HS Senior - Application Interview

[Rock-of-Truth]

My 18 year old Son has applied to Duke and we are in the home stretch. On the application there was a place to select Alumni Interview. Being the eager beaver that he is, of course me marked yes. Well, that time has come and the interview is next week. I am not looking for advice so much as some talking points that I can share with him before next week. So to all Duke Students and Alumni: Is this interview someone who will report back to admissions and say "good kid" or "book smart, but no street smarts" ... ? Or is it simply just a chance for my kid to meet someone who went there? Or is it more of a chance for my son to interview a recent graduate and ask him some questions about life on campus, academic rigor and or social life in Durham? Any serious thoughts and comments are appreciated.

[OldPhiKap]

My 18 year old Son has applied to Duke and we are in the home stretch. On the application there was a place to select Alumni Interview. Being the eager beaver that he is, of course me marked yes. Well, that time has come and the interview is next week. I am not looking for advice so much as some talking points that I can share with him before next week. So to all Duke Students and Alumni: Is this interview someone who will report back to admissions and say "good kid" or "book smart, but no street smarts" ... ? Or is it simply just a chance for my kid to meet someone who went there? Or is it more of a chance for my son to interview a recent graduate and ask him some questions about life on campus, academic rigor and or social life in Durham? Any serious thoughts and comments are appreciated.

I did these interviews for Duke in my local area for a few years. I am not sure what weight the interview has, and I always had the impression (for no real reason) that I was there more as a conduit to discuss how much I liked Duke and to answer questions the student might have than as some sort of gatekeeper.

I would tell your son to be positive, smile, and project confidence (but not arrogance). Have him ask about the interviewer's experiences at Duke, people always like to talk about themselves.

I do not remember what specific information I was asked to provide back to Duke, sorry. I imagine one is along the lines of what attributes does the candidate have that would make him/her desirable as a member of the Duke community (or something similar).

Good luck!

[Rock-of-Truth]

Thanks! It is much appreciated.

[left_hook_lacey]

My 18 year old Son has applied to Duke and we are in the home stretch. On the application there was a place to select Alumni Interview. Being the eager beaver that he is, of course me marked yes. Well, that time has come and the interview is next week. I am not looking for advice so much as some talking points that I can share with him before next week. So to all Duke Students and Alumni: Is this interview someone who will report back to admissions and say "good kid" or "book smart, but no street smarts" ... ? Or is it simply just a chance for my kid to meet someone who went there? Or is it more of a chance for my son to interview a recent graduate and ask him some questions about life on campus, academic rigor and or social life in Durham? Any serious thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Sorry, I don't have any advice for you, I went to community college. I just had to fill out a poorly xeroxed, slightly off-center application and take a placement test.

I just wanted to point out that this thread is yet another example of how DBR is the swiss army knife of basketball boards. It is a well of knowledge and uses.

Anyway, good luck to your boy!!

[OldPhiKap]

To quickly add a few questions that your son may want to ask the interviewer (or something similar):

"What did you enjoy most about going to Duke?"

"I have a real interest in X. What opportunities are there to grow that at Duke?" (Assuming "X" isn't "play video games" or some such!)

"how do you think that Duke prepared you for your career?"

"if you could do it over, is there something at Duke that you wish you had done but did not?"


But again, the most important thing I think is to be as relaxed, poised, positive and confident as possible. Easier said that done at our age than at 18.

[Rock-of-Truth]

To quickly add a few questions that your son may want to ask the interviewer (or something similar):

"What did you enjoy most about going to Duke?"

"I have a real interest in X. What opportunities are there to grow that at Duke?" (Assuming "X" isn't "play video games" or some such!)

"how do you think that Duke prepared you for your career?"

"if you could do it over, is there something at Duke that you wish you had done but did not?"


But again, the most important thing I think is to be as relaxed, poised, positive and confident as possible. Easier said that done at our age than at 18.

All very good questions! I will certainly pass those on. However that last one, if you could do it all over, wow, that is fantastic on so many levels.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Not as a Duke student or alum, but someone who conducts lots of interviews, I would like to emphasize the importance of the interviewee asking good questions. Assuming this is a casual setting, your son should ask questions the reflect a good understanding of what he is getting into. The quality and content of his questions can be more important than his answers at times.

My two cents. Good luck!

[fuse]

Sharing our experience, of course your mileage may vary (and I hope your outcome is different).

My wife and I are both alums, my son was valedictorian of his class, did on the low end of the ACT range for Duke, and received rave feeback from his alumni interview.

The outcome for my son was waitlist, no acceptance.

We reached out to the alumni office to try to get some insight and mainly got lip service.

Cynically, I hope your donor record is better than ours.

