Colleges that Interview - Which Count

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is exhausting. Confirms my suspicion that alumni interviews are a complete waste of time - for our kids!

Seriously, these kids have invested enough in this ridiculous process, including visits for schools that consider DI, multiple supplements per school, etc. Expecting them to then prep and sit for interviews that … don’t have an impact on the outcome?? Unless, of course, they opt out … even though they’re framed as “optional” … but apparently are not? Enough with these BS games already.

Cheers to Cornell and every other school that has put an end to the AI ridiculousness. I wish every other school would follow their lead.

I totally agree that the whole process is now completely off the rails, but especially with all of the "optional" essays, the "optional" glimpse videos (my kid recorded theirs maybe 20 times after writing and memorizing what he was going to say), the "optional" essays, on-campus visits, virtual visits, AO's visiting the school, etc. etc. My kid's entire senior year has been taken over by college admissions.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interview for a HYP where everyone gets an interview. It would be good to have a legit source say the “interviews don’t count.” In the interview report form, we have to rate the candidate and write up comments. If the rating/comments are negative, I can’t imagine that would be dismissed as easily as some of you seem to think.

I disagree. I used to interview for an ivy. I once interviewed a candidate. He was the worst applicant I ever interviewed and I gave him a low rating/narrative. I received an email from admissions acknowledging my report, and they didn't disagree, but shared that the candidate had other important attributes... he was a recruited athletes...and he was accepted. Meanwhile, the other extraordinary young men and women were rejected. I quit after several years of seeing this frustrating trend and several friends did the same.

Well, duh. A recruited athlete doesn't face the same type of pressure to stand out in an interview than a kid who doesn't have that type of hook. And Ivies reject many extraordinary candiates. HYP only accept 3-4% of their applicants per year. But if you think that because you interviewed a recruited athlete who wasn't articulate who got in, and some articulate students who didn't get in, that interviews never matter, your Ivy didn't teach you enough about data analysis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I interview for a HYP where everyone gets an interview. It would be good to have a legit source say the “interviews don’t count.” In the interview report form, we have to rate the candidate and write up comments. If the rating/comments are negative, I can’t imagine that would be dismissed as easily as some of you seem to think.

I disagree. I used to interview for an ivy. I once interviewed a candidate. He was the worst applicant I ever interviewed and I gave him a low rating/narrative. I received an email from admissions acknowledging my report, and they didn't disagree, but shared that the candidate had other important attributes... he was a recruited athletes...and he was accepted. Meanwhile, the other extraordinary young men and women were rejected. I quit after several years of seeing this frustrating trend and several friends did the same.

Well, duh. A recruited athlete doesn't face the same type of pressure to stand out in an interview than a kid who doesn't have that type of hook. And Ivies reject many extraordinary candiates. HYP only accept 3-4% of their applicants per year. But if you think that because you interviewed a recruited athlete who wasn't articulate who got in, and some articulate students who didn't get in, that interviews never matter, your Ivy didn't teach you enough about data analysis.

It just means nothing matters in the face of hooks. It’s why I don’t interview EA, too many hooked applicants. Waste of my time.

[Anonymous]

MIT interviews count as in they can hurt you, but they’re not really going to move the needle towards acceptance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is exhausting. Confirms my suspicion that alumni interviews are a complete waste of time - for our kids!

Seriously, these kids have invested enough in this ridiculous process, including visits for schools that consider DI, multiple supplements per school, etc. Expecting them to then prep and sit for interviews that … don’t have an impact on the outcome?? Unless, of course, they opt out … even though they’re framed as “optional” … but apparently are not? Enough with these BS games already.

Cheers to Cornell and every other school that has put an end to the AI ridiculousness. I wish every other school would follow their lead.

I totally agree that the whole process is now completely off the rails, but especially with all of the "optional" essays, the "optional" glimpse videos (my kid recorded theirs maybe 20 times after writing and memorizing what he was going to say), the "optional" essays, on-campus visits, virtual visits, AO's visiting the school, etc. etc. My kid's entire senior year has been taken over by college admissions.

+10000

X10

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is exhausting. Confirms my suspicion that alumni interviews are a complete waste of time - for our kids!

