<p>S had an alum interview set up today but the interviewer called our home this morning (after school had begun) saying a meeting had come up and S would need to reschedule. S came home and wanted to get the interviewer’s email address to help with rescheduling (S can’t call back now because the interview is in the meeting) so he Googled the work number from the caller ID to see if he could get an email address that way.</p>
<p>This interviewer is an alum of a religiously affiliated college and S has attended schools of this same religion (ours) his whole life. But from looking for the email address he now knows the interviewer has a significant position working for the public school system. We live in an area where it is somewhat politically incorrect to put your children in private schools instead of the well-regarded public schools. S is quite aware of this issue.</p>
<p>Now we’re concerned this interviewer may be a problem for S’s application.</p>
<p>Should S ask the college for another interviewer? He would be a very strong applicant for this school and he is very interested in attending it, but he is uncomfortable interviewing with somebody who is likely to hold our choice of high school against him and may not be sympathetic to S’s preference for a values-based college education, part of the reason he is interested in this college.</p>
<p>I think there would only be a problem if you think that the interviewer would be biased because of their current job.
I think most adults ( OK some), are able to see that life is not black and white & whether or not you attend a private funded school- or one that is public, is just a small part of the bigger picture regarding educational background- preparedness for college.</p>
<p>I used to do Alumni interviews for BC and I just tried to do the best job that I could to represent the school to the applicant and the applicant to the school. For the most part, I just pointed out the positive aspects that I saw in the person. Note that this was back in the 1990s when BC was easier to get into.</p>
<p>We’ve always homeschooled our children and have had to file notification and evaluation reports with the local school districts. I’ve had several meetings with assistant superintendents over the years and have always been treated professionally and courteously and would only expect this from those in these positions.</p>
<p>I have heard from others that have had different experiences with school officials though.</p>
<p>That said, if it’s clear that this interviewer is clearly biased, then perhaps some other solution such as an on-campus interview could be arranged. Wanting to see the campus would make a good reason for canceling a local interview if the campus is not too far away.</p>
<p>If your son attended the private school for religious as opposed to purely academic reasons, then he could use that as an answer for any hostile questions. Doing alumni interviews is really a privilege and I think that anyone abusing that privilege wouldn’t keep the privileges for very long. If it were my son, I’d advise him to go and be himself.</p>
<p>Okay, I just Googled and find that the interviewer had been a principal at the high school S would be attending if he weren’t in the religious private school. I’m even more concerned S should ask for a different interviewer but don’t even know how he should go about this.</p>
<p>I would be shocked if this really is a problem. Interviewers generally have so little impact on any admissions decisions that it’s a tempest in a teapot.</p>
<p>I was an aluma interviewer for Brown and the University wasn’t interested in my views on education, educational policy, or school choice. The University was interested in my candid assessment of the kid seated in front of me- was she robotic, flat, unable to maintain a conversation? Was he prepared- had he gone through the website so I didn’t have to answer, “yes Brown has an Econ department” for the 30th time that season? Did the kid show evidence of intellectual curiosity? Reads books and newspapers even when not assigned? Aware of what’s going on in the world? The kind of kid that a professor would love to teach?</p>
<p>How your choice of HS for your son has any bearing on a college interview I can’t fathom. I interviewed kids from prep schools with a party reputation; public schools that were reputed to be “zoos”; suburban, lily-white schools that looked like country clubs. Not my job to engage in social engineering- it was my job to honestly assess whether the kid would be an asset to Brown based on what he or she had taken from and given back to whatever HS he or she attended.</p>
<p>I hope that reassures you. I cannot imagine a more difficult conversation than trying to change the interviewer based on your own paranoia.</p>
<p>I have to agree with the above posts. My best friend’s dad was a public school principal and then a public school superintendant. Yet, he sent HIS kids to Catholic schools. (By the way… there once was a survey done amongst public school teachers/admins and a high percentage of them send their own kids to private schools.) </p>
<p>If this guy has “been around,” then he knows that parents decide on religious schools for their own personal reasons. He would also know that parents are the ones who decide to send their kids to private schools and won’t hold anything like this against the child.</p>
<p>BTW… I’ve never heard of an area in the country where it is “politically incorrect” to send your kid to a religious school? Where is such a place???</p>
<p>wisedad, I agree with the other posters that you are probably overreacting. Have your son go ahead with the interview. Requesting another interviewer – without even knowing if there is an issue here – will just draw unwanted attention to your son’s application, making him look paranoid (and/or biased against public schools!) Just let it go; alumni interviews are not that big a deal.</p>
<p>I presumed that fellow parents on this board would give me credit for understanding our local context well enough to know when something really could be a problem for S’s application, hence this thread. S is sophisticated enough to have recognized immediately that this interviewer could be a problem for his application. </p>
<p>And he should not have to defend his parents’ choices for his schooling to an interviewer. God knows his parents get asked about it enough. There is very little acceptance of folks who choose alternative schooling and plenty of resentment, especially from people employed by our public school system.</p>
<p>We only have two kinds of schools in our area – a tiny handful of private or religious ones (S attends the largest one) and loads of good to great public schools. Over 90% of the children in this county and this state attend a public school, for any grade.</p>
<p>Certainly if S finds the interviewer hostile he will contact the college. But would it be better for him to preemptively ask for another interviewer?</p>
<p>wisedad, I don’t think you are paying attention to what people have been writing. So far, no one has disagreed. Let me put it plainly: It would not be better for him to preemptively ask for another interviewer. It would be a mistake for him to preemptively ask for another interviewer. Maybe if you lied about the reasons it wouldn’t be harmful, but if he were honest, it would be an insult to the college and the interviewer, and quite likely to offend anyone who found out about it.</p>
<p>And he should not have to defend his parents’ choices for his schooling to an interviewer. God knows his parents get asked about it enough. There is very little acceptance of folks who choose alternative schooling and plenty of resentment, especially from people employed by our public school system.</p>
<p>Why do you think he would have to defend it?