[Rock-of-Truth]

my son was valedictorian of his class, did on the low end of the ACT range for Duke, and received rave feedback from his alumni interview.

It sounds as if our kids have a slightly different track record going into the application. Mine is in the top 20 in a class of 400, National Honors Society, but by no means the Valedictorian. Congratulations on that, I bet you were on the Moon during Graduation. His ACT score on the other hand is pretty good. The alumni interview is still a wild card to me. An Aerospace-Engineer interviewing a Bio-Medical Engineering applicant ... hopefully they find some common ground other than Math and Science. Strike that, hopefully there is no awkward silence!

[Rich]

It sounds as if our kids have a slightly different track record going into the application. Mine is in the top 20 in a class of 400, National Honors Society, but by no means the Valedictorian. Congratulations on that, I bet you were on the Moon during Graduation. His ACT score on the other hand is pretty good. The alumni interview is still a wild card to me. An Aerospace-Engineer interviewing a Bio-Medical Engineering applicant ... hopefully they find some common ground other than Math and Science. Strike that, hopefully there is no awkward silence!

I too did alumni interviews in the NJ area for several years. I met with some amazingly talented and mature kids with unbelievable grades, class standing, academic achievements and extracurriculars and they were well-spoken as well. These kids were tremendously impressive and, needless to say, I wrote some glowing recommendations. If I recall correctly, however, only one of my interviewees got accepted and she turned Duke down for Dartmouth. Anecdotally I heard of others who were admitted who did poorly in the interview (no eye contact, no personality, etc.) but their #'s were just so out of this world that Duke accepted them. Frankly, that bummed me out so much that I stopped doing the interviewing.

All in all I would agree with those on this Board that these interviews don't mean all that much and are really a conduit for Duke to say that every kid has an opportunity to have an interview. If it does have any bearing on admission (and I personally don't think it does), it's waaaaaaaay down on the list of deciding factors.

[Bluedog]

I've been an alumni interviewer for Duke for about a decade. In general, everybody does it their own way, but I try to have a relaxed conversation to give them some insight about Duke and learn a bit more about them as a person beyond their application. Basically, assessing maturity as well as gauge passion/interest in activities and what they'd bring to the Duke community. In general, I want to be their advocate and help them, unless they give me a glaring reason not to. I like to see that they've at least done SOME research about Duke (e.g. don't be like an applicant I had once where when I said "I see you applied to Pratt" they had no idea what that meant. Or another who flat out told me Duke was his last choice -- odd to offer that up unprompted).

I agree that having some questions prepared ahead of time is key. That shows that you're taking it seriously and took time to prepare as well as that you're interesting in learning more, always good things. The alumnus does give each applicant a rating on a 1-5 scale (with 3 being "strong/solid" so its a skewed scale) and a short writeup about how thoughtful, engaged, etc. the applicant is and submits that to Duke. I don't think the score matters all that much though as every interviewer has a different scale, so the comments are probably more important. In general, the interview doesn't have a huge impact on the applicant's chances is my understanding -- it serves as almost another reference within the application. But certainly, if there are huge red flags and it's disastrous (I'm talking beyond just some awkward silences...) then that could negatively impact an applicant. In other words, a great interview won't get somebody into Duke, but a disastrous one can keep someone out. Most of them are somewhere in between and serve as a reinforcement to the rest of the application and another datapoint as well as giving the applicant an opportunity to learn more about Duke and hopefully increasing their interest level in attending.

In the end, just tell your son to relax, be himself, and be ready to talk about his experiences and passions. It's not supposed to be a pressure-filled interview, but rather a conversation to get to know another side of an applicant and give them an opportunity to ask questions.

[Rock-of-Truth]

I too did alumni interviews in the NJ area for several years. I met with some amazingly talented and mature kids with unbelievable grades, class standing, academic achievements and extracurriculars and they were well-spoken as well. These kids were tremendously impressive and, needless to say, I wrote some glowing recommendations. If I recall correctly, however, only one of my interviewees got accepted and she turned Duke down for Dartmouth. Anecdotally I heard of others who were admitted who did poorly in the interview (no eye contact, no personality, etc.) but their #'s were just so out of this world that Duke accepted them. Frankly, that bummed me out so much that I stopped doing the interviewing.

All in all I would agree with those on this Board that these interviews don't mean all that much and are really a conduit for Duke to say that every kid has an opportunity to have an interview. If it does have any bearing on admission (and I personally don't think it does), it's waaaaaaaay down on the list of deciding factors.

