<p>the situation being that my interviewer is coming to my house to conduct the interview. i honestly have no idea how common or uncommon this is, but he suggested/seemed to prefer this, and i just went with the flow. my two concerns/questions:</p>
<p>-my parents and brother will probably all be in the house at the time. this seems strange to me because it’s typically terrible form to interview anywhere near your parents, and could be distracting. any advice?</p>
<p>-what do i wear? normal advice seems to be to dress for the location, but it feels like it would be a bit rude to interview barefoot in a t-shirt and jeans. on the other hand, it would also feel weird to dress up to stay in my house. tips or opinions?</p>
<p>Is there a room where you can close the door – like a den, a basement family room? If not, ask your parents and brother to leave you alone. </p>
<p>Wear casual but clean clothes. Dark jeans, khaki pants, cords; sweater, button-down or polo shirt (are you male or female?). Definitely wear socks; shoes would probably be a good idea (although if you live where there is snow on the ground and your interviewer will have to remove his/her boots, then it’s OK to be shoeless – but not sockless).</p>
<p>A long time ago, for one year, I did interviews in students’ houses. It was before Starbucks, and when my living situation was such that there was no place to hold an interview in my apartment. Also, many years ago, a friend of mine used to like to interview in applicants’ houses – she thought it put the students at ease. </p>
<p>I interview for a peer school. They specifically ask we not interview in students’ homes because it puts pressure on them way beyond what’s necessary – imagine a lower income family or a home where a person receives medical attention.</p>
<p>Plus, I’m there to evaluate the student’s fitness to be a member of my college community – not to form subconscious opinions because the home is or isn’t nicely decorated/cleaned/etc…</p>
<p>alephO: Why sockless? Well, I suppose if it were summer, or if you live in California or Florida where it’s 70 degrees, it’s OK. But it just seems a little too casual to me, a little too underdressed. </p>
<p>T26E4: While I didn’t look at our manual to confirm, I’m pretty sure Brown discourages interviews in students’ homes. Brown definitely discourages interviews in the interviewers’ home. But some alums don’t read the manual, don’t pay attention to guidelines, or think rules don’t apply to them. Unless the student reports the alum, no one will ever be able to do anything about it.</p>
<p>for the record, the interview actually went quite well. it was comfortable, informal, stress-free, and he was a really nice guy with lots of interesting things to say about brown and providence (and how it’s changed over the years). and i did wear socks. so in retrospect i think interviewing at my house turned out fine. on the other hand i can see why schools would discourage that; it really depends who it is and what your house or family situation is like.</p>
<p>I’ve done these interviews & I would not do them in the students’ homes and Brown says don’t do it in yours (though years ago I did). Doing them in the interviewer’s home opens them to all kinds of liability issues.</p>
<p>Doing them at the students’ home raises issues of whether other family members would be comfortable and so on. Barking dogs, noisy siblings, phone calls, all kinds of things can distract the student when they don’t need it. And if no one else is home, there is the liability thing again.</p>
<p>There are Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, public libraries have little conference rooms, etc. I’d be heading there.</p>