<p>^^^^^SoosieVT ---- not meant to be a slight. I meant to make light of the situation. Humor or attempts at humor don’t always translate well in a blog. I would make a big smiley face if knew how.</p>
<p>There was just so many people reading into someone’s intentions and that is impossible. I agree that 99% on the time it is benign conversation and has nothing to do with acceptance or not. Just a conversation starter. When my daughter auditioned 4 years ago she was asked several ridiculous questions from a lot of different schools and it had no bearing on anyone’s decision.</p>
<p>^^^^^kjgc It may break down to nothing more then a confidence factor. Someone confident would not be phased in the least. Someone lacking confidence could be thrown for a loop.</p>
<p>fyi - we saw this question on my daughter’s applications and auditions for a BM in instrument performance (ie, not MT). We decided to not read much into it, answer the question as room allowed (ie, 3 spaces didn’t allow enough room for all her applications) and move on. When asked in person during an audition, she rattled off the list. </p>
<p>There was only 1 audition where the teacher said: oh, well, you aren’t going to come here</p>
<p>And my daughter responded that she needed to consider a number of factors into her decision, including finances and location.</p>
<p>These kids are setting themselves up for a LIFETIME of auditions, and part of surviving that lifestyle is to go with the flow of it. They’ll go nuts trying to 2nd guess every little nuance.</p>
<p>kjgc, I very much understand a college’s interest in knowing their cohort institutions. As I shared before, when D1 applied to regular colleges (not MT), no schools asked “where else are you applying” during the admissions phase, but some did ask where else the student either was accepted to or where they were matriculating, at the point when the student turned down their school (after May 1). They were able to obtain that information that way. </p>
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<p>beenthereMTdad, I have to admit, and I can say this as their mom ( ), my two daughters are extremely confident types. In fact, one of their fortes is how well they interview. Both walk out of interviews (and they have had many for either colleges, grad schools, or professional jobs, or meetings with agents, etc. etc.), feeling very confident in how it went and how they did. They are not fazed by these questions. I already mentioned that my MT daughter was asked by a BFA in MT program at the audition on a form, where else she applied and she recorded five of her 8 schools, but the audition committee then asked her in audition, why she hadn’t applied to NYU (which she had applied to but wasn’t one of the ones she wrote down) and she handled that question great (in my opinion) as she contrasted the two schools and proceeded to explain why the school she was at fit her. The school accepted her, though she chose NYU anyway. </p>
<p>There are many conversation starters. I interview applicants for admission to Tufts. I ask many more than five questions. I ask a myriad of questions and the interviews tend to be 60-90 minutes long. I never ask where else the student applied (and the university doesn’t want us to ask that) but I do ask how they learned of Tufts, if they visited, what appeals to them or draws them to Tufts, etc. I gauge their interest in the college and their knowledge of the school and why they think it is a good mach for them. Believe me, there is a wide range in how kids handle this question and it is very telling.</p>
<p>mtpaper, on the one hand you are saying to not be concerned about each nuance in an audition or interview. In general I agree with that. HOWEVER, you also say that one auditor, upon hearing your D’s list of colleges (or partial list), remarked: “oh well, you are not going to come here,” and thus this question/answer about where else she applied DID affect this college’s perception in her interest in attending (possibly falsely). It wasn’t so “benign” of a question as others assert. Had they not asked that question, they would have no clue where else she applied and would have had to gauge her interest in their college in other ways such as “why do you think we are a good match for you and why do you want to come here?” But once they did ask her where else she applied, they seemed to write off her intentions of possibly attending their school (which is ridiculous, as you say, as she only applied if she was interested and had to weigh offers, which were unknown at that time, and costs and other factors would weigh into her decision).</p>
<p>soozievt. I appreciate the input as to how you do your interviews. Each person has their own way of proceeding. As you say, there are many conversation starters. After 15 years of interviewing theatre students I’ve found there are many roads to the same destination. This has been an interesting conversation. But at this point, I’ll bow out. I appreciate the input from so many people but I fear this has become a situation where I’m viewed as defending a position I really don’t want, or need, to defend. Since the answer has never been of significant importance, I feel I’ve spent more time than I should have trying to say “it just isn’t that important,” as well as letting parents know that the answer will never determine an applicant’s status. </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on the subject everyone. It is good to hear from both sides of the process. Enlightening to say the least.</p>
