<p>I thought the student was trying here too. I would have preferred that the student be a bit more formal in the emails, but other than that I thought it was OK.</p>
<p>The exchange reminds me of a recent experience my son had with an alumni interviewer. Six weeks ago my son got an email from an alumni interviewer one morning. Later that night (10 p.m. or so) my son read the email, which said essentially that I’m really sorry to spring this on you but I have to interview you in the next 72 hours. Why this was the case wasn’t clear to us - my son was not applying ED to this school and the school does routinely interview well into the winter/spring months. While my son was waiting to hear back on an ED application elsewhere, he was very interested in this school. He wrote back a polite email explaining that he wasn’t available over the next 72 hours due to 2 basketball games and a band concert, and asking if it would be possible to meet on any of evening x, y or z instead. He left his cell phone number to call. The interviewer never responded. My son got into his ED school so there was never a need to follow up - I think I would have encouraged him to follow up with the local alumni association for another interviewer if he was still in the RD pool.</p>
<p>BTW, the school that I interview for is Harvard, and I found the applicant’s responses to be appropriate. I have chaired my regional committee of alums who volunteer as interviewers, and would have avoided using an interviewer who responded to a student as did the OP.</p>
<p>In checking the OP’s other posts, I found one in which she complained that none of the 8 students whom she had interviewed had sent her a thank-you. As a result, the OP said she didn’t write Brown a favorable report on them.</p>
<p>I think that the OP’s response was inappropriate. I don’t see how not sending a thank-you reflects on any thing that should included in an interview report. </p>
<p>Now, if the student had done something truly egregious (Example: I interviewed one student who literally had snot running down his face during the interview. He never did anything to remove it. I know that some cultures regard nose blowing as very rude, and the student was from one of those cultures, but had been in the U.S. for at least 5 years, so should have known by then basic American courtesies.), I can see including it in the report if part of the assessment is to say what the student would offer to their peers, and whether they would be a potentially good roommate.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, few of the students whom I interview send me thank-yous. I agree that they should send thank-yous as a matter of courtesy, but my reports to the college don’t reflect whether or not they sent a note (which more than likely I’ll receive after sending my report anyway).</p>
<p>Interesting, a much higher proportion are admitted of those sending thank-yous than those who don’t. I think that’s because the students who have the appreciation to take their time to send a thank-you probably in general treat people well, and take the time to do well their activities. These characteristics get reflected in their essays and recommendations.</p>
<p>I think the student should have addressed the interviewer as Mr or Mrs X, but other than that, I don’t see anything wrong with the responses. It sounds like he/she was making a sincere effort to make the interview work. I feel sorry for the student if he/she does interview with the OP, because it sounds like it will be hard to make a good impression. It seems like kids have such widely differing interview experiences that I sometimes wonder if schools should have them at all, especially since they are rarely offered to all applicants. For example, with Harvard having 27,000 applicants this year, they are scrambling for interviewers. In our area they are asking alums of Harvard graduate/professional schools to interview.
Northstarmom, in your experience, what would happen in a situation like this if the alum interviewer could not make the interview happen or never made contact/had a response from the student? Would the interviewer give a negative report to the school?</p>
<p>Seems to me that none of this has to be an issue if the actual date-setting is made by phone. Except that my son rec’d two phone calls this week from unknown numbers, one Monday, one Tuesday, which he did not accept because he was in voice lesson one day and choir rehearsal next day. Person(s) did not leave message. Third day he rec’d an email from an interviewer and the email listed those two phone numbers from earlier in the week. Thankfully he was persistent! His email and email from another interviewer also quite brusque and no salutations/closings except for names (males; is there a diff bet sexes regarding email ettiquette, I wonder?) But what a personable and interesting/ed guy the first interviewer was, and S is hoping #2 is the same.</p>
<p>After the introductory emails, the dates were set by phone–this seems to work better than email for some. But calling before emailing can be tricky, as S discovered.</p>
<p>On the one hand, kids should be grateful that alumni are so involved as to do interviews and all they entail before and after; on the other hand, interviewers realize that these may be the first interviews kids have had.</p>
<p>Re: thanks. First interviewer emailed S after email as followup and said he enjoyed it, etc., so S replied. He will contact interviewer in April once decisions are in (BIG reach for S, both schools), as suggested by several CC interviewers.</p>
<p>Northstarmom - did you write “snot running down his face” in the writeup?-lol</p>
