<p>ucsd, I agree with you. LOL, I don’t really know what Cali style is though. They want people who are touring to be comfortable.</p>
<p>“Then there was the ‘Rock Incident’. A particularly boring tour guide was showing us around Sarah Lawrence, so I was tarrying in the back of the crowd. I then wandered over to a large rock outcropping (I’m a geologist, OK?), checked it out, then re-joined the group. The tour guide asked me what I was looking at, to which I replied, “Fordham Gneiss”.”</p>
<p>No matter where we are (college tour, grocery store, in line at disney world, etc) my dad checks out the walls and knocks on them thoughtfully like he is looking for something in particular. He is a software developer. It is SO WEIRD.</p>
<p>gneiss is nice.</p>
<p>what does ‘YMMV’ mean…???</p>
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I guess I don’t either and doubt I’d be representative anyway. I’ve just always worn what I do which is usually geared around comfort in an area where the weather is almost always nice - i.e. I wear the shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops year round. It just happens that most of the college students, at least out here, seem to wear about the same thing although I’ve been wearing what I do longer than they’ve been alive.</p>
<p>YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary</p>
<p>In other words, this was my experience, but yours may be different.</p>
<p>ohhhh, okay. thanks laf! :-)</p>
<p>We’ve visited 10 campuses and my D has had interviews at 8 of them. They usually last 45 mins to an hour. I’ve been invited in to join the last 15-30 minutes at every single one.</p>
<p>These are important interviews for my D. She cares very much about making a good impression and chooses her attire accordingly. Out of respect for her, the interviewer, and the significance of that hour, I dress business casual.</p>
<p>My feeling is this isn’t a ballgame, it isn’t a picnic or a quick run to Wal-Mart. It is a 17-year-old’s equivalent of a very important job interview. I want my appearance to reflect that my D and I have good judgment about many things…appropriate attire being one small example.</p>
<p>You are nothing more than the designated driver/familial ATM. Do nothing to draw attention to yourself. Summer casual that you would wear to a afternoon party will be perfect.</p>
<p>This.
But actually, I just wore whatever was clean when I packed.</p>
<p>Still laughing about the rat incident and the rock incident. </p>
<p>I mentioned this thread to the spouse and D1, and said that the only thing that would be a problem would be if the spouse wore a t-shirt that said “please admit <d1> to <school being=”" toured=“”>". D1 thought that was a GREAT idea and asked if she could pick out the color. The spouse responded that it was too late, the shirts were already ordered. :D</school></d1></p>
<p>I’m very surprised to learn that in at least some cases the parent is invited in to the interview. Could someone explain why a college would want to do this? Or, is this something that is only found in certain types of programs? Personally, if I knew that a school was planning on doing that, I’d be way the heck on the other side of campus rather than be called in. We the parents are paying for this, but otherwise it’s not our show.</p>
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<p>Nothing quite so formal but the interviewer brought son back to where I was waiting, sat down, and chatted for few minutes, asking if I had any questions, commenting on some of the things they had talked about etc. This happened at CMU and at U of Rochester which were the only places son had on-site interviews that I was also at. No biggie but the CMU one did go on for 5-10 minutes.</p>
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<p>To give parents an opportunity to ask questions and get immediate answers from a very knowledgeable source.</p>
<p>To offer informal feedback on where the student stands in terms of admission, and what he/she might want to do to become a stronger candidate, if that is an issue.</p>
<p>To offer information about institutional FA, and give a preliminary estimate of what kind of eligibility/options the student may have for merit aid, based on self reported stats.</p>
<p>To reflect on the conversation student and interviewer just had, and to reflect back to both parent and child the school’s hope/belief that it will be a good fit.</p>
<p>To talk about next steps, which could include auditions, meeting with faculty, and an overnight visit, including shadowing a student in the prospective’s dept of interest.</p>
<p>To demonstrate that the school recognizes the parent is considering forking over a boatload of money to them, and is cognizant and respectful of the normal interest parents therefore have in ensuring a good, informed decision on the part of their child.</p>
<p>Any school that didn’t offer some time for a parent during/after the interview for these purposes would not be seeing my child or my $ the next year.</p>
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<p>Agreed that parents need to get a great deal of information as well. However, I’d feel way more comfortable having those concerns addressed outside of the interview. I want the focus of any interview to be on my kid, and not on her parents. The interviewer is going to be writing up a recommendation afterwards that will be part of my kid’s admission profile. Seems to me that it would be far better in all ways for any parental interaction to not have any influence on this.</p>
<p>For many (most?) schools, this kind of parental interview option wouldn’t be possible. Many schools only offer alumni interviews, and public schools of course don’t interview.</p>
<p>
We’ve had several similar post-tour “chats”. DS doesn’t ask very many questions, so I tend to be the one asking about stuff.</p>
<p>Slithey, our experience must be with different kinds of schools. Ours is with selective and highly selective small Midwest LACs, and they all do it. It is always after the conversation between student and interviewer, but, as I said, we’ve done 8 of these. (The other 2 visits were on open-house days, so they weren’t interviewing.)</p>
<p>I want to point out that many here (including me) find it tiresome and inconsiderate when parents use group-time at open-houses to ask lots of questions that apply to few others, or delve too deeply into one topic of interest. This post-interview time for parents is a great way for admissions staff to parking-lot those conversations to have later, in private.