Seriously, these kids have invested enough in this ridiculous process, including visits for schools that consider DI, multiple supplements per school, etc. Expecting them to then prep and sit for interviews that … don’t have an impact on the outcome?? Unless, of course, they opt out … even though they’re framed as “optional” … but apparently are not? Enough with these BS games already.

Cheers to Cornell and every other school that has put an end to the AI ridiculousness. I wish every other school would follow their lead.

I totally agree that the whole process is now completely off the rails, but especially with all of the "optional" essays, the "optional" glimpse videos (my kid recorded theirs maybe 20 times after writing and memorizing what he was going to say), the "optional" essays, on-campus visits, virtual visits, AO's visiting the school, etc. etc. My kid's entire senior year has been taken over by college admissions.

And recommendation is to get most everything done the summer before senior year. F BS crappy advice. Each kid should list applying as an extra curricular activity. No matter how competent a student is, there are many details to the process. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is exhausting. Confirms my suspicion that alumni interviews are a complete waste of time - for our kids!

Seriously, these kids have invested enough in this ridiculous process, including visits for schools that consider DI, multiple supplements per school, etc. Expecting them to then prep and sit for interviews that … don’t have an impact on the outcome?? Unless, of course, they opt out … even though they’re framed as “optional” … but apparently are not? Enough with these BS games already.

Cheers to Cornell and every other school that has put an end to the AI ridiculousness. I wish every other school would follow their lead.

I totally agree that the whole process is now completely off the rails, but especially with all of the "optional" essays, the "optional" glimpse videos (my kid recorded theirs maybe 20 times after writing and memorizing what he was going to say), the "optional" essays, on-campus visits, virtual visits, AO's visiting the school, etc. etc. My kid's entire senior year has been taken over by college admissions.

And recommendation is to get most everything done the summer before senior year. F BS crappy advice. Each kid should list applying as an extra curricular activity. No matter how competent a student is, there are many details to the process. Ridiculous.

All those supplemental essays/short takes, etc ,,,, loads and loads of them weren’t even out over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing worse than an Ivy alumni interviewer. Just let it go man. Your college days are over. No one cares. Move on with your life and stop living in the past.

Nothing worse than someone who is jealous of an Ivy alum interviewer. I'm sorry you got rejected 20 years ago but it's time to let it go.

Lol that’s the last thing I’m jealous of. I just happen to think it’s pathetic.

Going to an ivy League school is pathetic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. There are Ivy grads on here who do the alumni interviews to feed their egos and keep living their glory days who will insist that their interviews "count" when the rest of us know that they're just being indulged and they don't.

I'm of the losers you're talking about and the admissions office showed us data that getting the highest interview score correlates with higher percentage of admission. I admit that's not necessarily causation, but when all of these kids are so impressive, there are cases when the balance can be tipped.

I do not care about this. What I enjoy most post-Covid is just getting to know these kids and telling them that they will do great things because that's who they are, not because the school might be lucky enough to choose them or not.

Having said that, it almost never moves the needle. OP, try your best, take it seriously, look for good advice online.
It has more potential to hurt you. Adcomms can justify a Denial from a negative comment in an interview.

Do you have examples of what applicants did during the interview that made you write negative comments? Thanks.

I think generally they really want kids who are motivated, curious, well spoken, make impact, etc etc

Sometimes you get kids where it's just like you are absolutely pulling teeth. I try my best to write good reviews whenever I can, and understand where they are coming from. But, for example, if they bring up the "activity that was most important to them" or their "favorite class in high school" and I asked some follow up questions, and they really have nothing to say beyond a vague sentence or two, that's not good. I probably wouldn't write anything very negative, but it won't be glowing / highlighting that this kid really has the attributes they're looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. There are Ivy grads on here who do the alumni interviews to feed their egos and keep living their glory days who will insist that their interviews "count" when the rest of us know that they're just being indulged and they don't.

I'm of the losers you're talking about and the admissions office showed us data that getting the highest interview score correlates with higher percentage of admission. I admit that's not necessarily causation, but when all of these kids are so impressive, there are cases when the balance can be tipped.

I do not care about this. What I enjoy most post-Covid is just getting to know these kids and telling them that they will do great things because that's who they are, not because the school might be lucky enough to choose them or not.

Having said that, it almost never moves the needle. OP, try your best, take it seriously, look for good advice online.
It has more potential to hurt you. Adcomms can justify a Denial from a negative comment in an interview.