I appreciate your candor. What I can garner is this: there are so many people willing to do these interviews with applicants speaks to how much they love the school. As a parent, this makes letting him go a little easier. I may be way off base, but I think I may tell my son "ask him questions you genuinely want to know about daily life at Duke". Ask him about taking the bus every day from East Campus over to West. What's the dining hall like? Is it easy to make friends? and most importantly, what's the longest you camped out for basketball tickets!! All of those things that will help him decide if this is the school for him.

[Rock-of-Truth]

i've been an alumni interviewer for duke for about a decade. In general, everybody does it their own way, but i try to have a relaxed conversation to give them some insight about duke and learn a bit more about them as a person beyond their application. Basically, assessing maturity as well as gauge passion/interest in activities and what they'd bring to the duke community. In general, i want to be their advocate and help them, unless they give me a glaring reason not to. I like to see that they've at least done some research about duke (e.g. Don't be like an applicant i had once where when i said "i see you applied to pratt" they had no idea what that meant. Or another who flat out told me duke was his last choice -- odd to offer that up unprompted).

I agree that having some questions prepared ahead of time is key. That shows that you're taking it seriously and took time to prepare as well as that you're interesting in learning more, always good things. The alumnus does give each applicant a rating on a 1-5 scale (with 3 being "strong/solid" so its a skewed scale) and a short writeup about how thoughtful, engaged, etc. The applicant is and submits that to duke. I don't think the score matters all that much though as every interviewer has a different scale, so the comments are probably more important. In general, the interview doesn't have a huge impact on the applicant's chances is my understanding -- it serves as almost another reference within the application. But certainly, if there are huge red flags and it's disastrous (i'm talking beyond just some awkward silences...) then that could negatively impact an applicant. In other words, a great interview won't get somebody into duke, but a disastrous one can keep someone out. Most of them are somewhere in between and serve as a reinforcement to the rest of the application and another datapoint as well as giving the applicant an opportunity to learn more about duke and hopefully increasing their interest level in attending.

In the end, just tell your son to relax, be himself, and be ready to talk about his experiences and passions. It's not supposed to be a pressure-filled interview, but rather a conversation to get to know another side of an applicant and give them an opportunity to ask questions.

Thank you!! very valuable info. For him, relaxing will be the difficult part. Duke is his dream school.

[tbyers11]

My 18 year old Son has applied to Duke and we are in the home stretch. On the application there was a place to select Alumni Interview. Being the eager beaver that he is, of course me marked yes. Well, that time has come and the interview is next week. I am not looking for advice so much as some talking points that I can share with him before next week. So to all Duke Students and Alumni: Is this interview someone who will report back to admissions and say "good kid" or "book smart, but no street smarts" ... ? Or is it simply just a chance for my kid to meet someone who went there? Or is it more of a chance for my son to interview a recent graduate and ask him some questions about life on campus, academic rigor and or social life in Durham? Any serious thoughts and comments are appreciated.

I've conducted ~35 Alumni interviews over the last 7-8 years in my area. We are given no info from Duke beyond Trinity or Pratt and a list of areas of interest. I know nothing about GPA/test scores unless the kid provides with that info (even though I ask them not to). We are asked to provide a provide a one page write up on our impressions of the kid. We are asked to focus on providing an impression of the applicant beyond the boilerplate stuff that can be found in the application. I have no idea what the Admissions Office actually does with the interview write-ups. However, some thoughts on what makes a better interview for me.

1) How engaged/thoughtful the student is? How they've responded to challenges/adversity? I find that students who dive a bit into why they are engaged with a particular activity/class than just those list off. It is more interesting and easier to write up the interview. Basically, be engaging and don't be afraid to talk about yourself

2) Students should definitely ask questions about Duke. I answer them as best I can. Actually showing knowledge of Duke (have you visited, have you looked at the curricula at all) is also a plus that shows you aren't just applying to Duke because it is a top 10 school.

The sad truth is that Duke has gotten increasingly competitive in the 8-9 years that I've done interviews. Regular decision acceptance rate has decreased from about 14-15% when I started to 9-10% last year. Part of this is because Duke has begun to accept a greater portion of its class from Early Decision. (Note to future applicants: All things being equal you nearly triple your chance of getting into Duke if you apply to Duke early vs regular the last 2 years). Part of it is a lot of really smart/awesome kids are applying to Duke.

We are also asked to rank the applicant 1-5 based (5 best) based on a overall criteria. 5 should be about top 2-3% of all applicants. 4 is really special top 15-20%. 3 is really good but doesn't distinguish themselves, etc. In the 35 people I've interviewed I've given about three 5's (only one of which got accepted), 25 4's, 4 3's and one 2. I've meet a lot of really smart, really engaged kids. I assume comments are more important than score.

Bottom line: 6 (17%) of them have gotten accepted when I thought ~30 of them were Duke material. And from anecdotal evidence I've heard and actual stats I'm doing slightly better than average.

