<p>Jahaba, as Presidents Bush and Clinton made clear- send money, not old shoes. Hard to argue with a Bipartisan consensus!</p>
<p>Yeah, but I don’t want anyone to think that just because some alumni conduct interviews in their homes, they shouldn’t donate money to Haiti.</p>
<p>Now I am totally confused. Wha . . . ??</p>
<p>I wouldn’t contribute to this unless I thought I had something new to add. And I think I do, but will include it at the end. </p>
<p>H interviewed for an Ivy and did it from our house. His work required that he do his interviews on the weekends. I remember more than 12 one season, and he probably had a three week period in which to do them. When he started interviewing, he went to a student’s home and later arranged to use a room in the public library until that was no longer available for ‘private’ purposes. (Maybe the library was afraid they’d be sued over what went down in the room.) So he interviewed in our house. We have a small house, all on one level and we could not have parents stay. They would have been IN the interview. I would often answer the door and explain to the student who I was and that I would be in another part of the house during the interview. That way they would know there were people in the house. I did the same thing when an interviewer came to our house to interview D (it was his suggestion he come to us). It was not convenient for us to have the interviewer at our house, but D was the one going through the hoops. I stayed shut up in the bedroom (after offering coffee/tea and then exiting) and H was out in the backyard with the dog - and it was January. It was a minor inconvenience. It was nice of the interviewer to fit our D into his schedule. </p>
<p>Six years before, when S was interviewing for many of the same schools, he was more likely to go to the alum’s house. D was meeting reps of the same schools at Starbucks and in one instance had a phone interview. Her interview at our home was the only one at our house either kid had. S didn’t drive in HS, so I would drop him off, bring a book and find a coffee shop. I had to estimate pickup time as S didn’t have cell phone. D had license and so drove herself. She also had a cell phone so I didn’t worry about car trouble. I did accompany her, by train, to the big city for an interview. It was held in a large office, on a Sunday, with several students and parents and refreshments and was rather fun (for me anyway). </p>
<p>I choose not to live in a world where I think alum volunteers are a threat. At the very worst, your child will spend an hour with someone who bores them. No harm done, IMO.</p>
<p>Now for something that hasn’t come up yet. I hate to give ammo to those who fear the at-home interview, but at one of S’s interviews, he was bitten by the family dog. When we had kids coming to our house, we always crated our dog - and that’s why H was out in the yard with dog when interviewer came to our house. Some people are afraid of dogs, allergic to cats, etc. and it’s not a fair interview situation for them. Our dog has never bitten anyone - yet - but if I had to pick his first victim, it would have been a tall man who held D’s fate in his hands. That, or he would have displayed submissive urination - either way, I knew to get dog out of the picture.</p>
<p>Local or regional alumni interviews are a courtesy and a privilege, not a right. If prospective candidates cant or dont attend on-campus interviews they can be offered the opportunity for a local interview, at least thats the case with my alma mater. This is most definitely a favor being offered to the candidate, and it clearly benefits the institution from a recruitment standpoint. Alumni like me who just recently volunteered to interview locally for my alma mater do so for a variety of reasons I suspect. In my case my daughter (only child) was just accepted early decision to my alma mater. I wanted to get even more involved as an active alum as a way of staying connected with my daughter.</p>
<p>My alma mater has an admissions program for alumni and parents, and so I signed on. </p>
<p>[Login</a> to APAP Pages](<a href=“http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/apap/joinapap/]Login”>http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/apap/joinapap/)</p>
<p>I felt it was a substantive way to make a contribution to my alma mater. I have committed to interview 5 candidates per admission cycle. I figure this will require about 15 hrs of my time. Though my time is valuable to me, its a service that I will engage in freely, and I am glad to make a contribution to my school and to my community.</p>
<p>Prospective candidates always have the option to take advantage of this courtesy or to pass. It is their choice. As I stated in my previous post several days I ago I plan to interview candidates in my home under conditions that I already outlined, and I will offer candidates the option to interview in a public place. Beyond that I dont feel I owe anything else to candidates.</p>
<p>I personally do not understand the degree of anxiety and in some instances frank or passive hostility over this issue that has been expressed by several of the posters on this thread. Although I am a newbie to CC I also have noted that several parents seem to spend an inordinate amount of time, at least to me, posting on CC. You cant avoid seeing their screen names throughout many threads. I am trying to understand the dynamics of this. Several have over 10,000 posts, albeit over several years. Simple math reveals that 10,000 posts, at a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per post (not including time spent reading other posts) equals 50,000 minutes, 833 hrs, or 20 40-hr work-weeks of time spent posting. Thats a lot of time. Perhaps others, besides the serial posters, have some thoughts about this.</p>
<p>Wow. If mummom thinks waiting in a car or cafe for her kid to interview is a big imposition, I assume she and her student have not spent the last four character-building years freezing their way through soccer, football, tennis, baseball or track events, some reaching six or seven hours.</p>
<p>Overcoddled applicants who have listened to their parents’ self-entitled rants will hardly have the coping skills to deal with recalcitrant departmental secretaries, housing supervisors, and tough-grading teaching assistants.</p>