<p>kjgc, it has been an interesting (and enlightening) conversation. I think it is good to see many perspectives. As I shared earlier on this thread, I linked to many threads on CC on this very topic (obviously it is a topic of interest on a college admissions forum), as well as the Ask the Dean column on CC written by a college counselor who is a former admissions officer at a selective college.</p>
<p>Again, I am glad you participated and shared why you ask this question at your college and so students and parents were able to garner your perspective as someone who is the director of a college theater program. Thank you for doing participating!</p>
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<p>I just want to clarify one thing…“how I do interviews” for Tufts, as an alum interviewer of applicants, is not my personal choice…the interviewers are given guidelines on topics and questions from the university’s admissions office and I follow them. Part of the interview deals with the student’s college selection criterion and part is also their exposure to Tufts and their interest in the school (among many other topics). This is based on recommended topics and questions put out by the admissions office, and not my personal interview style.</p>
<p>SoosieVT. As an admissions counselor you DO have 60-90 minutes to speak with someone. I would imagine (and I am not speaking on behalf of kjgc or anyone else) that they have a few seconds, then the talent portion, then maybe 1 - 2 minutes of an interview. I doubt the audition people care much about the weather or their commute.</p>
<p>Separately I want you to know that my comments although they may follow your posts are never specifically directed to you unless I either ^^^^^ or SoosieVT you. They are just adding to the topic of discussion. I was not suggesting that your kid was not confident but that kids that are confident are not bothered by questions of what schools they are looking at. Smiley Face</p>
<p>First, I am not an admissions counselor (not sure what that is?). I do not work for a college admissions office. Unrelated to interviewing, I am a college counselor who assists students in their college admissions process. As a volunteer, entirely separate from my real job, I am an interviewer for my alma mater (Tufts) and you may or may not know this, but many selective colleges do not hold admissions interviews on campus with the adcoms, but rather conduct them through alum interviewers in the applicants’ own region. So, yes, such interviews do have an hour (or any length of time the interviewer wishes to allot to it). </p>
<p>As I have had a kid go through 8 BFA in MT admissions/auditions, and some auditions had some interview questions and some had none…most of them did NOT ask where else the student applied. In fact, at NYU/Tisch, there is an actual interview portion to the audition (maybe 10 min. long or so). Given that the auditors have way less time than a regular college interview, they have to pick and choose what questions are the most relevant or important to them to ask in order to get to know the student better. In my view, there are a lot of questions a college would ask of an applicant that are really important in getting a feeling for the person. I can’t imagine using up one of the questions on where else are you applying? How does that let the auditor know the candidate better? All it lets them know are the peer institutions and even gives them a sense of wondering if the student might pick their school out of that list if given the opportunity. Is their school similar to others on the list or very different? Let’s say it is very different…why should the school be privy to that information as the student had a reason to apply and bother to audition, etc.? Perhaps the school is a safety school or one used to balance the odds of the college list or there is something unique about that school, that while not like the others, attracted the student. Or maybe the school simply costs less than the others. And so on. In my view, it would be more telling (if my aim was to learn about the student and not her odds of picking my school or learning what peer institutions have cross applicants), to ask the student’s selection criterion…what does he/she want in a college or MT program? Why did they pick this one? (this often shows how much they have bothered to even get to know the program and how they feel they match it and how interested they are in it). There are lots of questions that would help learn more about their personality and so on. Finding out where else they applied would be much less important to know, I think, than these other things, unless my motivation was to ascertain where my school was on their list of priorities (as you can see, mtpaper shared that a school assumed her D would not attend their school once they learned where else she applied). </p>
<p>By the way, I don’t chit chat at an admissions interview about the weather or the student’s commute. The interview is chockfull of lots of questions on various topics that the college outlines in order to get to know the student very well. </p>
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<p>I KNEW you were not addressing your post about the “confidence” issue to me. As it goes on discussion forums, one reads a post and responds to the ideas in the post. I was responding to your point about confidence in an interview. I gave my own kids as a mere example. I never ever thought your post was directed toward my own daughters. Your post, in fact, was addressing kfgc, based on how you started the post with his name. Like you, I also was adding to the topic of the discussion. So, no worries. :D</p>
