S found all of the college interviews to be a waste of time and unhelpful, if not totally off-putting. Several interviewers seemed to have the primary goal of aggressively determining whether or not their school was S’s first choice, which was stressful and awkward. One guy had the interview in his home, had his son listen in, and then proceeded to chastise his son about not being more like my S. It was terrible. In general, S felt the interviews were all antagonistic in nature, meaning looking to trap him or catch him in an error. I remember him reporting that his Yale one with a senior Yalie was that way.
D avoided the mess by being an athletic recruit, and mostly meeting with coaches. She only had one interview with Harvard admissions, and it was great.
Now for D2 I am looking for ways to help her avoid having to do any interviews because she won’t be good at them and would be easily rattled if they took on a “gotcha” sort of vibe.
I hope you’re right about that, lookingforward. My mom tells me that history faculty members are not being replaced as they retire because the department is not a priority.
My own daughter’s interviews have gone well so far as I know. Two were on campus, at Yale and Oberlin. One was at a private school near where we live. Most of the rest were in coffee shops. The Yale interviewer was a current undergrad. Most of the others have been alums in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
since we’re telling stories of interviews, my S2 is very funny/charming with the opposite sex and age difference doesn’t seem to matter. At one my sons longshot schools, my wife and I were sitting in admissions while my son interviewed with a young woman and every minute or two we heard the woman laughing. The woman walked him back to us, still laughing, and I had the distinct impression that she wanted a date. He was admitted.
My S isn’t bothered by age difference at all. His favorite interview, by far, was with an older guy whose major was in a field related to what S wants to do. This gentleman was able to relate how his alma mater had set him up for a happy and successful life on a path that S can see himself following. They had a great discussion and several follow ups.
The least successful from my son’s POV have been the on-site interviews that were conducted by students. None have been outright bad but none really clicked either.
It’s funny kids react so differently to these things.
The OP story is why I now avoid coffee shops for interviews. I don’t want strangers listening in on interviews. I’ve had that happen – the applicant left and the person at the table next to me started commenting about the interview. Yuck.
Sure it would be wonderful if all interviewers were recent graduates. For schools who do alumni interviews – well, at least for the one school I’m most familiar with – that is simply not possible. There are too many applicants to be that fussy about who does interviews.
I’ve interviewed 10 students this year. Most of them didn’t ask me a single question about what life is like on campus now, even though I told them I’d love all sorts of questions, from what the dorms are like to social life, etc. Based on my applicants this year and what they were interested in hearing from me, my age was irrelevant.
On the Stanford vibe, we know a humanities/social science professor who gave a lecture at Stanford and said that the campus had an extraordinary entrepreneurial vibe, that the intensity was tangible, and that there did not seem to be much room for “traditional” academia.
@fireandrain , I agree with you, I think a coffee shop is a terrible place for an interview. otoh, I had some misgivings about my son’s harvard interview at an alumni’s home, a somewhat deserted looking house at the end of a block in our town.
on your other point, I don’t know how long ago you graduated, but maybe you weren’t asked about current life on campus because the kids could tell you graduated a while ago?
Yet when D was applying to Stanford, a friendly CCer posted a super article written by a Princeton prof about how innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary the humanities are at Stanford and felt his institution should model Stanford’s approach. I wish I could find it again. Also when she was applying, Stanford ranked #1 on a list of top schools for humanities. It’s still quite high here: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/faculty-rankings/arts-and-humanities/2014#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=
It’s excellent in classics and art history, for example.
@delurk1, my husband is a STEM guy who has two degrees from Stanford, and even he is pretty dismayed about what is happening there. I’m sure there are plenty of great humanities departments, but they are not the focus of their current marketing and PR efforts. A lot of this has to do with the current leadership and with the silicon valley dollars pouring in to fund new buildings, etc.