<p>Also: this thread has reached 54 pages and I still have not read of a single case of Interviewer Assault–the unspoken, irrational fear lurking in the hearts of so many posters. So much venom directed against the colleges and the volunteer interviewers, yet no credible evidence of any real risk.</p>
<p>In all liklihood this thread will decrease the number of willing alumni interviewers. Next year at this time, we’ll read the noisy wails of apron-string-attached mothers protesting the lack of opportunities to prove how Ivy-ready their little wunderkind are. Can’t wait. ;)</p>
<p>ClarkAlum:
I am one of the posters with two much time on my hands by your standards.</p>
<p>Five minutes/post is a wild overestimate. I estimate most of my posts take less than 30 seconds.</p>
<p>I post (over the last 6 years) because I feel I have useful information to offer, because it helps me clarify my thoughts on an issue (as when I post on politics, cancer, or dogs), or just because I’m in the mood for an argument. I spend far less time on CC than I do watching TV, and I rarely watch more than one show a day.</p>
<p>great post, fauve.</p>
<p>And I’ll add my thanks to all the posters who are alumni interviewers.</p>
<p>As some have already pointed out, college application interviews are not FAVORs or privileges stowed upon the students. They are “hoops” that students are expected to jump through, as one interviewer put. And home interviews are not the norm, at least in my area here in California. None of my D’s or her friends’ interviews was held in a private home.</p>
<p>OMG, some interviewers will not volunteer anymore after reading this thread. The students or their parents dare to have apprehension about a minor going alone to the home of an interviewer? How offensive! </p>
<p>Apparently some interviewers here think very highly of their volunteer work. But these interviews should not be about YOU, the interviewers. The students and parents don’t know YOU. It is just beyond me why a simple request of venue change to a public location is treated as such a personal insult by some here.</p>
<p>As a parent with two children currently interviewing for fall 2010 college admissions, I want to thank all the alum parents on this forum who do interviews. My kids have interviewed in private homes, coffee shops, malls, breakfast places, law offices and a judge’s chambers.</p>
<p>A number of these venues have been “inconvenient” for my kids in that they have required lengthy public transportation rides (over an hour in each direction) for a 30 minute interview. Nonetheless, I think we “get it.” These very busy alums and going out of their way for us, taking time they could be spending with their families or simply contemplating their navels, if that’s what they would choose in the alternative.</p>
<p>Kudos to those of you who interview on behalf of your alma maters. I hope that none of you would seriously give thought to giving it up because of how this thread has deteriorated.</p>
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<p>Leah, I don’t know how you conclude that alum, such as myself, can’t leave our own house. As I have written elsewhere on this long thread, there was a time when my own kids were in high school that it was hard to schedule the interviews as I wasn’t home afterschool or evenings as I was driving them to their activities around the region. I often arranged to meet a student in a city 25 miles from me because I had to hang out there while my kids were in activities and so met the student during that block of time in a cafe in that city. But now I don’t have to travel regularly to that city which is an hour roundtrip. Therefore, the student must come to my town. There is hardly anywhere to meet in my town and it would involve some more time and travel. It is rural. My office is in my home (I work online). It is more convenient in my schedule for the student to come to where I work and live. I don’t have another office. I have never had a student question it. MOST drive themselves here. But if their parent drives them, then the parent goes off into town to look around or do an errand (I live in a lovely resort town with a village with little shops and there is enough ways to kill an hour of time). It isn’t about not wanting to leave my home but it is a matter of what is most convenient and time efficient. Please realize we all live in different sorts of communities. In my community, there are not a lot of public places…there is no Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. Also, people are very trusting in small communities. </p>
<p>Mummom, about the cold car…most people turn it on and run the heater. But one can drive around, look around town, go to a store, etc. I don’t see what you mean about having to sit in a cold car. How is it different for the parent who drops the kid at a house compared to the parent who drops the kid off at Starbucks? Both parents have to kill some time. I live less than 2 miles from the village in my town…a village that people come the world over to walk around as I live in a vacation area. I think some of the parents enjoy looking around town while their kid is in the interview, though most kids bring themselves here. </p>
<p>Also, you mention that some of us interviewers don’t want to invite the parent in during the interview. I don’t think the parent belongs at the interview venue. A parent can transport the kid but shouldn’t be present. Again, my home has no place for the parent to wait where he/she would not be able to hear the interview. If I had such an area, I might consider it, though no parent has ever asked to come in or approach the door and so they seem to NOT expect to be invited in and realize this is something for JUST the kids and that their role is as transportation provider. It is not that different than dropping one’s kid at the piano teacher’s house and returning at the end of the lesson and not expecting to pay “a visit” as the parent. </p>
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<p>If I have to jump through hoops and travel on top of the phone calls, emails, long interviews I provide, and time I put into writing a thoughtful report for each student, I might not do it. I already have trouble fitting it into my life and frankly often put my real job aside to fit this in…TO HELP OTHERS. Please remember we are VOLUNTEERS. I know you said we are not doing your kids doing your kids a favor but that the kids are doing us a favor, but frankly, that attitude really got me going admittedly.</p>