Do you have examples of what applicants did during the interview that made you write negative comments? Thanks.

I think generally they really want kids who are motivated, curious, well spoken, make impact, etc etc

Sometimes you get kids where it's just like you are absolutely pulling teeth. I try my best to write good reviews whenever I can, and understand where they are coming from. But, for example, if they bring up the "activity that was most important to them" or their "favorite class in high school" and I asked some follow up questions, and they really have nothing to say beyond a vague sentence or two, that's not good. I probably wouldn't write anything very negative, but it won't be glowing / highlighting that this kid really has the attributes they're looking for.

I interview for Yale, and it’s this. After Yale flipped the interviewing paradigm a few years back (no longer trying to interview everyone) they also changed the reporting sheet and ask more guided questions of the interviewer. I rarely write anything negative but I may point out that it was very hard to get any kind of substantive non-generic conversation going. Some of the interviews epitomize “damning with faint praise”. Also, I see a lot of people who do only a few interviews get fed up and stop interviewing “because these two really great kids I interviewed didn’t get in”, but when you do a lot over time you realize that most of them in isolation are generally qualified and impressive and now you’re seeing the admissions office’s dilemma of how to winnow down the list. My advice to anyone who wants to know how to approach it is “be able to converse easily with someone not your own age, be interesting, and interested in things”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. There are Ivy grads on here who do the alumni interviews to feed their egos and keep living their glory days who will insist that their interviews "count" when the rest of us know that they're just being indulged and they don't.

I'm of the losers you're talking about and the admissions office showed us data that getting the highest interview score correlates with higher percentage of admission. I admit that's not necessarily causation, but when all of these kids are so impressive, there are cases when the balance can be tipped.

I do not care about this. What I enjoy most post-Covid is just getting to know these kids and telling them that they will do great things because that's who they are, not because the school might be lucky enough to choose them or not.

Having said that, it almost never moves the needle. OP, try your best, take it seriously, look for good advice online.
It has more potential to hurt you. Adcomms can justify a Denial from a negative comment in an interview.

Do you have examples of what applicants did during the interview that made you write negative comments? Thanks.

I think generally they really want kids who are motivated, curious, well spoken, make impact, etc etc

Sometimes you get kids where it's just like you are absolutely pulling teeth. I try my best to write good reviews whenever I can, and understand where they are coming from. But, for example, if they bring up the "activity that was most important to them" or their "favorite class in high school" and I asked some follow up questions, and they really have nothing to say beyond a vague sentence or two, that's not good. I probably wouldn't write anything very negative, but it won't be glowing / highlighting that this kid really has the attributes they're looking for.

This absolutely sucks, btw.

I have two sons. The older one turned 18 end of September of Senior year. My current Senior is 17 and he doesn’t turn 18 until August.

The older one grew in confidence so much by the start of Senior year. No longer as shy, etc.

My current Senior is vivacious, hilarious and a captain of a sports team—but still very shy with adults and a bit awkward in conversations with adults he does not know, exactly how his brother was at the same age (but brother was a junior at that age).

I have seen a lot of the same changes beginning I saw with my older kid who now is a leader on his Ivy campus, but I really worried my current senior will blow all of his interviews because he is still shy and a bit unsure. Again—not at all with the many friends and classmates—he’s not anti-social.

I wish people interviewing understood this stuff, but most of the interviewers my other son had were younger without children or their children were very young- infants-elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. There are Ivy grads on here who do the alumni interviews to feed their egos and keep living their glory days who will insist that their interviews "count" when the rest of us know that they're just being indulged and they don't.

I'm of the losers you're talking about and the admissions office showed us data that getting the highest interview score correlates with higher percentage of admission. I admit that's not necessarily causation, but when all of these kids are so impressive, there are cases when the balance can be tipped.

I do not care about this. What I enjoy most post-Covid is just getting to know these kids and telling them that they will do great things because that's who they are, not because the school might be lucky enough to choose them or not.

Having said that, it almost never moves the needle. OP, try your best, take it seriously, look for good advice online.
It has more potential to hurt you. Adcomms can justify a Denial from a negative comment in an interview.

Do you have examples of what applicants did during the interview that made you write negative comments? Thanks.

