<p>We are planning a few college visits for our junior son during spring break in a few weeks, but I have serious qualms about whether son will interview well. He is very quiet and not at all inclined to take initiative in a conversation. We can practice with him, and be sure he is armed with a few questions, but I can easily see him appearing apathetic in an interview. So, how does it look to admissions reps when a student comes to visit, takes a tour, but declines the interview? Do they not care, or do they think the potential student perhaps has something to hide (kind of true) or do they assume the student doesn't want to bother? Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>I posted on this a few months ago:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1417481-impact-not-interviewing.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1417481-impact-not-interviewing.html</a> </p>
<p>Our philosophy was that if the college did not require an interview, she was not going to do it. Final results are not in yet, but so far she was accepted at both of her EA schools (U of Chicago & Lawrence). She ended up not applying to Cornell or Reed. So in March we will see about the other six schools.</p>
<p>Many schools do not place much importance on an interview; some don’t even offer them. Some aren’t interested in interviewing juniors. Perhaps after some visits, he may become interested in somewhere enough to interview later if it seems important to the school. There were a few we visited that said they thought interviews were important, many said they were only informational for the students.</p>
<p>If this were my kid i would grab a chance for an interview any chance I could. Getting a job is gonna be about interviews and you hve to strt somewhere</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies and the link to the other thread. And intparent, congratulations on your daughter’s acceptances! You must be very relieved and happy. I hope to be feeling that a year from now. After I made my post, I had a conversation with my son, and he has decided to brave the interviews. I hope this will cause him to research his schools deeply so as to come up with intelligent questions. Very interesting thread. Thanks again for pointing it out.</p>
<p>We visited somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 schools during junior year for my twins, and they never once interviewed on campus during that time. They interviewed during late summer / early fall of senior year.</p>
<p>Have a friend practice with your kid. I didn’t do that with mine, but I served as a mock interviewer for the daughter of a friend of mine.</p>
<p>I think just by asking for an interview actually looks like you are interested. I figure just let them interview, after a while they get better at it, at least you hope they do. you actually never see them in one.</p>
<p>None of the schools we visited with either kid would interview students before their senior year.</p>
<p>My kids have been on about 30 college tours and have never had an interview while on tour … however that is not really surprising … all the tours were either before they were applying to schools or after they were accepted. They have had many interviews but they were all arranged by the schools after applications were submitted.</p>
<p>I interviewed for my school for years and I believe some people are overly fearful of the interviews and of their kid’s performance in the interview. I probably interviewed about 75 applicants and the lion’s share of the interviews were good … a fair number were excellent (or terrific). Of all those kids only 2 or 3 were bad enough I really dinged the applicant … and from memory those case were because the kid was really arrogant or a flaming ***hole. </p>
<p>Being shy or not taking the initiative was not a negative about the student … as long as I could eventually find a topic about which the student became engaged … and, in my experience, virtually everyone has a couple topics about which they naturally open up about … their EC, their favorite subject, going away to college, etc.</p>
<p>francie–is this your oldest? If so, you need to understand that admissions interviews are not like job interviews. They should more appropriately be called information gathering sessions. They’re an opportunity for the kid to find out more about the school, but they have little-to-no bearing on admission. They’re often conducted by undergraduates at the school who happen to work in admissions. </p>
<p>I’m not recommending either a yes or a no, because it really isn’t going to matter. What is important in some cases is that the student show interest by visiting the school. I also think these are good opportunities for the high schooler to gain some experience interacting with adults (or college kids), but I wouldn’t push it other than that, particularly junior year.</p>
<p>Also no interviews junior year. My son didn’t interview until after he had submitted his applications senior year. Schools arranged for the interviews and most were alum interviews done where we live and not at the colleges.</p>
<p>The “interviews” our kids had during tours were mainly for the Admissions people to gauge interest and to see if the kids were really viable candidates. Parents were included in these “interviews” because they also gave information about costs, etc. They were pretty informal really.</p>
<p>Interesting, my son did most of his interviews in his junior year. We got good advice from one of the admission directors at Bowdoin - She said an interview can add, but rarely subtracts. She said in all her years she only had one student interview that negatively impressed her…and I think that kid basically opened with “I’m only here because my parents forced me”. There’s plenty of room at college for introverted students!</p>
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<p>This depends on the school. If the interview is “evaluative” (you can find this info in the common data set, and most schools say so on their website as well), then they ARE evaluating the student and you could help or hurt yourself. If the interview is “informational”, then you are correct. There is always a lot of debate out here about how much difference they make, but I figure any school that says they are evaluating in the interview should be assumed to be telling the truth.</p>
<p>D2 had a no interview policy and it was fine. I suspect she chose not to apply to a couple of schools which required interviews…and they probably wouldn’t have turned out to be a good fit, anyway.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the how the individual school handles interviews. In some cases it is mostly seen as an expression of interest, which can be helpful but is not usually a major factor in admissions.</p>
<p>During a spring break trip, it will likely be difficult to get interview slots at this point in time, since the colleges are overrun by junior visitors, and can’t possibly offer interviews to all of the visitors. If you are going to multiple colleges during your trip, as is typical, even if an interview slot is available, the time might not fit in with your travel plans. And, as mentioned above, many colleges don’t even offer interviews to juniors. </p>
<p>So, I say don’t stress it, and don’t schedule any interviews during spring break.</p>
<p>Our D did not participate in any interviews during her college visits. FWIW, she was accepted at all of the colleges she applied to.</p>
<p>It would be helpful if you listed what those schools are. It is still school-dependent. Rochester stresses the importance of interviews, especially if you are interested in scholarships. At our visit, we were told of a student who was not admitted because he lived in the area and had not bothered to interview. Another school on my D’s list, Pomona, says that if you live in the southern California area, you are expected to interview.</p>
<p>My S is very shy also and didn’t want to interview. He only interviewed at schools that contacted him - he never made the initiative to contact them. I don’t know if it helped him or hurt him really. I really thought it would make a difference at one school because he was so close, and they required it for locals, but he was still accepted even though he never interviewed there.</p>
<p>My experience as an alumni interviewer for an Ivy is that the the outgoing personable ones seem to get admitted at about the same rate as the shy socially immature ones. Personally I think if you can do it, it can be of benefit to the applicant in terms of learning more about the school and making your Why X? essay stronger, but it’s not a big deal.</p>