Coffee Shop College Interview?

YaleGradandDad
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:57:06 +0000

Don’t offer to buy your interviewer a drink as suggested above. Social convention is for the interviewer to buy drinks or for each to get his/her own. I always buy something as a courtesy to the establishment since I am using their space. I often buy a drink for the students but they rarely feel comfortable taking the time to drink it. It is hard for alumni to gauge how important the interview is since we write many positive reports on kids that are rejected. I have never seen a kid accepted with a luke warm report that was not a recruited applicant. I think the area where our reports most help is to assist admissions on understanding the depth of the extracurricular activities. I get kids telling me they run clubs but can’t give me details on planned programs. Kids tell me they care so much about an activity but then when they become an officer as a junior they stop doing it senior year since they already collected that title. Some kids tell me they had a bunch of activities that they had to give up as an upperclassman since their honors/AP classwork required too many study hours after school. When the school is trying to find kids who are academic superstars and still have what it takes to add to the college community, these details cut through the b.s. of densely packed resumes and activity lists. FWIW, I’ve interviewed for many years and I’ve never thought much about what any of these kids wear. If you leave your “eff-see-you-kay” tee-shirt home you’ll be fine.