<p>I had a job interview like that - could not find a tissue; incredible cold, shouldn’t have showed up in the first place; horrible thing for me to do to the poor human resource person. I was so not hired!</p>
<p>A lot of my interviewees write thank you notes which I love to get but I usually send the report in the same day - I agree that kids who write thank you notes are probably more gracious in their daily life than kids who don’t.</p>
<p>Harvard makes every effort to interview students who live in the U.S. Harvard sends all U.S. applicants a date by which they should expect to hear from interviewers. The students are asked to contact Harvard if by that date, they haven’t heard from an interviewer. Harvard then makes every effort to find an interviewer for them.</p>
<p>If it’s not possible to do that, the lack of an interview won’t count against the student. An interview done by an interviewer whom the admissions office learns was inappropriate also won’t count against the student.</p>
<p>If a student notifies Harvard that there were problems with an interviewer, and Harvard agrees about those problems, then Harvard will make every effort to have the student get a second interview. Harvard also lets the chair of the regional interviewing committee know so the problematic interviewer can be told what to do or not used in the future.</p>
<p>(Harvard also arranges second interviews for students for other reasons. The admissions office has never explained to me those reasons, but I’m guessing they may occur when an interview report is very different than what the student appears to be on their application, and Harvard is or could be seriously considering that student).</p>
<p>As for my situation with the student with snot running down his face, yes, this was included in my report. That was such an egregious manners breach that I thought it was important.</p>
<p>Wow; This made me look at my D’s email to her interviewer, and I noticed the interviwer addressed her as Ms, but my D adressed him by his first name. The name was ambiguous and I thought it was a she; turns out it was a he. Anyway D had missed the application deadline for interviews and I was relieved because I knew she was not the kind of kid to “know”, research, or accept much direction on how to best finesse this interaction. I did offer some suggestions and read the email before she sent it, but was accutely aware that she was a long way from “uising” this the way I thought some CC kids would ( she would NEVER visited this forum). I dreaded the likeley difficulties like driving a long way to the nearest city, D’s current priorities taking a back seat to future priorities for a reach school, and balancing being “herself” with being the imagined best fit candidate. Anyway, it could have gone better but what the interviewer saw was what he was going to get. I assume the same applies for this candidate, and isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?</p>
<p>As regards the willingness of the applicant to drop everything else to make an interview at a time that is convenient for the interviewer: I think it is a bit hypocritical for elite colleges to make it clear to the world that out-of-class activities are crucial for admission, then expect athletes (and others) to miss required activities.</p>
<p>My son had some activity after school every single day of his senior year, either his job or one of the several activities he took very seriously. No interviewer (and these were elite schools, incl. MIT, Penn and Wash U) expected him to renege on an after school obligation. They all met with him in the evening or on the weekend.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, do you by any chance know the date by which someone should contact Harvard if they haven’t heard from an interviewer? I hadn’t heard of this. I applied to Harvard and haven’t heard from an interviewer yet, and though obviously there is still a lot of time left, I would love to know the date just in case.</p>
<p>Politeness when dealing w/ adults has always been something my parents stressed. Though I’m 18, I still address family friends Dr./Mr./Mrs. and have no problem with it. One of my surprisingly big culture shocks in the past few years has been how salutations, greetings, signatures, etc are not required in e-mail correspondence. A few summers ago, I was researching at a lab at a local state university, and the professor who was mentoring me, as well as the undergraduates/grads working in the lab, always gave me ribbing for habitually saying Dr. – or Prof – instead of calling her by her first name. </p>
<p>However, while I agree that using proper “netiquette” won’t hurt, an applicant ought not to be penalized for using a more casual tone online. The line between e-mail, facebook/myspace, blogs, forums, and electronic communication in general has been blurred to the point where the student in OP’s email can’t be faulted. </p>
<p>I would much rather have someone be offended because I called a 25-something “Mister” as opposed to he being offended because I called him by his first name. Similarly, I’d rather offend an interviewer by paying for a meal than by not paying. </p>
<p>I will have to restrain the urge to judge the OP based on her comments; I’ll simply offer my condolences to her unlucky interviewees.</p>
<p>“Northstarmom, do you by any chance know the date by which someone should contact Harvard if they haven’t heard from an interviewer? I hadn’t heard of this. I applied to Harvard and haven’t heard from an interviewer yet, and though obviously there is still a lot of time left, I would love to know the date just in case.”</p>
<p>I think it’s sometime in mid Feb., perhaps around the 20th. I know I’ve interviewed students as late as the first or second week of March.</p>
