<p>One of my Ds is an Avid student. I thought that since this program is for preparing and supporting the college bound it might conduct mock interviews to help prep the kids. When I asked the GC he told me that they didn’t do it because to his knowledge none of our students, AVID or otherwise, had ever participated in an admissions interview. </p>
<p>Since I am a CC addict I thought this was surprising. But since I am a CC addict I though maybe I was being influenced by this, my drug of choice and that a lot of students in the non-CC world don’t have interviews and do just fine with admissions. What has been your experience?</p>
<p>None of them ever participated in a college interview? Nobody? How many kids are we talking about? What colleges do they apply to? </p>
<p>As far as I know, interviews are optional, but it seems like kids that are curious about a school would want to do an interview, or at least have a conversation with someone in admissions or with an alum. It seems like the GC could be a little more open minded, and if there is an interest expressed in preparing for an interview, or in having a conversation with someone connected to a school a kid is interested in, he could be open to helping kids prepare?</p>
<p>I’m trying to remember our experience. Son #1 may not have interviewed (this was 8 or nine years ago, memory is fading), though he did do college visits with his dad, and they certainly talked to admissions people on the visits, which may not be the same as an interview, but having a conversation with an admissions person, well, even if it is not technically an interview, probably most kids would benefit from some prep or role playing. He only applied to two schools, was accepted (they weren’t highly selective schools), and decided to go to community college.</p>
<p>Son #2 interviewed with at least three people that I can remember (four years ago). He applied to schools that were more selective than Son #1. </p>
<p>Daughter #1 did several college visits (last year), with interviews at each (or conversations, if you will). Some of these schools were fairly selective, some not, but she wanted to find out as much as she could about them, so talking to people is one way to do it.</p>
<p>It sounds like the GC may not be doing as much as he could to help the kids with the college application process.</p>
<p>The only school to which S applied that did not offer/suggest an interview was the large State U. All of the other schools, most pretty selective and about 6000 students, included the optional interview in their process.</p>
<p>I think it really depends on the size/type of school the kids apply to. My s did 1 on-campus interview (small LAC) and one alumni interview (med. size U) this past yr. Seems like none of the big U’s do interviews, and many of the smaller LACs do local alumni interviews only where they have an alumni presence in that area. I’d imagine with the huge increase in #s of applications, the admissions staff are pretty busy travelling around and reading applications, and have less time to interview. I must admit, my older s had 2 on-campus admissions interviews (both with admissions staff) and only applied to 1 of the schools. Younger s’s on campus inteview this past yr was with a college sr, on behalf of the admissions staff. DS ended up not applying to that school. So, in all fairness, it is a lot of time for the admissions staff, and doesn’t always have the payoff they want. That said, I still think it is a good opportunity to do when available.</p>
<p>Between the two of them, my S’s applied to 5 large state universities…no mention of an interview was made at any. They were each accepted to all their respective choices.</p>
<p>S1 did have an interview for a major outside scholarship but the sch. had nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>Historymom, I’m surprised too. Just as jym and others have said, some schools do and some schools don’t - but for the GC to claim that no student has had one is pretty fishy-sounding. </p>
<p>D (college sophomore now) was very fortunate in getting into her first choice school ED, but even so, she had interviews or one-on-one chats at two other schools at least. S1 is a junior in h.s. and already has two interviews lined up. </p>
<p>As for preparation: D went to the local public school and was lucky to catch a spare three minutes here and there with her overburdened (though wonderful) GC, but as she did a lot of public speaking/science competition stuff that included interview situations, she didn’t seem to need too much practice. S1’s guidance office does lots of mock interviews, and we’re very grateful, since he hasn’t done much if any of that kind of thing.</p>
<p>My older S applied to 8 schools and had interviews for 3 of the 5 non-UC schools he applied to.</p>
<p>My younger S applied to 6 schools, had one optional admission interview and one required scholarship interview. We asked his GC to do a mock interview with him before the latter, and the GC did do one with him.</p>
<p>It really does depend on the particular schools and their policies.</p>
<p>My son applied to 9 schools and had a grand total of 1 interview (for Brown). None of the schools he applied to required interviews, and only 3 of them even offered interviews if you wanted to schedule them. </p>
<p>He already has 5 acceptances – three state universities (2 in-state, 1 OOS) plus 2 private schools, including his top choice, Boston College. BC does not offer interviews.</p>
<p>My son did two optional interviews at pretty selective schools. Didn’t apply to either, lol, as a freshman but is now at one of them, having transferred. He had merit awards to more than one school with no interview involved.</p>
