobs. There’s one lawyer who seem to have a decent job, but that’s probably because he has a law degree (not from Vandy though).
When I requested an interview I got a response within a day, so maybe you should check your spam folders or see if you’ve registered with the correct email. Also, all ten of the people who I looked up online seemed to have jobs or were in grad school.
When DS gone through the process last year, he randomly requested one interviewer and got a response right away. The interviewer was very organized and helpful in setting up, during, and after the interview.
I am sorry that you are not having any luck. Perhaps you should go ahead and contact the other interviewers rather than spending too much time waiting for the first one.
Thanks for the responses! No, nothing in the spam folder. Unfortunately I have already requested 3 times. Each time I waited about 3-5 business days before I crossed it out and picked the next one.
What I am most concerned is that I might get penalized for not doing the interview. But surely Vanderbilt knows that I tried hard to request one?
What I don’t understand is that why these alumnus want their names to be on interviewers list while have little or no interests in actually doing the interview?
The same thing happened to me. None of the interviewers responded and I stopped paying attention to it. I got an e-mail about a week after I requested the last person and the list to set up our interview. Just give it some time, even though it says to disregard interviewers after three business days.
Vanderbilt says you will never be penalized for not doing an interview. The first interviewer I requested did not respond. I gave her a seven business days. The second interviewer I requested responded the same day. It may be that there are a lot of people requesting interviews right now, but I don’t know. I agree with everyone else. Call the admissions office.
I second the advice to contact the admissions office, but also remember that musicgeek97 is correct that you won’t be penalized. D lived with me doing an AmeriCorps assignment for about 18 months after graduation. She was signed up to be an interviewer during that time. She moved back to Nashville to work for a large employer there and found out she was still on the list for our town. The kids who contacted her that first year (twin brothers) were from a small town about halfway between here and Nashville, so they just went there to meet her. I think it alerted her to update her contact info. I’m sure there are many VU grads who established interview profiles who have changed localities, e-mail addresses, etc.
My D tried a few times to interview last year. She heard back from them all, but the first couple were unable to interview, and the last one planned to schedule the interview after a vacation, but never contacted my D again. I don’t know if Admissions was aware of any of this, but D is now a happy First Year at Vanderbilt. So it’s true that you won’t be penalized for lack of an interview.
I am on the interviewer volunteer list and I respond the minute I see the request email. If you haven’t heard anything in a day I say move on to the next person on the list.
I never interviewed when I applied to Vanderbilt and know many others in the same boat. Vanderbilt definitely does not penalize you or flag your application if you do not interview.
It sounds like the interview process is a little mismanaged and not taken as seriously as it is at other top U’s. Not sure why. Seems like the interview does not play much of a role at all in admission and is mostly for the benefit of the interviewee.
@Pancaked You are exactly right. When we interview a prospective student the information we are required to submit afterwards to Admissions is very very basic.
@dtotheustin09 what kind of information do you end up submitting?
I know that not doing an interview won’t hurt me, per se, but I don’t want to skip out on doing it if it could potentially help out a lot (although the general rule of thumb is that interviews don’t count for much…).
@marshmallowpop Basically it says “Tell us your impression of the candidate in the space below”. Interviews really benefit the prospective student more than school admissions.
Interviewer #1: contacted and waited 5 days. No response.
Interviewer #2: contacted and waited 5 days. No response.
Interviewer #3: contacted and waited 6 days. No response.
Interviewer #4: cannot contact as interview request deadline has passed.
Admission counselor: contacted and waited 4 days so far. No response.
Do I have some kind of special Vanderbilt portal that everything I sent out goes straight to someone’s spam folder or what?! No, I am not making the above up! This is really what I have been going through.
I will just wait until April 1st decision and will not bother them from now on.