In any case, Stanford’s interview program is new, so they probably just have to take whatever alums they can get to do the interviews in various parts of the county. If those alums are primarily STEM people, that’s naturally going to be their focus.
For my D, I think interviewing with recent grads not far off in age helped put her at ease more quickly. She is in boarding school so she had previous experience interviewing. The BS interviewers were all older. She has great rapport with lots of older people such as teachers, her advisor, and her dorm parents, yet the interviewer being similar in age and stage of life just broke the ice nicely.
Definitely sounds like some applicants had great experiences with older interviewers (and some not so great) and others had bad ones with college seniors (and some great). All over the place.
Defending the lowly interviewers (remember, they are volunteers and are balancing their interviewing with their jobs and all the other stuff in life)- coffee shops are picked because they are generally bustling places so kids and parents don’t have to worry about being abducted. The lack of privacy is important- however suboptimal, because there have been instances of kids claiming to have been groped or touched inappropriately by their interviewer. Finding a location on public transportation or near free parking or just close to the local HS to eliminate the need for a kid to have a car, borrow a car, get a parent to drive, or take a pricey taxi are all considerations.
Your kid is meeting with a volunteer, not being courted by the Nobel Prize committee. If there is ambient noise or other distractions, that’s the price you pay for having a location which generally has a rest room, has heat, and where your kid doesn’t need to worry about safety.
you can’t have it all. I used to interview at a public library… until they turned the lounge into a Starbucks, and it’s even noisier than the actual Starbucks down the block. But it would be presumptuous of me to ask a kid to take a taxi or spend money to park or whatnot, vs. interviewing at a clean coffee shop on the bus line.
And as one of those lowly alum volunteers referenced in #33 who has done about 50 interviews over the past 18 years, I’m surprised that the sentiment runs so strongly here in favor of recent grads to pitch their alma maters in off campus interviews. Why not specify that only good looking svelte alums under 28 who majored in marketing need apply? I guess it doesn’t matter that I can write a great persuasive report for the applicant file if I can’t say how many flavors of ice cream the dining hall now serves. Again, this isn’t a college fair at the coffee shop or a yield event. It is an off campus interview.
There are so many ways for an applicant to get an idea of the current campus culture; it never occurred to me that the alumni interview could/should be one of them. I think of it as a way for the college to learn more about the student’s personal qualities, and conversely for the student to show those to the college. And while a recent grad might be easier for a candidate to relate to, an older alum, not only parent or grandparent age but an actual parent or grandparent, has the benefit of additional life experience and perspective in understanding the candidate and presenting him or her effectively to the admissions committee.
Okay, so perhaps point taken that a more recent grad could possibly offer more current information about the college. But the argument that the students need to speak to people their own age in order to feel comfortable is problematic imo. They need to be able to relate to older people. They will have to communicate with professors, and someday, with coworkers, bosses, and clients, all of whom may be significantly older than themselves. No time like the present to start practicing.
@blossom , ambient noise is not the problem, it’s lack of privacy. I do think a library is a better place to meet if there’s a quiet meeting room or the library has a place for a quiet conversation.
The library was perfect- until the “quiet meeting room” became a coffee bar. And it’s considered rude to carry on a conversation in the stacks, and the children’s library is filled with singing and shouting (I don’t mind- but not conducive to a meeting).
My point was not to extol the advantages of meeting places which may or may not exist in every community- my point was to demonstrate that interviewers are volunteers; that there are many trade-offs involved in interviewing, and that as long as your kids safety has not been compromised, it’s hard to complain that the volunteer didn’t somehow choose a place which is both private AND public.
There is a nice gazebo type area in a public park near my office, close to public transportation. But do you want your kid meeting outside in February… on the off chance that it will be a somewhat mild winter day? It poured buckets today in my area… I’m glad I didn’t suggest an outdoor venue. But that means that the coffee shops are even more crowded in bad weather.
Where exactly is the volunteer supposed to suggest a meeting? In the kitchen department of the local Home Depot???