Reply to National Merit semi-finalist state cut offs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm very curious about the role of interviewers.  I assume you write and send summaries to the admissions team of what you think about each interviewee.  Do you have any direct contact with the interviewee's teachers or her college counselor?  Do you make a specific recommendation for each interviewee on whether the college should admit/waitlist/reject?  Does the admissions team routinely call you to ask specific questions about the students you interviewed?  Do you also participate in the admissions team's decision meetings about your interviewees?  If so, are you allowed to be an active participant in those meetings?  Do you get any advance notice of the admissions team's ultimate decisions on your interviewees?  Does the admissions team provide you detailed feedback on what they think about each interviewee, and specifically why they made each decision?[/quote]

I've interviewed for my Ivy alma mater for a long time and we've always been asked to focus on fit and interest in the school. We're a factor, but not deciders, since most applicants don't get interviewed. The admissions office wants a sense of the applicant's intellectual curiosity and personality that can't be found on paper, not academic achievement. There are explicit instructions not to ask about grades and test scores since they are already in the file and it would be considered inappropriate for an alumni interviewer to talk to an anyone else, including an applicant's teachers or counselors, about the student. We are asked to write up the interview and I've been given general feedback on the usefulness of my writeups. But, I've never been asked followup questions and we do not participate in the admissions committee's deliberations. The vast majority of applicants recommended by alumni interviewers do not get accepted and it is pretty unusual to get an explanation.

On the other hand, long-time alumni interviewers get to know the regional admissions officer pretty well and are pretty well-versed in how they think and what they are looking for in an applicant. I have never seen anyone admitted that I did not recommend highly.  My school asks alumni to select their interviewees knowing nothing other than their high school. As a result, alumni with connections to the selective privates are pretty aggressive about choosing those applicants to interview.  As a result, the odds that an upper NW private school applicant is offered an interview are much greater than the odds for a suburban magnet student. These interviewers may also have a pretty fine tuned sense of the academic hierarchy at the private without knowing class rank or even GPA.  They also know how serious various school extra-curriculars and can help communicate that to the admissions officer. And that kind of information included in an interview write up may make a difference. [/quote]
Many thanks for your detailed response.  Two follow up questions, if you don't mind - 
1. You write that you are not permitted to ask about grades or test scores.  Does the interviewee file you receive from the college have those details in it already?  Or alternatively, do you not know about grades or test scores unless the interviewee volunteers them?
2. You write that most applicants don't get interviewed, and about the odds of different students being offered an interview.  I was always under the impression (likely uninformed) that all applicants who want an interview will get one.  But I gather from your post that's not correct.  Do most applicants request interviews, and only a few whose file appears promising get the opportunity?  Or do many seek interviews at all?  Is the ability to get an interview a function of the application's strength, or rather is it a function of the availability of alumni interviewers and interest in the students' schools (since all you know before you select interviewees is their high school)?

Again, I appreciate your candor.  Also, I recognize you are describing only how your university conducts its interview process, and not necessarily indicating how other universities may operate.  Thanks again.[/quote]

Having been an interviewee and and interviewer for my Ivy alma matter - my understanding was it was essentially an alumni courtesy system that reinforced that legacies do have a leg up - but also just made the parents/grandparents/relative who went to the school feel like their connections (and contributions) had been recognized -- and then by recruiting alums as interviewers, they were more likely to continue to feel connected and contribute (financially and otherwise) to the school[/quote]

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