The main purpose of alumni interviews is (usually) to reflect what you might not have shown in your application. Its also for you to find out more - if you are admitted, the school wants you to go! Many things may be on the college website, but some things are bound to not be reflected.
These interviews are meant to be informal and not compulsory. However, if you are called for one, I would think that unless exceptional circumstances prevent you from doing so, you better go, or it will look as though you aren’t interested (even if the truth is otherwise). If you do get in, you will also have a contact within the school already. Some questions you might want to ask include what the alumni liked or didn’t like about the school – answers to such questions can help you eventually narrow down your choices.
I know there’s a lot of talk about how the alumni interview has “no bearing”, on your application whatsoever as long as you don’t do anything totally stupid (eg. yell profanities at the interviewer). It’s true some schools use it only to eliminate candidates whom they definitely would not want because the interviewer thinks they are neurotic or something.
But you better have an idea about why you want to enter the school, why you applied for the schools you applied for (not just because it’s a good school). I know someone who’s been helping out with interviews for their Ivy League school; they said they were quite unimpressed at the people who applied indiscriminately to all the ivy league and ivy-plus schools like MIT, Caltech, Chicago, etc, without knowing exactly what differentiates the schools besides the associated prestige. So make sure you actually know why you want to apply for those colleges, as good report from your interviewer can’t hurt, but a bad one just might.
No comments:
Post a Comment