<p>I wonder whether colleges make effort to protect privacy of students when they ask for alumni interview. I hear that some interviewers ask students to bring transcripts which may contains SSN of students to the interview. If the interviewers are real alumni then this should not be a big problem.</p>
<p>However is it possible some bad guys know some students applying to colleges and arranges fake interviews to collect private data for illegal purposes? Or for some evil actions? What are the legal rammifications in this case?</p>
<p>I am not aware of any transcript that has SSN on it, if it does, just white it out. </p>
<p>What do mean if the interviewers are real alumni – someone is going to impersonate someone who went to a school to be an interviewer? Seems a little wierd to me?</p>
<p>Actually, one of the kids I interviewed told me that she called my alma mater to make sure I was who I said I was before she agreed to meet for the interview. I can understand the concern in this day and age. Which is why I always set up interviews in public places like Starbucks and never ask for a resume. My role as an interviewer is to suss out a feel for the student that the numbers and grades on paper don’t always show. The school has the grades and test scores- I don’t need them.</p>
<p>In the 20+ years I have been doing alumni interviews I have never seen a resume/info provided by a student with an SS# on it, nor has my intent been checked with the college (though I understand why a student would want to do this). All my interviews are in public places as well, and the parents are invited - some come with the student, some don’t.</p>
<p>It would be a mistake for anyone to put their SS# on a resume: too easy for identity theft to happen.</p>
<p>Bringing a resume to an interview is very helpful. A quick skim by the inteviewer can save lots of time and help the interviewer ask questions that best reveal what the student has to offer.</p>
<p>SSN on transcripts don’t have SSN. But what if the bad guys ask for a copy of SAT scores? If the student is not aware of the bad intention then he/she will not wipe out the ssn.</p>
<p>My real question is how do you know the person who calls your home or send you e-mail to set up interview is a real alumni? If you are parent of a 17 year old girl and someone sets up to meet her at a coffee shop, will you have any concern?</p>
<p>"My real question is how do you know the person who calls your home or send you e-mail to set up interview is a real alumni? "</p>
<p>Anything is possible, but how would some wakko stranger know that one’s kid has applied to a particular school, one that requires inteviews at that? The person would have to know some very intimate details about a student’s life, and if the person is stalking one’s kid that much, there would be more serious things to be concerned about than the person’s meeting your kid at a coffee shop while pretending to be an alum interviewer.</p>
<p>If there are concerns about an interviewer, the student always could call the admissions office to verify that the interviewer is legit.</p>
<p>For my alma mater they send out a letter to the applicant with the name and contact information for the alumni interviewer. Then the applicant contacts the interviewer – not the other way around. Hard to see how a fake alumni interviewer could find their way into that situation.</p>
<p>While I usually ask the applicant to bring a resume if they have one, I’ve never asked for a score report or transcript, and have never had one volunteered to me.</p>
<p>It seems to me there are higher risks of identity theft out there. And 17 year old high school students would not be a priority target of identity theft, rather it would be people like their parents, who have more money.</p>
<p>Here is an example although it’s not about highschool student interview, but it’s about college student interview. And this happened 7 years ago.</p>
<p>As NSM stated:
“If there are concerns about an interviewer, the student always could call the admissions office to verify that the interviewer is legit.”
That is all that is needed to be done to insure that the alumni interviewer is “for real”. Really! So follow that advise and relax. If you are going to be so scared or distrustful of people you haven’t met before because of something you read about that happened to someone else 7 years ago, you are going to have a really hard time in college.</p>
<p>My kids’ school district does not have the kids’ SS#, so it can’t show up on the transcript. I also told my kids NOT to put their SS# on the SAT and ACT applications (they don’t know their SS# and have to ask me for it). Even their college applications don’t get the kid’s SS#. Only the financial aid forms will get the SS# since they have a need to know.</p>