<p>Now is still very early in the process. In most places, there are many applicants, and relatively few interviewers, so it takes a while for everyone t get an interview.</p>
<p>“As regards the willingness of the applicant to drop everything else to make an interview at a time that is convenient for the interviewer: I think it is a bit hypocritical for elite colleges to make it clear to the world that out-of-class activities are crucial for admission, then expect athletes (and others) to miss required activities.”</p>
<p>As someone who has interviewed for an elite college, and has chaired a regional committee of alumni interviewers, I think that most alumni interviewers understand that applicants are very busy (as are most alum interviewers), and the interviewers do their best to work out a mutually agreeable time. This is going to be extremely difficult and stressful, however, for the students who do things like apply to all of the top 20 colleges (which may be why there are some indications that students with extremely long lists of reach schools don’t get as many admissions as do students who hone their lists, so have the energy to do excellent, focused applications and interviews.</p>
<p>In a few weeks, people will probably see what I mean when on CC some students start posting complaints about being called for yet another college interview. The students will act like they are doing the alum volunteer a favor by showing up.</p>
<p>Wow, at first I thought these emails were from me. I was a lot more polite, but I have had to turn down many interview times down already, because of track. I feel really badly, but it is crunch time for track and I am very dedicated to sports. </p>
<p>Do you think my interviewer will be mad? I sent her an email today saying anytime after X would be good, besides this coming Saturday.</p>
<p>Here’s the email I sent to my alumni interviewer. I fear that I may not have been polite enough. Can someone allay my fears?</p>
<p>"Dear The Honourable Dr. XXXX:</p>
<p>My heart fluttered when I received your email, which invited me to have the privilege of being interviewed by the most wonderful person in the world – you. Now, as I type this email, my hands shake in anticipation of finally beholding your flawless visage and figure in person.</p>
<p>When shall we meet? The choice is entirely up to you. I have 356198 extracurricular activities scheduled for the following week, but I would be happy to accomodate your every whim – and if need be, skip my state debate championship so that we may speak. If you happen to be nocturnal, I would be eager to change my sleeping patterns so that I will be alert during your active hours. </p>
<p>Where shall we meet? I would be overjoyed to have the interview at any place you request. If it be your summer home in Malaysia, I am prepared to purchase the plane tickets tonight. At the heart of a nuclear reactor? Please let me know where I can purchase a radiation suit – thank you!</p>
<p>Finally, please let me know if there is anything – ANYTHING – I can do for you that would help you accomodate what is surely a busy schedule full of distinguished, world hunger-solvingactivities. If you feel stressed at any point, know that, as a licensed masseuse, I would be eager to arrange a full body massage at no charge. </p>
<p>Thank you so much! I very much look forward to kowtowing to you when we meet. May you have a day full of divine luck and inspiration! Bless you! </p>
<p>With inexpressible gratitude,
Your humble applicant"</p>
<p>OMG OMG! Do you think I covered all my bases???</p>
<p>I think the OP is reading way too much into this - I am a student myself and I feel like your potential applicant was fairly reasonable in their responses.</p>
<p>I can’t but help this thread reflects a little resentment about the process and it’s been taken out on the the OP. I think the OP was trying to help.</p>
<p>Like she said…
“With all the “What do I wear? What do I say?” threads, I think this is useful information. I’m just saying—before you even get dressed or think of what to say—why not use any and all of your opportunities wisely?”</p>
<p>I bet if the advice came from someone other than an interviewer it would have been eaten up with a spoon…</p>
<p>Alright so maybe using the words "prestigious"and “appalling” and “mistakes” didn’t help, but still…</p>
<p>Sorry, Shrinkrap, I don’t agree with you on this one. The interviewer’s original e-mail was completely inconsistent with her later messages to the student. Instead of apologizing for mis-stating the conditions of the interview (when and where) she got irritated with him.</p>
<p>If the OP had really wanted to pass on helpful hints, it would have been better to simply advise students to remember to use respectful forms of address and be properly thankful to the interviewer for taking the time to meet with prospective students.</p>
<p>I agree the student’s manners were not up to snuff, but frankly neither were the interviewer’s. She blamed him for taking her at her word about the arrangements.</p>
<p>Also, I’m wondering if the interviewer addressed the student as Mr. X. When I correspond with high school students, I use Mr. and Ms. I think it helps send a message.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why everyone in this thread is putting so much stress on things that are, essentially, arbitrary social constructs followed irrationally for the sake of tradition and conformity. It seems highly illogical to me to expect people to conform to social conventions just because they exist. My initial impression is that most of you are reading far too much into the student’s actions; if the student acted the way you want–and people often do, mind you–I would see it as having an artificial personality.</p>