If your kids attend a parochial school, I’m curious as to context of your knowledge of the public system- I wonder if preconceptions are getting in the way.</p>
<p>This is an alumna interviewer. They attended the private college he is applying to.
Alums don’t generally have pull toward acceptance or not, but are a good resource for asking questions of what it is like to be a student there. How long it has been since they graduated is a factor of course. Since this guy is a principal, I assume that he has been out of college long enough to have gone to grad school and worked a while. Still, being an interviewer means that he has a positive connection with the college and is interested in sharing info.</p>
<p>We have long been involved in Dem political campaigns, both state and local. I have more than once had to defend good Dem candidates in our state who chose non-public schooling in meetings with union leaders. In 2006 one had children at S’s school. Perhaps the memory of that particular meeting is coloring my thinking.</p>
<p>But S is the one who first thought this might be a difficulty and I give him credit for good political instincts.</p>
<p>wisedad, this alum is an alum of a religiously affiliated college of the same religion that is affiliated with your son’s current high school, yes? I have to tell you that even if he is the principal of a rival public high school, I CANNOT IMAGINE that the college would use him as an alum interviewer if they felt there was a conflict of interest.</p>
<p>I have to tell you that I went to Catholic schools for elementary and high school, and many students I went to high school with applied to Catholic colleges and universities, including Notre Dame, BC, Georgetown, Loyola NO, Loyola Chicago, etc. We knew of educators who were also Catholic who could not afford to raise their families teaching in the Catholic school system, who were public school educators and administrators. I just can’t imagine that if one was, say, a ND grad, that they would not feel that a strong student from the Catholic high school would be a great asset to ND, even if that student went to a competing high school. And even if it was NOT fashionable to be at a parochial high school. Even if this interviewer went to the faith-based college and was NOT of that faith, I still can’t see why you would automatically assume the worst. </p>
<p>If you are convinced this person would be a problem, then do what you think is best. But I just can’t see a problem, ESPECIALLY if you all share the same faith. I would say that public school teachers and principals DO understand the desire for families to pursue a faith-based education. And if this interviewer is of a different faith, he is an alum, and I just can’t imagine that he would interfere with a student of the same faith as this college getting a fair shake. </p>
<p>You never can tell someone’s feelings about school choice from their jobs in the public education system. Seriously, we have quite a few children of current and former teachers in our homeschool group and even more teachers send their kids to private schools. I do understand that you may be in a private-hostile area (we’ve lived in some…), but I think you ought to give the interviewer the benefit of the doubt. </p>
<p>If they are clearly hostile, your child might casually mention in an admissions meeting or call, “I was kind of surprised that my alumni interviewer didn’t seem to approve of me attending parochial school. Does your college have an opinion about parochial schools,” very innocently clueing them in :-)</p>
<p>I’ve seen backs go up between public school and private school factions in places where I’ve lived because you are often seen as saying the public school isn’t good enough by choosing the private, but usually parochial schools are just seen as a faith based choice.</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry a second about an alumni interview, they count for little.</p>
<p>The interviewer is there on behalf of the COLLEGE not on behalf of the public school. These alum interviewers are volunteers who typically are there to provide information about the college to the student and to ask questions related to the college. I think you should be encouraging your son to relax. I seriously doubt that this interviewer is going to deliberately sabotage your son’s application because your son goes to a private rather than public school. Your son should just be confident in saying that he feels that his high school has met his needs well and that he is prepared to go to Blah Blah University. </p>
<p>Just how do you plan to ask for another interviewer. Don’t you think they will want some sort of reason why you are making this request? I agree with others…this will call more negative attention to your son’s application than just going to the interview.</p>
<p>If you really can’t deal with this particular interviewer…your son could be “busy” at alternate times and you could schedule an on campus interview rather than an alum interview.</p>
<p>My daughter had both an on campus interview and and an alum interview for the same school.
I believe there is a thread on Cc someplace about alum interviews. I wouldn’t have thought to do research on the interviewer- I’m just happy D went to the right Starbucks ;).
anyway- the alum interviews are generally very relaxed and fun- not high pressure- not the place to get into defensive posturing- but a place to ask questions about the school to see if it meets your interests & needs.</p>
Since this guy is a principal, I assume that he has been out of college long enough to have gone to grad school and worked a while. Still, being an interviewer means that he has a positive connection with the college and is interested in sharing info.</p>