I think generally they really want kids who are motivated, curious, well spoken, make impact, etc etc

Sometimes you get kids where it's just like you are absolutely pulling teeth. I try my best to write good reviews whenever I can, and understand where they are coming from. But, for example, if they bring up the "activity that was most important to them" or their "favorite class in high school" and I asked some follow up questions, and they really have nothing to say beyond a vague sentence or two, that's not good. I probably wouldn't write anything very negative, but it won't be glowing / highlighting that this kid really has the attributes they're looking for.

This absolutely sucks, btw.

I have two sons. The older one turned 18 end of September of Senior year. My current Senior is 17 and he doesn’t turn 18 until August.

The older one grew in confidence so much by the start of Senior year. No longer as shy, etc.

My current Senior is vivacious, hilarious and a captain of a sports team—but still very shy with adults and a bit awkward in conversations with adults he does not know, exactly how his brother was at the same age (but brother was a junior at that age).

I have seen a lot of the same changes beginning I saw with my older kid who now is a leader on his Ivy campus, but I really worried my current senior will blow all of his interviews because he is still shy and a bit unsure. Again—not at all with the many friends and classmates—he’s not anti-social.

I wish people interviewing understood this stuff, but most of the interviewers my other son had were younger without children or their children were very young- infants-elementary school.

PP interviewer here. We do know that kids are in different places. They are nice kids, great kids. We see shy kids get in. You don’t have to be glib or extroverted. But quiet people are able to speak when it counts and have intelligent and interesting things to say. But you also have a duty to look at your kid and help them to find the best place for them. I have a break in interviewing this year because my kid is a senior and applying to schools. I love my Alma mater, but it was also very clear to me that even if he could get in, it’s not right for him. He would not fit in with the vibe of the place and also wouldn’t self-advocate to the level that he would need to succeed there. There are so many schools out there and if you stop looking at rankings on a list and look for the level of support, size of classes, etc where your kid will thrive, look at those. Most kids end up where they need to be.

[Anonymous]

During a virtual info session with Holy Cross the admissions counselor emphasized repeatedly how strongly recommended the interviews were. Not required, but very strongly recommended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing worse than an Ivy alumni interviewer. Just let it go man. Your college days are over. No one cares. Move on with your life and stop living in the past.

Nothing worse than someone who is jealous of an Ivy alum interviewer. I'm sorry you got rejected 20 years ago but it's time to let it go.

Lol that’s the last thing I’m jealous of. I just happen to think it’s pathetic.

Going to an ivy League school is pathetic?

Nope, not at all. But being an alumni interviewer is, especially if you actually think what you're doing has any effect on admissions. Any alumni interviewer who actually thinks that the admissions committee is going to pay any attention to some random alum with no qualifications as a interview and no more understanding of what adcoms are looking for than anyone else is just silly. An Ivy League grad should be smart enough to know that.

They just want to relive their glory days and have high anxious high school students suck up to them. Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. There are Ivy grads on here who do the alumni interviews to feed their egos and keep living their glory days who will insist that their interviews "count" when the rest of us know that they're just being indulged and they don't.

I'm of the losers you're talking about and the admissions office showed us data that getting the highest interview score correlates with higher percentage of admission. I admit that's not necessarily causation, but when all of these kids are so impressive, there are cases when the balance can be tipped.

I do not care about this. What I enjoy most post-Covid is just getting to know these kids and telling them that they will do great things because that's who they are, not because the school might be lucky enough to choose them or not.

Having said that, it almost never moves the needle. OP, try your best, take it seriously, look for good advice online.
It has more potential to hurt you. Adcomms can justify a Denial from a negative comment in an interview.

Do you have examples of what applicants did during the interview that made you write negative comments? Thanks.

I think generally they really want kids who are motivated, curious, well spoken, make impact, etc etc

Sometimes you get kids where it's just like you are absolutely pulling teeth. I try my best to write good reviews whenever I can, and understand where they are coming from. But, for example, if they bring up the "activity that was most important to them" or their "favorite class in high school" and I asked some follow up questions, and they really have nothing to say beyond a vague sentence or two, that's not good. I probably wouldn't write anything very negative, but it won't be glowing / highlighting that this kid really has the attributes they're looking for.

And this is a perfect example of something that the adcoms will give zero weight to. Zero. Talk about delusions of grandeur!