<p>I’d guess that interviews (outside the rarefied cc world) play a fairly small role in the admissions process overall. Still, at my son’s hs, they had a session (more than one? I don’t remember) preparing kids re interview skills. It was conducted by a young HYPS admissions rep (or former), covered things like what to wear, what to expect, how to handle particular questions, how to be prepared with questions of your own.</p>
<p>I think this is valuable training for hs seniors, whether or not they need to interview for college, as these types of interview skills will be valuable in the career arena and others. Silly of the GC to dismiss it, I think.</p>
<p>GC probably just does not know about the interviews, as that process takes place apart from the HS. Unfortunate, though, that the GC made such a definitive statement.</p>
<p>You don’t need the GC to do it. We did a practice interview at home. There are a number of books with suggestions for questions to practice with. A friend of mine even set up a video camera so her son could see for himself the impression he created. We didn’t go that length, but I think it was helpful to have a dry run before he actually went in for his interviews.</p>
<p>You can probably do a better job anyway, because you care more about his success, and you know him better, than any GC ever could.</p>
<p>S had inteviews at several colleges, including one that he applied to. That interview was for a merit scholarship that he got.</p>
<p>I didn’t do any mock interviews with him because he hates doing mock interviews. I think it makes him nervous. I don’t think I’ve ever done mock interviews with him for that reason.</p>
<p>Despite being shy, however, he seems to have always done fine in interviews. He’s a nice, honest kid, and I think that his niceness shines through in interviews. </p>
<p>I actually am wary of doing mock interviews with kids because if you rehearse them too much, they can sound canned in interviews.</p>
<p>CA here and I’m guessing the OP is from CA too. No interviews for my current college kid. A couple of the schools did phone “informational” interviews if the student wanted to. I am currently doing visits with kid number two and most of the schools we are looking at do not offer interviews.
The GC may feel that most of the schools the AVID kids are going to apply to won’t offer interviews.</p>
<p>What is AVID? I saw it listed as a program at one of the high school my 8th grader is considering but the school website didn’t give an explanation.
My 2 kids applied to a total of 18 schools. Some of those were Cal States and Uc’s which don’t interview. One had 2 schools that required interviews the other had just 1.
At my Ca public I haven’t heard of the counselors doing mock interviews. Most kids do apply mainly to publics. The 12th grade econ course does require a mock job interview that the school sets up. Which could help with college interviews but might come to late in the school year to help.
Also I don’t know about your high school but over the last several years the counselors at my kids school have gotten younger and younger. I don’t think they have much experience in the whole college application process. Also from the couple I spoke with they are all products of the UC and Cal State systems themselves.</p>
<p>My son’s public hs GC did a “real” interview with each of his students applying to college, so he’d know more about him or her when writing his rec. I read books about admissions and asked my son some of the questions I thought he might be asked. I also gave a few suggestions for how to deal with it if he got a question out of left field. And I suggested he go to each school’s web site before his interview and come up with a question or two.</p>
<p>As he is not a person who spends a lot of time talking about himself (though he loves to talk about ideas), I thought it might be hard for him to describe himself to the interviewer without thinking a little about it beforehand. After the first few (he did maybe 10), he was really confident. And that is a good thing in itself–to be confident of one’s skills as an interviewee. I think answering and asking questions in interviews probably helped him focus in on what he was and wasn’t looking for in a school.</p>
<p>mstee…our small rural public hs send students mostly to the state schools within a 4 hour radius of home. That may be why there aren’t many interviews but every year we send one or two top kids to top schools. Now I’m thinking maybe that these kids are taking care of interview scheduling on their own or with the parent’s help and since the GC isn’t ivolved he is not aware that interviews are happening. Therefore in his mind it “never” happens </p>
<p>ebeeeee I am sure you are right too he is focused on CSU admissions for most of the AVID kids and you’re right they won’t need interviews. But there are Avid kids…and my D is one of them who would like to keep their options open. </p>
<p>MOM60 AVID is a support class that helps give bright kids who are not performing up to expectations, the tools they need to get the grades they need to get into a 4 year college. It is supposed to target students who would be the first in their families to go to college. It exposes them to different types of campuses and makes sure that they complete a-g requirements. </p>
<p>My D was highly distractable and needed help with organization. AVID has really helped her in course selection and in getting good grades throughout highschool.</p>
and that a lot of students in the non-CC world don’t have interviews and do just fine with admissions. What has been your experience?</p>