Serious College Question

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>So I am going to be a senior in high school and I have a serious question.</p>

<p>I go to a very competitive high school in fremont, california</p>

<p>I have been interning my entire summer at a BPO Business process outsourcing company in india. I have been working with a business development team and have learned a lot. Anyway my point here is that I have been busy and havent had a time to chill with my homeboys.</p>

<p>i have decent gpa /scores 3.7 unweighted</p>

<p>Sat 2130 firs time</p>

<p>So pretty much im not stupid but u won see me goin to harvard</p>

<p>anyway here is my question</p>

<p>So during my spring break i visited a lot of college in southern California</p>

<p>and i met with the admissions officers for all of the colleges that i liked</p>

<p>pomona
claremont
usc
occidental</p>

<p>so anyway, my mom calls me today and tells me she wants to go to so cal again with some family friends so that they can go meet and interview with mainly the above colleges. And then i tell her about these things called alumni interviews and she thinks it would be worth 3 days of my summer vacation, which is a lot considering i will only have a month of real vacation</p>

<p>she wants e to meet with admissions officers and if not interview</p>

<p>establish/reestablish that personal connection</p>

<p>do any of you think think that it will be worth my time </p>

<p>is a personal connection that big of a deal</p>

<p>thank u in advance</p>

<p>btw i fell that one of my strong points is having conversations with people i can talk well and usually enjoy to have conversations with people, so an interview or meeting with an admissions officer wont hurt my chances</p>

<p>so thanks again</p>

<p>please excuse my capitalization punctuation or anything else that might upset u</p>

2

<p>The personal connection can be important if the interviewer provides feedback to the admissions office. If the interviewer is just there to answer your questions and doesn’t provide feedback to admissions committee, then no it won’t matter.</p>

<p>What kind of personal connection are you talking about.</p>

<p>By the way, Pomona IS one of the Claremont Colleges.</p>

<p>Listen to your mother. Behave.</p>

3

<p>i know pomona is a claremont college</p>

<p>did u know they have completely different applications and get offended when u ask them about another college</p>

4

<p>help i need somebody not just anybody to answer my question</p>

5

<p>So what you are saying is that three days out of a month is too much time to give to a decision that certainly will impact four years of your life and perhaps be seminal in determining what what type of job you will have and who your friends could be for the rest of your life?</p>

6

<p>Do the interviews.</p>

7

<p>Did you apply and receive an acception letter from any of those? If so, then I highly recommend you go and check all the ones you got accepted into. I mean, it’s an investment right? 4 years of your life you’ll be spending there (or hopefully). good luck</p>

8

<p><<So during my spring break i visited a lot of college in southern California</p>

<p>and i met with the admissions officers for all of the colleges that i liked</p>

<p>pomona
claremont
usc
occidental</p>

<p>so anyway, my mom calls me today and tells me she wants to go to so cal again with some family friends so that they can go meet and interview with mainly the above colleges. And then i tell her about these things called alumni interviews and she thinks it would be worth 3 days of my summer vacation, which is a lot considering i will only have a month of real vacation</p>

<p>she wants e to meet with admissions officers and if not interview>></p>

<p>So are you saying that you already met one-on-one with all of these admissions officers this spring? If so, what is the point of going back and meeting with them again?</p>

<p>If what you did was take a tour and sit in an info session, then sure, go do <em>pre-scheduled</em> interviews. Don’t just randomly show up again. There’s little point in that.</p>

9

<p>IMHO, on-campus interviews with admissions staff are definitely preferable to alumni interviews. The on-campus folk are generally more expert interviewers, they are more likely to be involved in making the acceptance decisions, you send a signal to the school that you’re really excited about the school.</p>

<p>With alumni interviews it is often hit or miss. Don’t get me wrong, alumni interviews are better than nothing, but don’t kid yourself into thinking they are the same as on-campus.</p>

10

<p>Seriously, it’s only 3 days. You still have 27 more days to chill with your homeboys. It definitely shows a lot of interest in the college if you have these interviews on campus. Plus, you can also get a better sense of whether you belong there. It’s a win win situation imo.</p>

11

<p>pointoforder: I’m pretty sure that alumni interviews are pretty much the EXACT same thing as those with admissions staff.</p>

12

<p>hirenishungry: An on-campus interview usually occurs with a current senior student who is mainly like the interviewee telling you what the pros/cons are of being a student at that school, academics, student life, etc. I am not sure if those cal schools do report to admissions offices but I doubt it since they wouldn’t have started a file on you. I think the alumni interview is more important.
However, going to visit for three days will help you gain a better knowledge of whether you truly like the school and what is a good fit for you. This will help your application as well.</p>

<p>I say you should visit for three days. You can learn so much and you may regret it if you don’t. You may never get this chance again and you can chill with you homeboys any time really.</p>

13

<p>I don’t know if u guys understand, but i already visited theses colleges 3 moths ago, and i met the admissions officers it was like i just showed up</p>

<p>for Pomona and occidental we got lucky because they were giving us the admission presentations</p>

<p>for USC ur admissions officer is available on the website and we just called her when we were visiting and we had a meeting with her</p>

14

<p>Oh I must have overlooked that you already met with them…then why would you have to meet them again? I think if they know you exist you’re fine…</p>