Ivy Alumni Interview

[Anonymous]

This thread is a good example of one where the topic is better covered on College Confidential. Lots of misinformation, it’s well documented they do not mean anything for Ivies. Only Yale (can hear for yourself on their podcast) has some meaning, want more info, but doesn’t mean you’re at the top of the heap. Most will not get in with or without an interview. Take the pressure off your student and use it as interview practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around. Here’s my experience …

Last year, over 25 students (including my kid) applied R-EA to Stanford. Around 10 of those applicants - again, all 25+ from the same public school community - were contacted for interviews. My kid was one of them.

All of the reading I did at that time suggested that the interviews have zero influence over the admissions process.

My kid was deferred during R-EA and ultimately rejected by Stanford, but I happened to have a business meeting this past spring with a different alumni interviewer. When I mentioned that my kid had very recently been rejected, he - without any prompting on my part about the interview process - assured me that the interviews are prioritized and that each interview results in a rating that is submitted to the admissions committee. According to this guy, the rating is VERY MUCH part of the discussion during consideration of applicants. YMMV.

My kid was admitted to Harvard and the interview gets a rating. It was included in the file and mentioned in the comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around. Here’s my experience …

Last year, over 25 students (including my kid) applied R-EA to Stanford. Around 10 of those applicants - again, all 25+ from the same public school community - were contacted for interviews. My kid was one of them.

All of the reading I did at that time suggested that the interviews have zero influence over the admissions process.

My kid was deferred during R-EA and ultimately rejected by Stanford, but I happened to have a business meeting this past spring with a different alumni interviewer. When I mentioned that my kid had very recently been rejected, he - without any prompting on my part about the interview process - assured me that the interviews are prioritized and that each interview results in a rating that is submitted to the admissions committee. According to this guy, the rating is VERY MUCH part of the discussion during consideration of applicants. YMMV.

My kid was admitted to Harvard and the interview gets a rating. It was included in the file and mentioned in the comments.

Dartmouth too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around. Here’s my experience …

Last year, over 25 students (including my kid) applied R-EA to Stanford. Around 10 of those applicants - again, all 25+ from the same public school community - were contacted for interviews. My kid was one of them.

All of the reading I did at that time suggested that the interviews have zero influence over the admissions process.

My kid was deferred during R-EA and ultimately rejected by Stanford, but I happened to have a business meeting this past spring with a different alumni interviewer. When I mentioned that my kid had very recently been rejected, he - without any prompting on my part about the interview process - assured me that the interviews are prioritized and that each interview results in a rating that is submitted to the admissions committee. According to this guy, the rating is VERY MUCH part of the discussion during consideration of applicants. YMMV.

My kid was admitted to Harvard and the interview gets a rating. It was included in the file and mentioned in the comments.

In the AO comments? I do think it's a data point, but a very small one.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth meaningless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In most cases it's part of keeping alums engaged.

There was a thread about this here, and the common refrain was no one the interviewers interviewed were accepted.

Seems like a silly way to keep alum engaged. They are asking smart people to waste their time and think their smart alum are too dumb not to realize their time is being wasted!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In most cases it's part of keeping alums engaged.

There was a thread about this here, and the common refrain was no one the interviewers interviewed were accepted.

Seems like a silly way to keep alum engaged. They are asking smart people to waste their time and think their smart alum are too dumb not to realize their time is being wasted!?

+1

Part of the reason I stopped interviewing.

Also, since everyone gets an interview, you get a lot of duds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD was just contacted for an interview. I know the majority of applicants are offered the opportunity if an interviewer lives nearby. But is there any sorting that happens before AOs assign interviews? Would an Ivy spend volunteer resources on an applicant who has no chance of being admitted? I realize the odds aren’t in her favor - just looking for a sliver of hope.

I don’t know the answer to this but since we JUST passed the deadline for early apps I can’t imagine there’s been much review yet. I would assume this is something offered to everyone.

[Anonymous]

they dont wait to open the files on nov 1. if you submitted in early October, you could have an interview by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale only interviews if in the running.

If you're in the top 2% (athlete or donor etc) , they don't.

If you're in the bottom 80% (not really a possible admit), they don't.

so it's a good sign

This isn’t true. I’m an alumni interviewer for Yale and have interviewed kids with likely letters for sports. It is true that they don’t interview everyone, but I have no reason to think they don’t interview the very excellent students.

I find this hard to believe. I interview for another Ivy and was once assigned a committed athlete. I thought that was strange, and sure enough I received an email from admissions telling me it was a mistake…but if I wanted to talk to the athlete I could answer their questions but shouldn’t ask the athlete any questions because I could ask something violates NCAA guidelines (which they did not expect me to be familiar).

I reached out and asked if the kid if he wanted to talk…as expected he said no thanks.

I don’t know why there are posters that are hell bent on saying alumni interviews are meaningless…they literally are for some Ivy schools now…but for others like Harvard, Yale and Princeton (at least)…they do mean something on the margins.

I would be shocked to see if any kids are accepted with terrible alumni interview reports…which of course doesn’t change that most with tremendous interview reports are also rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dartmouth meaningless

How sure are you? Asking because I have heard the opposite.

[Anonymous]

I literally oversee interviews for Princeton. We are told in explicit instructions that alums are ambassadors for the school and that we should not convey we have any say in admissions cuz we don’t. They may have once meant something—but they do not anymore. Your kid should do them to show interest but they should NOT stress about them because they are not going to determine whether they get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I literally oversee interviews for Princeton. We are told in explicit instructions that alums are ambassadors for the school and that we should not convey we have any say in admissions cuz we don’t. They may have once meant something—but they do not anymore. Your kid should do them to show interest but they should NOT stress about them because they are not going to determine whether they get in.

Lol totes credible. Cuz

[Anonymous]

Harvard interviewer here. All we get these days is name and high school and email-phone.
They swear it’s random assignment. No idea but the kids are nice

[Anonymous]

By oversee at Princeton, I mean I oversee a geographic region of several counties handling all the interviews in that region. We get a list of who applied and assign interviews from alums in region tho with advent of Zoom the alums can be farther afield. The process is completely random. The quality of the alum interviewers varies widely, which is one reason they can’t possibly matter. All interviewers get instructions that we are to see ourselves as ambassadors, not convey we are making admissions decisions.