Do only M&T Alumni interview M&T Applicants?

amanivy
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 01:34:59 +0000

M & T applicants are assigned to M&T graduates by the M&T program at Penn. Nursing applicants are assigned a interviewer by the School of Nursing. All other applicants are assigned by the area Chair(s) who are alums… Some Chairs try to match an applicant by school/major while others match by interviewer’s interest. For example: I was a Lit major in the College at Penn but I was a researcher in CS/AI at MIT and Harvard. So who should I interview? I prefer SEAS as CS/AI is my field.

The group that oversees interviews suggests the interview should be anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. No matter how bad the interview is, I will give the applicant 1 hour so as not to telegraph that they will get a so so to bad report. But that is me. The only time I cut the interview short is with those group of kids that come to the US in their sr. year of high school and cannot speak English. It is not productive to interview to interview someone with the language skills of a three year old.

Penn has also suggested that I cut the interview short if the applicant is extremely rude and disrespectful…
I have heard of 20 minute interviews and I am not sure what to make of them.

I personally could not form a judgment (unless very negative) in 20m minutes but that is me. Also, the interview can turn as the applicant gets more relaxed so 1 hour works best for me.