<p>But on your point that confident students are not bothered by this question…I beg to differ…confident students are not FLUSTERED by the question and can handle it well, but they still may believe it was inappropriate and none of the school’s business! :p</p>
<p>By the way, I often quote who I am responding to as that can make it clearer.</p>
<p>It would be great if the schools auditioning just remembered that this is just “one more thing” that the kids have to prepare for. Yes, yes, I know that life is tough for an aspiring actor, and they better toughen up and get used to the pressure, etc. . . . but still, think about ALL they have done to get ready for their 5 minutes in front of the panel. And remember they are 17 (or 18) years old. Asking one more question that makes them feel like they have to have a right answer is an unnecessary burden. I commend kgjc for stating that it doesn’t really matter what the auditionee states at/on his school interview/form, but, I think that it’s clear from others’ posts, that it DOES matter what is said to some schools and therefore it creates more pressure.</p>
<p>^^^^^So now it has been debated or discussed in great detail. Has anything changed? No. Will it change? Doubt it. Will the person that asks the questions about other schools stop? Very unlikely. So what can we all learn for this post? Maybe be prepared to answer the question when it come up. </p>
<p>^^Agree with you beenthereMTdad. Nothing has changed. And yes, students should be prepared to answer this question as a few MT programs ask it. </p>
<p>I think this thread is informative for those who go through this process and I was hoping that hearing the perspective of applicants and parents, would also be of interest to any college reps who may be reading. As you can see from my links (provided up thread), this topic has been discussed over the years on CC many times before, along with a myriad of other college admissions topics. Doesn’t mean any change is effected, but perspectives and experiences are shared about these topics. Given the high traffic on CC (CC is way way more than this MT forum!!), people are very interested in discussing such topics and don’t expect that change in any system will be the outcome! :)</p>
<p>@soozievt
The teacher was 100% right that there was no chance of my D attending that school. The school was a terrible fit for D (and teacher had told us that when she met us several months earlier). By the time of the audition, D had already been accepted at another school, with scholarship. </p>
<p>The only reason we had kept the audition was to not burn any bridges.</p>
<p>D was waitlisted by the teacher, not rejected. Which was the right decision in our mind (ie, there was no good reason to reject her, but she wasn’t the right fit for the school)</p>
<p>At other auditions, I think D may have heard comments such as: ahh, all good teachers, or ahhh, so you’re also smart</p>
<p>If you really want to get antsy about the audition process (and excuse me if this has been discussed on the thread), in the music world, we’ve heard of teachers from one school discussing with teachers from another school which kid they are taking, and which teacher will back off from accepting a kid so another teacher will get them. If you want to talk about inappropriate - try that on!!!</p>
<p>My point is that my daughter is setting herself for a life-time of auditions and interviews. There is slim chance that she’ll get a job and have it for an extended period of time. </p>
<p>If she walks into or out of each audition, analyzing and reading into each and every question, she’ll burn out.</p>
<p>How is it any different from a kid going to a regular college interview? There is no guidebook on what the interviewer will or won’t ask!!</p>
<p>Goodness - my older daughter had what we considered to be a totally inappropriate interview from Yale a few years ago, being asked who she was going to vote for, what made her think we’d be able to afford Yale, and something else that certainly felt like it was putting a 17-18 year old ‘on the spot.’</p>
<p>The lesson for the kids is: there is no right or wrong answer to these questions. it is not an SAT exam. The interviewer is just trying to get a feel for who you are. Can you talk. Can you answer a question in a coherent manner.</p>
<p>I completely agree as far as the actual AUDITIONS go. </p>
<p>But I think the question of where else you applied is an ADMISSIONS question, and one that is not appropriate to ask. This is not the same as analyzing the reactions of auditors to your audition (“did or didn’t ask me to do more,” “commented positively about my audition or didn’t,” and all that kind of analysis!). It is not about analyzing the audition. It is about what is an appropriate interview question. I see no reason to ask a student where else they applied. If they want to gauge the student’s interest in their program over other programs, ask specific questions about THAT. </p>
<p>You are right that it is no different than a regular college interview. I don’t approve of this question if it were asked by Yale either. And there ARE guidebooks for interviewers at some colleges (including the one I interview for) as to topics and sample questions to ask. "Where else did you apply?’ is not one of the suggested interview questions. Finding out the selection criterion and interest in the school is definitely included, however. Further, there are books written about typical college interviews with sample questions. I even give my advisees sample interview questions and tips. There is a lot written on this subject.</p>
