When Akash Kar '16 arrived at his alumni interview after submitting his application to Dartmouth, he did not realize how much the interview would impact his college decision. Kar said his alumni interviewer's enthusiasm for Dartmouth contributed to his decision to attend the College.
As the Nov. 1 early decision application deadline approaches, applicants for the Class of 2017 and 8,000 alumni interviewers prepare to begin the extensive interview process around the world.
Kar said that the individual attention he received from his interviewer helped him make a final decision about whether to attend Dartmouth.
"I couldn't make a decision, and she personally talked to me and convinced me to come here because I hadn't visited before," Kar said. "Now that I'm here, it's been awesome keeping in touch with her she comments on my Facebook statuses, and when she came to campus for a board meeting, we spent a Saturday morning having coffee, catching up and talking about how great Dartmouth is."
Alumni interviewers are volunteers who sign up online to interview in a convenient geographic region, according to Undergraduate Admissions Officer Isabel Bober. Approximately 300 different region leaders organize these interviewers after applications are received in the fall and winter. Interviewers then submit an online report about their impressions of each applicant and whether or not the prospective student would be a good fit for Dartmouth.
Mike Belinsky '08, a former alumni interviewer for the Boston area, said he believes the interviews play a large role in the College's admissions process.
"Dartmouth has a very specific and amazing culture, and people who went to Dartmouth understand it, and they can see if the person they are interviewing is a Dartmouth person," Belinsky said. "The interviews add more layers to the profile of the candidate."
Belinsky described the alumni interview as not only helpful for admissions officers to become better acquainted with prospective students, but also as a way for applicants to get a better sense of life at Dartmouth, especially for those who have not visited campus.
Belinsky said he feels that becoming more familiar with Dartmouth is one of the primary objectives of an alumni interview.
"The goal of the interview process is to understand the person, what their interests are, why they want to go to Dartmouth, what Dartmouth can offer them," he said.
Anna Ghnouly '16 said she would never forget her interview experience, as she set off the fire alarm on her way out of the building after the interview.
"The alarm went off, and no one could figure out how to turn it off because we couldn't find the control panel," she said. "It was horrible."
Post-interview nerves also struck Jacob Hickson '13 after he heard his interviewer talk about how much she enjoyed her experience at Dartmouth.
"She was telling me how she made her own Portuguese [Foreign Study Program] to Brazil and how she doesn't remember any of her Portuguese, but that it was really fun," Hickson said.
The interviewer's excitement about the College caused Hickson to be particularly apprehensive about his application, he said.
"I wanted to go to Dartmouth so badly," Hickson said. "On the way out of the interview, I passed by a guy who was begging for change, and I figured that it would be good karma if I gave him some, so I gave him 10 bucks in the hopes that I would get into Dartmouth."
Alexander Lopez '15 said that he had an extremely positive meeting and has kept in contact with his interviewer.
"I was planning on surprising her with my acceptance by sending her a clipping of a local paper article that ran about my future attendance at Dartmouth, but before I could send it she read the article and called me and said were you planning on telling me about Dartmouth?'" Lopez said. "We shared a good laugh together about the whole thing."
Lopez said he was surprised that he got along so well with his interviewer and wondered whether all alumni show the same amount of interest in the applicants they meet.
