<p>“We can’t shield our kids from everything. I worry lots. But I never imagined worrying about the college interview of all things.”</p>
<p>That’s the point. Most rational people would not be so anxious, or dare I say it, paranoid, that they would refuse to allow their kid to participate in a local interview at the home of an alum. This thread has been hijacked by a handful of such individuals who have ingloriously (can’t help it with the Tarrantino reference after seeing the Grammy’s) accused volunteer interviewers as being arrogant, selfish, ungrateful, rude, self-serving, socially maladroit, pedophillic sodomites.</p>
<p>I say, take back these threads from the serial malcontents and trouble-makers.</p>
<p>Fireadnrain,
Thanks- the link to that Brown interview thread was posted several pages ago. Mummom said that had nothing to do with the topic of this thread :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Some interviewers on this thread have said they are re-considering interviewing after reading this thread. As a parent, I would like to ask you not to do that. Your contribution is greatly appreciated by 99% of us. We know without your time our kids wouldn’t be able to show their personality as much to the adcom. The interviews have also helped D1 to get a better feel of schools she was applying to. There are so many kids complaining not able to get interviews, and in some way it’s putting some of them at a disadvantage, especially kids living in more rural areas (like Soozievt). Thanks again.</p>
That is incredible. What happened? Was medical attention required? Did the interviewer pay for it? What extremely poor judgment on the part of the interviewer to force your son to have to even meet your pet, particularly such an ill-trained one!</p>
<p>“Lots of universities do this for their diversity applicants.”</p>
<p>The majority of universities don’t do this. A few universities with large endowments fly in likely applicants who are highly sought after. These include some diversity candidates as well as some applicants like NM Scholars. WUSTL was one university that used to do that.</p>
<p>The worst thing I’ve seen posted in any thread on CC about home interviews is that at one, the interviewer’s pet rabbit ran off with the student’s resume. I think that’s in the long college interview thread in College Admissions. </p>
<p>I’ve posted threads at College Admission and the Harvard board asking students their feelings about interviews set in homes, coffee shops, offices, guidance offices or libraries. A couple of students said they prefer home interviews. A couple said they preferred coffee shop ones. One described having a great time in an office interview because of the interesting surroundings.</p>
<p>No one described being terrified or overly concerned about any setting.</p>
<p>Feel free to check out the threads, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t comment there. I deliberately tried to make the threads without exposing my own biases so as not to influence the input that students gave. I really wanted to hear students’ viewpoints on this issue.</p>
My apologies…didn’t get back here until it was too late for an edit. It should have read, “What extremely poor judgment on the part of the interview to force your son to have to even meet their pet, particularly such an ill-trained one!”</p>
<p>NSM, only a “few” universities fly in diversity applicants? Which ones are they?</p>
<p>I know that Washington U in St. Louis does – or at least did – when S was a high school senior in 2006 and they flew him in fall of senior year. I assume they made the offer to him because he was a National Achievement semi finalist. There were students of all races flown in for that weekend. They included National Merit semifinalists.</p>
<p>That same fall, Grinnell sent S a brief application offering to fly him in if his application was approved.</p>
<p>I think he got a similar offer from Swarthmore. Neither Grinnell nor Swarthmore was offering to automatically fly him in. He would have had to fill out some paperwork – presumably so they could tell if he had the stats to be a strong applicant.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of URM applicants being flown in during the spring to Amherst. Presumably those were applicants who were likely to be admitted. I think the fly-ins were before decisions were made.</p>
<p>Such fly-ins are rare as most colleges lack the funds to do these kind of recruitment efforts. Due to the economy, it’s possible that some of the few colleges who were offering such fly-ins no longer do so.</p>
<p>What does it matter? A university is well within its rights to determine that they’ll pay for diversity candidates to fly in, but otherwise, you interview with a local alum. Shrug.</p>
<p>Yes, CTTC. An independent young lady walks into the SB by herself, finds the interviewer, engages in small talk, and leaves afterwards. The alternative is having her mommy accompany her in.</p>
<p>My h is allergic to cats. When we go over to someone’s house, it doesn’t occur to us to inquire if they have one. Granted, he’s not going over for an interview, but still, if he knows he is allergic, he can bring some benedryl along just in case. He can be proactive, and IMO it is his responsibility, not the hosts, to assure his comfort.</p>
<p>I have another friend who is very allergic to many perfumes. She reminds me before we go out, if we are riding in the same car, so that I don’t put any on. She is currently in the middle of job inteviews, having been laid off several months ago. Should she ask everyone who she is scheduled to have a face-to-face interview with not to wear perfume? Where do we draw the line?</p>
<p>And oldfort,
I greatly appreciate your comments above. As of now, I don’t plan to discontinue offering to do interviews, but given the attitude and implicit distrust of several posters here, I find that I will possibly be more cautious and on guard when I schedule these, which may or may not be a good thing. While before reading this thread I typically gave the applicants the benefit of the doubt and chalked up the reschedules or time/location changes (usually only a mild inconvenience) to lack of experience, now I fear I might feel a twinge of annoyance, wondering if they had some undue suspiciousness or entitlement that I had not previously ascribed to them. Thank you posters, for making this thought enter my head.</p>
<p>I would have no issue with a candidate for a job letting my assistant know when they schedule their interview that they are allergic to perfume or peanuts or dogs or whatever. We would do our best to accommodate a medical issue and would try to do so in a way that is not at all awkward for the candidate.</p>
<p>But does a candidate get to decide that nobody ever should wear perfume in our workplace, or that peanuts can never be served to any other candidate because it reflects poorly on our company that we didn’t anticipate that one out of 10,000 candidates might have an issue?</p>
<p>We have people in our company with differing religious practices. I don’t shake hands with a colleague who is a religious Moslem since I know physical contact with a married woman makes him uncomfortable. But I don’t send out memos outlawing handshaking- nor would he expect such a memo. We are happy to accommodate his beliefs but understand that the expectation that all handshaking is now banned in the workplace goes over the line.</p>
<p>So again, nobody should send their kid into a situation which they believe to be dangerous or makes them uncomfortable or gives them pause about personal safety. But suggesting that colleges do away with the practice of home interviews to accommodate the very small percentage of people who find the practice problematic is the entitlement/narcissim part of of the equation that bugs me.</p>
<p>Good points, Blossom. What you describe is an individual taking personal responsibility for their own comfort, not trying to make a broadsweeping demand that their feelings or needs must be used as the gold standard which we must all follow for everyone.</p>
<p>I agree, blossom. On top of that is that when it comes to colleges, you have CHOICES. If you don’t like alum interviews in homes, you don’t have to apply to that college. If you don’t like coed dorms, you don’t have to apply to that college. If you don’t like frat scenes, don’t apply to that college. Nobody is forcing anyone to do something they are uncomfortable doing. When a majority is comfortable with a circumstance, then others who are not can weigh if they wish to do whatever it is or not. With alum interviews by the thousands each year that seem to go on without any criminal or inappropriate behaviors with the alum interviewers, and many who are willing to abide by this practice, it behooves those that don’t wish to get engaged in it to then find universities that don’t engage in alum interviews. Sure, one can request the alum interviewer to change the venue and will likely be accommodated but the bottom line is that the interviewer is offering something and if you don’t like what is offered, simply decline. At my university, the student is told that interviews with alum are offered and so on the application they have to indicate if they wish to have one or not. It is an OPTION.</p>