Weirdest College Interview Ever

Gosh, if this is the kind of interview you are for @JustOneDad, maybe you shouldn’t do them.

One could argue it IS a sort of job interview. The student is wondering if she should “hire” this school, for 60K per year of her parents’ hard earned money or a bunch of loans on her part.

One of the things my D looks for in the interview, is, “Do I want to end up like this person that the college is sending to represent itself?”

Something was wrong with this woman. She did a terrible job for this school. Period.

I think this woman behaved unprofessionally and I don’t think it’s done much for this student or other working women either. In 18 posts the terminology’s changed from “college interview” to “mommy interview.” As a woman, I find that discouraging.

As a man (with a wife and daughters), I find it discouraging also.

We don’t even know what school it was, do we?
There are different kinds of job interviews, too. If you work for a company, it is NOT appropriate to bring your two year old to a job interview where you are representing your employer. If you OWN the company, you have every right to, and it might even be a good signal to the interviewee as to what kind of a job they are going into.

It would be interesting to know what specific instructions regarding protocol this particular school has given out to the alumnae interviewers, either verbally or in writing. Alumni interviews remain a net benefit to the school and not vice versa.

@JustOneDad, OP said it was a Top 20 on basically any list. Can you think of a single top 20 school that would approve of the interviewer’s behavior, even in the absence of “specific instructions regarding protocol?”

The problem is that most schools (if not all) don’t have enough alumni to fill the need. As such, it remains a courtesy granted by the Alumni Organization. Even if there are guidelines, adult decisions prevail here.

Yes. Even unwise and rude ones.

That seems like an ungrateful and self-centered attitude towards an alumna who volunteered her time. After all, most don’t.

The alumna didn’t really volunteer her time. To have done so would have required leaving the toddler elsewhere.

I see you are continuing with the uncharitable attitude towards someone who did, in fact volunteer. At this point, I can’t help wondering if you do alumni interviews yourself.

I do alumni interviews and I just got 3 to do. If a deadline is coming up for admissions and your babysitter flaked out on you then you do the best you can.

In any case, adcoms understand that the quality of alum interviewers can be wildly uneven so they generally matter very little/not at all (not the case in the UK, where interviews are done by faculty and may have a large bearing on acceptance).

The interview is a courtesy, and the interviewer is a volunteer, but given that, it should still be professional and respectful.
Having a child there, and dividing your attention away from the student is both unprofessional and not respectful. It puts the host school in a bad light, and unless the school is in every other way incredible, will drive away students.
It is quite mature of the OP to be able to go ahead and continue with the interview trying to not miss a beat, but then even if these interviews don’t “count” toward admission, every student still believes that a poor interview is the death blow.
Good luck with your application. I hope this is not your dream school, but if it is, I hope this is nor a harbinger of things to come.

I do a lot of volunteer work outside of my job (mostly pro bono tax and accounting services sponsored by local civic groups). The fact that I’m volunteering my personal time to do this doesn’t mean that I should disrespect the people I am helping. I don’t play on my phone when they’re talking to me, I don’t ignore their questions or answers to talk to my infant, I don’t show up late or leave earlier than indicated. If I really don’t have time to commit to the volunteer work, I just don’t take the responsibility at all; after all, I’m not obligated.

I’m not trying to demonize the alumna interview here, I’m sure there’s a lot going on there. But I think it’s just as silly to make this seem like a normal adult professional behavior. Common courtesy rules apply all the time, not just when you’re being paid for work.

Agree completely with @rubberfall‌. Just to note however, from a student perspective, that if the interviewer had SAID she had to bring her child and asked if that was okay, her professionalism points would have boosted a thousand percent. In that case, both parties would be satisfied and the student would either tolerate the distraction or reschedule.

Teenagers take these interviews very seriously. Look at the number of threads there are obsessing over every aspect of the process. They often travel distances, rearrange their schedules to accommodate the interviewer, worry about what to wear, how to act, and what to a say. If someone is going to volunteer to be an interviewer they should take the process seriously as well. They are representing their school and should be projecting a professional image. They are not doing the student a favor @justonedad, they are volunteering to represent their alma mater. The interview was neither evaluative or informative, so what was the point? Frankly I think she should be reported to the school. The OP handled the situation with grace and more maturity than the interviewer.

The college would be furious if they knew what she did. But there is nothing you can do. Send her an upbeat thank you note, and don’t worry about it. Alumni interviews don’t count for much.

We don’t even know what school was represented. What are you basing that on?

Any top 20 college would be embarrassed to find out this story is about their alumni interviewer.

Hey everyone, yeah I sent a thank you note, of course. I just want to make clear that I hold no grudge against the interviewer since she is an alumna volunteer. I cannot judge for professionalism because I am only a high school student, so I will leave that up to you adults.