<p>mtpaper, you say that the auditor commented that your D would never go there, and in fact, your D had no interest in attending as it was a poor fit. I guess what baffles me is why a poor fit college is even on the college list. I feel strongly to build a list of schools made up of only colleges you are willing and interested in attending (though you might prefer some over others naturally, you should like each one on the list enough to attend). You also mention that your D kept the audition even though she knew she would never enroll at the school and was accepted elsewhere and was sure of that…and you didn’t want to burn bridges. I don’t see canceling an audition as burning bridges. I have had several applicants who were accepted in fall at some schools who canceled SOME of their future auditions as they already knew they liked the accepted school better than a few remaining on their list and didn’t want to waste anyone’s time, even though they had already done the applications and essays. They gave up their audition slot and likely made one available for someone else. It truly is OK to cancel some auditions if admitted early in the season to a preferred school.</p>
<p>By the way, it sounds like some questions at the Yale interview were not so appropriate either such as about affording the school or who your D voted for. I think it is fair to be critical of inappropriate interview questions, even if a student needs to be prepared for anything that may come their way.</p>
<p>PS…mtpaper…are you talking about MT auditions? Your D is going to college for flute, right? You also mention about previously meeting with “the teacher,” which is something that music students tend to do. Just wondering.</p>
<p>I agree. In a perfect world, that would happen. But, as I didn’t know that she’d be pursuing a BM instead of a BA until September of senior year, it was late in the game to pull together the list, visit each school, have trial lessons, etc. You go with what you have available.</p>
<p>I’m sure there is a lot written about what interviewers should and should not ask. But, until the interviews are done by computers, or with an impartial judge sitting by, inappropriate questions will be asked. Help us all if we get to the point where college interviews are verboten…</p>
<p>We were aware that it was ok to cancel the audition. </p>
<p>Over at the Music Forum, popular thought is to attend the audition when possible, even if you are not planning to attend. The auditions are part of the learning process. There was no advantage to us to cancel, and there was potential benefit. My daughter wanted to play for the teacher, and interact with her; they are likely to run into each other in coming years - now the teacher has a ‘person’ to connect with the name. We have NO regrets over having done the audition.</p>
<p>Each family has to decide what works for them.</p>
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<p>Just because folks can interpret the questions as being inappropriate, doesn’t mean that the questions are inappropriate, or that the ‘data collected’ is being used inappropriately. </p>
<p>Who gets to decide whether or not a question is inappropriate?</p>
<p>Seriously - there are commonly accepted societal norms when someone who has authority or power over someone else is in the position of granting them something they want - a slot in a school, a job, etc - and certain questions border on exploitive, unfair, or - just inappropriate. There’s no better word for it. (not necessarily talking about the question in the OP but answering to the general notion of “unfair” questions."</p>
<p>Questions about charged topics such as politics or religion which are PERSONAL and have nothing to do with the position or slot being interviewed for (except for obvious exceptions such as interviewing for a job in a religious or political position) are unnecessarily emotionally charged and there is no reason for them. </p>
<p>Questions which put the candidate at a real disadvantage or make them uncomfortable yet there is no valid reason to ask the question, because it has nothing to do with the ability to fulfill the position, are inappropriate.</p>
<p>That any particular individual may not happen to take offense at an inappropriate question does not make that question any less inappropriate.</p>
<p>Either there are questions not to be asked or there aren’t. If you take the position that there are no such thing as “inappropriate” questions or that we can’t go around “telling” other people what is appropriate and what isn’t, then you get to enjoy the results of having no recourse when someone asks a question that is sexually harrassing or racially biased or in some other way clearly out of bounds, because after all, who gave anyone the right to declare a question off limits? The asker didn’t think so, so that ought to be good enough then - surely you don’t take that position. I certainly don’t.</p>
), my two daughters are extremely confident types. In fact, one of their fortes is how well they interview. Both walk out of interviews (and they have had many for either colleges, grad schools, or professional jobs, or meetings with agents, etc. etc.), feeling very confident in how it went and how they did. They are not fazed by these questions. I already mentioned that my MT daughter was asked by a BFA in MT program at the audition on a form, where else she applied and she recorded five of her 8 schools, but the audition committee then asked her in audition, why she hadn’t applied to NYU (which she had applied to but wasn’t one of the ones she wrote down) and she handled that question great (in my opinion) as she contrasted the two schools and proceeded to explain why the school she was at fit her. The school accepted her, though she chose NYU anyway. </p>