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<p>I don’t think an alum interview is the same as a professional employment interview that someone else was talking about earlier. I am not an employee. I am not an employer. I am a volunteer. I have agreed to meet prospective students to be a “face” of my alma mater so that every applicant can meet a representative since they can’t be accommodated for on campus interviews (some haven’t even visited the school either). I agreed to give the kids an opportunity to share on a personal level and to pass that onto the college. I have to ACT professionally and courteously, of course, but it is not a professional setting or situation really. It is more of a community service type of situation. </p>
<p>I also agree with blossom that this system has been working for many colleges without problems and serves thousands of applicants world wide. I don’t think this system needs to change to accommodate those who are uncomfortable with it. Those folks can opt out as it is optional in the first place.</p>
<p>ClarkAlum…
You go off on a tangent but I’ll respond and try to relate it to the topic at hand. I indeed have thousands of posts on CC. I have been here almost 8 years. I had two kids go through the college admissions process and one also the grad school process. I stayed on and like to give back. I also became a college counselor 7 years ago and so I like to read CC as it relates to what I do for work and is enlightening, let alone I have met and enjoyed reading posts by many on CC over the years. Many times when I post on CC, I do so to HELP others, particularly as I do so for fees and I like to volunteer for others who can’t pay such fees and so I can help many at one time on a message board. Sometimes I post for plain fun. Sometimes I post with my parent hat on (such as this thread). And some spend hours watching TV and I don’t watch TV as I find CC more entertaining. But the way it relates to this thread is that I devote countless hours every year in many posts on CC aimed at volunteering H HELP. So, I am frustrated now that people are bemoaning my volunteer work as an alum interviewer and now someone like you is bemoaning that some like me have many posts on CC, and many of these have also been volunteering helpful type posts, given for free what I do for pay. I sometimes wonder why I bother with either of these volunteer efforts.</p>
<p>Well this has been a very entertaining read and now I feel like throwing my 2 cents in. I have a very, very paranoid mother. She calls my friends parents beforehand to make sure that they will be home while I am there. Whenever I go places I have to call her once I arrive or I will instantly get 100 text messages, 50 calls, and 25 voicemails. When I was invited to go on a trip with a group of friends, she made sure to call EVERY parent in order to see if she was comfortable letting me go on this trip. I am not allowed a boy in the house unless a parent or the like is around. If I go to check the mail and I am home alone, I must turn the alarm on as I walk out the door. Etc. Such is my mother. She had a very distressing and emotionally traumatic childhood and suffers from PTSD so I completely understand where she is coming from. However it gets irritating after awhile.</p>
<p>However, my complete paranoid wreck of a mother was comfortable with me going on alumni interviews. I am very glad she did because I became somewhat close with the interviewers in one way or another. One of my interviews was incredible. I was 18 and went to a relatively young man’s home at night for my interview. Sounds kinda similar to what’s going on in this debate. Anyways it was a great interview. We ended up chatting for about 2 hours since we got off-topic. He kept in touch with me and when he found out I had been waitlisted, called the school and told them that they really needed to consider accepting me (I had no idea about this, he did it on his own accord and I didn’t find out til recently). If it were not for him, I probably would not have been accepted since I had relatively subpar grades for that school and he was able to shine some light on me.</p>
<p>I definitely believe that the interviewer is doing a HUGE favor for the student and I am immensely grateful for them.</p>
<p>However, I feel that it is COMPLETELY understandable for some parents to feel nervous
about sending their children into a strangers home and in that case I think it is fairly reasonable to see if it’s possible to have the interview be relocated. </p>
<p>I believe that everyone needs to stop bickering and agree to disagree.</p>
<p>Hope I didn’t offend anyone.</p>
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<p>I’m an alum interviewer and don’t view such a request as an insult whatsoever. An inconvenience perhaps, but not an insult at all. While I have never had such a request made of me, I would definitely accommodate that and have said so on this thread as have many other alum interviewers. But if I have a choice, and I do, I prefer to meet at a venue that is convenient for me and then I work out a time that is convenient for the student. But a change of venue request would be honored. However, in my neck of the woods, nobody has ever appeared in the least to want one.</p>
<p>Mummom, why do you have to wait in a cold car if you drop your kid off at the interviewer’s home but you don’t have to wait in a cold car if you drop your kid off for an interview at Starbucks? What do you do when they are in the interview at Starbucks? Kill time some place? Can’t you do the same if dropping them off at a house?</p>
<p>You don’t expect to go and sit in Starbucks during your kid’s interview, I assume, right? And so why do you need to come into the home during the interview? It really should be similar. </p>
<p>In both instances, you don’t belong IN the interview venue. In both instances, you can go some place to kill time and not freeze in a car. In both instances, if an adult wanted to do something inappropriate, he/she could manage to do it. Public places are not entirely immune to untoward behaviors.</p>
<p>“I can see many volunteer interviewers no longer wanting to do interviews after this thread.”