TL;DR: Tell your son to be engaging and relaxed, if possible. Talk about why he likes doing the things he does and not just what her does. Definitely ask questions about Duke. No matter how smart/awesome your kid is be cautiously optimistic regarding acceptance.

Hope this helps.

[cato]

Cynically, I hope your donor record is better than ours.

So . . . Anyone have a sense of what kind of donor record might, cynically speaking, provide a nudge for an applicant’s file?

[budwom]

Anecdotally, I have spoken to many alums who perform the interviews and have found that most of them unhappily have found that most of the kids they've spoken with have been rejected, no matter how enthusiastic a recommendation they have given. I guess it's just a numbers game, gobs of great applicants.

On the other hand, may I heartily recommend that any applicant should really try hard to write an admissions essay (they still have those, don't they?) which differentiates him/herself from the
other great kids who also have high board scores and terrific grades. Personally, I consider it my crowning academic achievement (otherwise undistinguished) to somehow gain admission to a graduate school my grades in no way justified, but I somehow wrote an essay which caught their attention (they actually told me this). So let it fly.

[budwom]

So . . . Anyone have a sense of what kind of donor record might, cynically speaking, provide a nudge for an applicant’s file?

Perhaps you are just jesting, but in fact various schools are known to have donor levels which will ensure admission...not widely publicized, but I have heard the figures. Should this be surprising? Not to me (fellow cynic).
And I do not mean to take a political turn here (because many have taken this route to admission, it's not political, it's financial) but Jared Kushner had a very undistinguished
academic career but his father's $2.5 million donation to Harvard seems to have sufficed.

[JasonEvans]

Buddy is close to on target. I've heard it takes about a $2 mil donation to get a slightly sub-standard kid into a top tier (Duke, Ivy, Stanford, and so on) university. Also, the donation needs to be new. My family gave some significant money to Duke a decade and a half ago and it had zero impact on my son's application last year.

Similarly, a record of continued giving is not important if you are not a big-time donor. Donating even $1000 a year for a couple decades does not get you on the development team radar when it comes to admissions. You need to be the kind of person development knows on a first name basis to really make an impact -- $25k+ per year for at least a decade, I have heard, and even then it won't help unless the kid is really, really qualified already.

The sad truth is that Duke has gotten increasingly competitive in the 8-9 years that I've done interviews. Regular decision acceptance rate has decreased from about 14-15% when I started to 9-10% last year. Part of this is because Duke has begun to accept a greater portion of its class from Early Decision. (Note to future applicants: All things being equal you nearly triple your chance of getting into Duke if you apply to Duke early vs regular the last 2 years). Part of it is a lot of really smart/awesome kids are applying to Duke.

We are also asked to rank the applicant 1-5 based (5 best) based on a overall criteria. 5 should be about top 2-3% of all applicants. 4 is really special top 15-20%. 3 is really good but doesn't distinguish themselves, etc. In the 35 people I've interviewed I've given about three 5's (only one of which got accepted), 25 4's, 4 3's and one 2. I've meet a lot of really smart, really engaged kids. I assume comments are more important than score.

Bottom line: 6 (17%) of them have gotten accepted when I thought ~30 of them were Duke material. And from anecdotal evidence I've heard and actual stats I'm doing slightly better than average.

The huge increase in applications over the past several years has thrown the entire process into turmoil for applicants to the top universities. There was a time when you could look at grades, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities and make a reasonable guess about whether you could get into one of these elite schools. But, there are simply so many kids who "have it all" now so that those days are over. My son is a great example of this. He got into Penn (an Ivy league school that is every bit as competitive as Duke) regular decision, but did not get into Duke early decision. He got into Emory and Ga Tech (won a Presidential Gold scholarship, a full ride) but did not get into similarly ranked schools like Johns Hopkins and Vanderbit and got waitlisted at Wash U. He's a freshman at Penn right now and could not be happier... but I don't get to road trip to Durham to see lots of basketball games with him. Boooo!

Bottom line -- it is a craphoot at this point. My suggestion is to throw a lot of applications out there and DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH ANY SCHOOL until you have gotten in because knowing which ones you will and will not get into is just plain impossible to figure out.

-Jason "the Duke alumni office has 2 jobs in the process-- 1) convince all alums that their kids have only a tiny chance of getting in and 2) try to convince alums to make donations anyway" Evans

[budwom]

^story of my life, being "close to on target."

[SlimSlowSlider]

For what it is worth, a good friend has been doing alumni interviews for Middlebury for about 15 years. A couple every year. And none of the kids (all from the suburbs west of Boston) he has interviewed has ever been admitted. We call him "The Kiss of Death."