In my case, it was U Chicago. 4 years ago, I was quite intrigued by nerdy and uniquely academic culture of the school and applied to the school. Their “Pls apply brochures” were also quite creative.
But when I got contacted by my interviewer, he wanted me to come to a place near his house. It was THIRTY minutes away my house! I was kind off turned off by this, but cancelling an interview at this point would be equivalent too “please don’t accept me.” My mom complained that it was too far away, but we went anyway.
And the interview was…even more disappointing. Instead of asking about me, he asked me how much I knew about the school. Yes, students should do some researches about the school but this interviewer was too pedantic and bored me out of my mind. By the time the interview was over, I knew I wasn’t going to be accepted and didn’t even bat an eyelash at the rejection letter a month later.
Maybe he wasn’t a good representative of U Chicago, but still…
I don’t expect the interviewer to come to ME, but most of interviewers I met offered to meet in the midway. Although, most of them happened to live in nearby city…
My strangest interview, years ago at this point, was also with a Chicago alum. He was a professor at Davidson and spent most of the interview pushing me to apply to Swarthmore and Davidson instead, which he thought combined the academics of Chicago with better undergraduate student life. If I did college all over again, I’d probably take his advice and look more thoughtfully at Swarthmore.
If you lived in the Chicago area or most major metros, 30 minutes doesn’t get you very far. I think some people just have different perspective about drive times depending on their background. I wouldn’t blink an eye if we had to drive 30 minutes to a interview location and I live in the middle of a city.
For my daughter it was Columbia. He picked a crazy time (late on Valentine’s day on a weekday), showed up late, rudely asked the people in starbucks to turn down the music, didn’t buy anything, and started by asking my daughter her test scores (which she didn’t know off hand but she felt he didn’t want to bother with her if they weren’t high enough).
She was smart enough not to let the bad alum interview color her opinion of the school She formed her opinion instead when she did a lunch on campus visit with current students.
For my daughter it was MIT. Although it didn’t turn her off, it did make her think she would not be accepted. The original interviewer she was assigned refused to do the interview anywhere besides his house. He wrote her a long rant when she asked to do it in a public place accusing her of being biased against him because he was a man. She contacted the school and they assigned her another person and that interview went great. She was then accepted, so it obviously didn’t harm her any.
ELDest interviewed at Claremont Mckenna 4 years ago and was so turned off she didn’t apply. The interviewer was only interested in her partying habits… what does she do with friends, how many friends does she have, why would she go to see theatre when the beach is so close? She was totally uninterested in her academically and gave off a strong anti-intellectual vibe. I’m sure my D just got a lemon but at the same time, this was an interview on campus… not an alumni interview where you just get whoever is closest to you. The admission office picked this girl and I have to believe it was for a reason.
Valparaiso. The interview happened to be the coach of the soccer team. The two students who were invited to the interview were both heavy music people. All he talked about was the soccer team and tried to get the one student to try out for soccer. When my daughter asked about music he ignored the question and went on about soccer. When the other student asked about music he also was responded to about soccer. Basically my daughter was ignored and the entire discussion was about soccer. Neither student went there since they were both turned off by him.
It wasn’t the interviewer but the onterview process for Brown. DD was assigned a time and a location for an interview (well more than half an hour away, btw). I drover her in to the private school where it was being held. Turns out it was a cattle call interview with several interviewers and they took whoever was up next. The paperwork had said to be prepared for 20 or 30 minutes. DD wated nearly an hour and a half before she even got called to start interview. Luck of the draw she got someone in her field who was very nice, but what was expected to be 20 to 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. She had another interview scheduled later that same day and I was speeding to get her to it.
What are you going to do about job interviews? They’re not going arrange interviews in locations convenient to you. Why should it be any different for a college interview? Remember who is in the driver’s seat. Thirty minutes is nothing.
When I interviewed at Brown, many years ago, I walked into the room and sat down. The admissions officer stared at me and said, “What makes a privileged, middle class, suburban white girl like you think you deserve to go to Brown?” I honestly have no memory of how I answered, but I was done with Brown.
Never occurred to me to fuss about distance for alumni interviews – they are not required, but if you are serious about the school, usually advisable. Maybe it’s a regional thing? I’m from east coast, and it can take 45 minutes to get from one side of the city to another. And now in the midwest, we are used to 2 hour one way travel for sporting events. When my kid was offered an alumni interview 45-60 min drive away for a school of interest, it seemed like what had to be done.
@gallentjill Wow. Just wow. I think at that point I would have just said, “You know, your question leads me to believe that Brown is not right for me” and left.
@gallentjill I’m a little bit stunned. I think some of those underprivileged admissions officers might be thinking it, but I never heard an experience like that. No matter how much they may be thinking it, I don’t think its their job to be prejudicial off the bat. In my two info sessions with my students, without words they were somehow able to get the message across at Brown that they were looking for particular kids to give the opportunity to. The one who was “showcased” and turned out to be our tour guide was from a one stop light town in Georgia who by self report was amazed at the sight of city buses in Providence. Even then I questioned what was up with that. Don’t know if it was wholly credible.
I commuted about that far to go to college every day-- undergrad and grad- without batting an eye.
And it’s an interview-- I would think you would have done your homework and known enough about the school to hold up your end of the conversation. Otherwise you were just wasting his time.
I think maybe you need to re-evaluate the number of accommodations you expect of others.
For my kids it was University of Chicago. My son went to the interview (which was around half an hour away) and the interviewer spent the entire interview talking about how my son should apply to Chicago but plan on going elsewhere. It left him not really wanting to go there.
Overall my kids interviewed at Hamilton, US Naval Academy, Haverford, Swarthmore, NYU, and Case Western in addition to U Chicago. Chicago was the only bad experience for them
Cooper Union at National Portfolio Day. The rep was a sour young man who offered no feedback or any useful information to my D (who spent nearly an hour in line at the booth waiting to meet with him). He seemed miserable and ambivalent about CU – very poor choice for a rep. Needless to say, no app was submitted!
Penn allows us to do the interviews via Skype as well. One of the kids I was interviewing was in the middle of states and nationals for track and this allowed us to make it work for his schedule. Worked well.