Pitiable statement is not the issue. Power of arguments is not the issue. The issue is the concern raised by the originator of this Thread.</p>
<p>Interesting to read some of the statements posted by some volunteer counselors concerning the reasons of why they interview from their homes, the “justified excuses,” and some logistic concerns in interviewing from their homes.
If an act looks bad there are no excuses in the book that can justify the act, so I will stand by my original post that interviewer’s should not interview in their homes.
Why can you coordinate and interview at your nearest school?</p>
<p>OMG: I don’t WANT to go into the house.
Starbucks are not located on rural, isolated roads, as far as I know.
Btw, do you have any understanding as to why you have never received a request for a change of venue?</p>
<p>To all who interview - what I would like to hear:
Instead of bullying and name calling parents who have concerns about dropping their 17 year old daughter at the home of an adult male whom they do not know…
It is not about fear of a child safety - it’s about not knowing what is or should be happening. There are more dangers than the tiny risk of sexual assault. There is the issue of power that you all have managed to side step and dismiss. There is the issue of appearances and not understanding that some may have cultural norms that are different from yours (so much for diversity).
Personally I would have qualms having my minor daughter interview in the private home of an adult male. Remember - neither the student nor the parent know if the male interviewer is married unless he tells them. </p>
<p>I would like some kind of acknowledgment and understanding instead of a condescending attitude. That is certainly not too much to ask. Put the students (many of whom may be uneasy as well) and their parents at ease. That would include asking the child if the in home interview is okay with him/her and the parents. Is that too much to ask - really?</p>
<p>Greenery- in regards to your post about interviewing at the nearest school. I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts yet I live in CT. When I would come home for breaks, the easiest thing for me was to go to their houses since I was not a student at a local school and therefore could not be interviewed there. Furthermore I have a gps in my car so I didn’t struggle with getting lost. I did do one interview at a starbucks in a bookstore and that was awkward. It was loud and people crowded our table and one person started chiming into our conversation. I personally found the home interviews to be pretty nice and cozy. My interviewers never made me feel uncomfortable. In fact they did everything they could to make me feel comfortable.</p>
<h1>817-right. And it would be the height of rudeness to inquire as to whether there would be another person present in the home, of course, so there is absolutely no way of knowing what the circumstances might be in the home.</h1>
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<p>The parents who drive their kid to my house, easily drive the less than two miles into my village and do things there…a village that draws people from around the world on vacation. They find what to do. It may not be Starbucks as we don’t have commercial chains here but there is enough to do for a short period of time. </p>
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<p>I’d be happy to ask if it is OK with them. In fact, I tend to do it as a suggestion and could do it as a question. I try to be as accommodating as possible. I work with THEIR schedule and I don’t name a time…I let them give me some times as options and I pick from the ones they tell me are good for them. I can also ask if it is OK to meet at my home (though I firmly believe every single one will say yes). However, there is hardly anywhere to meet them in my town. </p>
<p>Someone asked why not meet at the local high school. Well, most of the students I interview don’t attend our high school as I serve a region in about a 50 mile radius where students come from many different high schools. I don’t feel right asking my HS to use it for a purpose that doesn’t involve THEIR students, let alone they are not open on weekends or evenings. In addition to that, I would have to travel to that location, adding a lot of time onto the volunteer hours. I prefer students to come to my location. I have only just so much time to devote to this and put in about four to five hours per student as a volunteer. If this were my JOB…I might have an office and consider this my work.</p>