As for the write-up, well, if they want to add a note, “Mom very interested in Merit Aid,” that’s fine with me! :)</p>
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<p>That’s how I feel, too. It’s not that I think some adcom is marking down “hmmm, look at that kid, his parent wore a baseball cap, put him on the no-admit list,” but there’s no need to be rough around the edges when it’s easy enough not to. </p>
<p>Though here’s my waiting room story. We (H, D, me – not sure if S was with us or was wandering around elsewhere) were in the waiting room at Bryn Mawr. It’s a lovely old room, beautiful furnishings, definitely a certain genteel atmosphere being conveyed. I had worked out that morning and for whatever reason, my iPod in my handbag started playing by itself, at full volume, “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings. I dove for it, and it wouldn’t turn off … don’t know what the matter was, but it wasn’t responding to anything. We were hysterical laughing at the incongruity of it all.</p>
<p>ShawD finished her University of Rochester interview. The interviewer had a very gentle conversation with ShawD – she was prepared for What book are you reading, What kind of tree would you like to be if you were a tree, who would yo like to have lunch with (living or dead), … . None of those. He then came out and asked if I had any questions. I wore khakis and a nice gold shirt. A number of the dads were in shorts and a t-shirt, so a lower standard of dress would have been fine but ShawD picked the slacks and shirt for me (per someone’s suggestion) and I advised her to go with the nice but less noticeable jewelry. All is well. It would be a great place given her interests.</p>
<p>“I’m very surprised to learn that in at least some cases the parent is invited in to the interview. Could someone explain why a college would want to do this?”</p>
<p>The interviews may be informational, not admission factors, and the college may be using the interviews as way of raising their yield and applications. Consequently, it would make sense for the college to talk with the person who’ll be paying the bills…</p>
<p>momofsongbird, sounds like midwestern hospitality! 
NSM, I hadn’t thought of this as being a yield issue. The spouse will be accompanying D1 to her first few interviews, so I will advise accordingly to be sitting nearby with a good book and a pleased facial expression :). shawbridge, since D1’s first interview will be at Rochester, I’m glad to hear it was a gentle process.</p>
<p>As an employee in a college office: Dads, please do not wear basketball shirts/tank tops. No matter how fit you are, that is more of your skin than the girls behind the reception desks are comfortable seeing. (We feel the same about moms with excess cleavage, but the moms seemed to have learned to avoid this…the dads, not so much.)</p>
<p>As a long-ago college applicant whose dad took her to all the college tours and interviews: In the early 1990s, a button-up shirt, Dockers and comfortable shoes (and a blazer or sweater if it was chilly) were acceptable Dad-wear; jeans, T-shirts and sweatshirts were too casual. Times might’ve changed. My dad also wore his Sacred Red Sox hat everywhere, which caused me some concern when we visited schools in New York, but actually it turned out to be an excellent and non-embarrassing conversation starter.</p>
<p>“In the early 1990s, a button-up shirt, Dockers and comfortable shoes (and a blazer or sweater if it was chilly) were acceptable Dad-wear”</p>
<p>Maybe in the Fall they were. I’ve been doing the summer tour, in 90 degree weather walking around campuses for several hours at a time, in shorts, not long pants, and I believe I am among the majority wardrobe-wise. I generally tend to stick with long pants far longer into the season than most people, but eventually even I have my limits. It could have been much different then but I doubt it.</p>
<p>"The interviews may be informational, not admission factors, and the college may be using the interviews as way of raising their yield and applications. Consequently, it would make sense for the college to talk with the person who’ll be paying the bills… "</p>
<p>That has been the nature of the ones I’ve had, with D1 and D2. The third one hasn’t interviewed yet, doesn’t feel he’s ready. He’ll have to be doing that in the Fall, and probably then I’ll be wearing: dockers, button-down shirt, comfortable shoes and maybe a sweater if it’s cold. Probably he’ll be doing them off-campus with alumni though, and I won’t be involved at all.</p>