S2E18: Do Alumni Interviews Matter? Tips on How To Crush Your Alumni Interview for College Admissions
In this week's question of the week we will be answering all these questions about alumni interviews for college admissions.
I get lots of questions regarding alumni interviews. What should I talk about? What if I didn't get an interview? What questions should I ask? How to write a thank you note?
In this week's question of the week we will be answering all these questions about alumni interviews for college admissions.
Have your own question of the week? Send us a DM for a chance to have it featured @admittedlypodcast
About Thomas
Thomas is a parent and alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his MBA at the Wharton School in 2003, he moved to Silicon Valley. For three years, he was director of admissions and financial aid at Wharton School. He worked closely with admissions professionals, students, alumni, and professors to create the best possible MBA class.
Thomas has been an entrepreneur his entire life in the fields of finance, agriculture, wellness, and sporting goods. As the founder of Global Education Opportunities, he works with diverse and underserved communities to help them become successful college students. Thomas started the podcast Admittedly because he is passionate about demystifying the application process for parents and applicants.
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Welcome to the admittedly podcast. I'm your host, Thomas Caleel. And today's question of the week, do alumni interviews matter? For the larger, more prestigious schools, you may be invited to have an alumni interview, a lot of students get very, very worried about this. They get worried if they can't get an interview, and they get worried if they are offered an interview, but the person goes dark.
And I want to take a little bit of a controversial approach here. The bottom line is that alumni interviews are not a function of admissions, they are a function of Alumni Affairs and annual giving. So our alumni a great resource for the school. Absolutely. Am I an alumni interviewer? Absolutely. I love it, it's a great way to meet bright, talented young people who are going on to change the world, to create a way to communicate the values of the school, it's a great way to talk about your experience and share things about the school that they might not know, but doesn't have a bearing on admissions. Goodness. Now, I want you to think about this from the perspective of admissions, you have AWS, in some cases, hundreds of 1000s of alumni out there, and you know nothing about them. You don't know if they're trained, you don't know what their biases are. You don't know anything really about them. And you're getting this report back?
And did they ask the right questions? Do they create a welcome? Interview environment? Did they create a hostile environment, you just don't know. And so it's very, very dangerous for you to put much stock in that interview.
So really, what you want to do as an applicant is approach alumni interview as basically an informational interview, it's a great way for you to just interact with an alumnus or alumna and get a sense of, their perspective, their experience, right, they are going to say, you know, ask, say something along the lines of so tell me about yourself.
And that is a good opportunity for you to, I think show that you are prepared. So most people, when they're asked that question, just start talking, well, blah, blah, I do this, I do that I do this, I do that I took this class. And 15 minutes later, they finally run out of steam, they've burned, you know, anywhere from 30 to 50% of their time, and the interviewer's eyes are completely glazed over.
And they're just kind of nodding along and thinking about whether or not they fed their cat or what they're going to make for dinner, or what their weekend plans are because you're just on a roll. I strongly advocate that you say something like, well, there are three different components to my application to who I am. These are my extracurricular activities. There are my academics. And there's my, you know, summer work, recent summer intern internship in this particular field, where would you like me to start? And then that creates this dynamic thing.
So the interviewer might say, Well, tell me a little bit about your academics, great. I'm interested in this subject. I've taken this many APS, and I've done some research around this particular, you know, chemistry, which is my intended major at your school, you guys have a great chemistry department. And you have this leading professor who's doing really interesting research. In this field, though, of genomics, I would like to look at, a cross-reference with the biology department.
And from that, right, then you can say, Would you like to talk about extracurricular activities next, my involvement in sports, whatever it is, and so that keeps things engaged and fresh, and it keeps a dialogue with your interviewer instead of you just droning on. While the interviewer sits there, the interviewer will ask you why you want this particular school.
And this is your chance to stretch your legs a little bit and show that you have done your research, you should talk about a balance of the academic process, and then the extracurricular offerings, and not just listing things, but saying I do this now.
And, you know, this, your school has this, this and this. I'm interested in doing these three things they are tied to what I'm doing one of them is totally out of left field because I want to try something new. That's the reason I'm going to a big university.
And so that shows that you've done your research, but you're also keeping an open mind, you're gonna be an involved member of the community. At the end, the interviewer generally will ask you questions. Now, this is very important. Don't ask them specifics about the application process or the school or, you know, if I load up on classes my freshman year, can I graduate early or get a triple major or if I'm majoring in urban studies, can I also minor in economics, they're not going to know that. What I always ask is to ask yourself the Google test. Can I google the answer? answer to this question. And if the answer is yes, don't ask the question. Okay. This is particularly true for smaller schools, we might be interviewing with a member of the faculty or the admissions committee, because there's nothing worse than somebody who clearly has over-prepared for, an interview, and asks you a question that they could very easily Google and just say, you know, you have me here. I'm an expert on the school. And that's how you choose to use this opportunity.
And that's never going to work favorably for you instead, ask them about their experience. Right? What brought you to the school? What did you enjoy most? What was your favorite class? You know, how that you know, have you found the alumni network to be helpful to you? All of these things are very, very important because they give them first of all chance to talk about themselves. And everybody loves a chance to talk about themselves.
But it also just gives you a personal connection with them. And then of course, you know, when you get home, I want you to think about it for a little bit. Don't just fire off a quick, thank you so much for your time. Be thoughtful about your reply, and follow up on a question that maybe you didn't give a complete answer to. Or if the interviewer asked he asked you a question. Or if you know, the interviewer said something, you say, boy, that really resonated with me because in thinking about it really ties to my interest in XYZ at the university after university, make it personal, make it nice, it doesn't. It should not be long, it should be concise. And just get that out. You know, I would say within 12 hours of the interview, so relax, enjoy the alumni interviews, and have fun if you get assigned an interviewer and they drop the ball. You can contact the interviewer the club that's running it and say, Hey, this happened. But if you don't get an interview it in no way counts against you. Don't worry about it. relax, and enjoy the process. Good luck.
