Melissa Lucia Sarmiento graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of Arts in history and minors in German and Latin American studies. She is a master admissions consultant.
My first job right out of college was as an English as a Foreign Language teacher. Through the JET Program, which places English speakers at local Japanese schools to foster a language and cultural exchange, I got to live in Tokyo, Japan for several years during which I traveled the country and connected with amazing people.
One of the most valuable experiences from my time in Tokyo was actively seeking the Cornell Alumni Network. The Cornell Club of Japan is active year-round, hosting family-friendly events and participating in admissions information sessions throughout Tokyo. In addition to partaking in these events, I joined the Cornell Alumni Association Ambassadors Network (CAAAN). With CAAAN, I conducted multiple prospective student interviews and submitted summaries about my interactions with students.
As an interviewer, I had the joy of meeting many prospective students, connecting with them, and answering any and all questions they had about Cornell and my experiences as a student. While the interview is technically not required, it is a must for students who are serious about a specific school. In this post, I will share my experiences as an alumna interviewer and my role in the admissions process. I will also list some questions that you may expect, and give you some tips on how to prepare for your own interview. Before we dive in, remember: your interviewer is there as a volunteer—they really want to get to know you!
Table of Contents
Roles and Responsibilities
Alumni interviews usually serve as a confirmation of what the admissions office has already decided about your status as an applicant. These interviews are generally informal, but it is still important for you to do your research and take them seriously. Conducted by alumni volunteers who want to feel connected to their alma mater, these interviews are usually brief and, at the end, require that the alum write a summary of their experience talking to you.
This is precisely why these interviews are important: if the alum writes that you were a phenomenal person and the committee had already decided to offer you admission, they will be confident that they made the right choice. However, if you make a negative impression on the alum, they will share these with the admissions committee, which, in turn, might change their minds about you.
During the interviews that I conducted, I emphasized to students that my role was minimal. However, in my summaries, I noted if the student was unprepared for the interview and/or was unable to express concrete interest in anything about Cornell.
Becoming an Alumni Interviewer
Alumni interviewing at selective schools is a volunteer opportunity open to most, with a few restrictions:
- You cannot have a child applying to the school during that admission cycle.
- You cannot work as a guidance counselor or college consultant.
- You cannot conduct interviews for another institution at the same time.
- You cannot be employed by an admissions or development office at any university
At Cornell, the process of becoming an alumni interviewer was very simple. (It’s been a couple of years now, so it may have changed!) You express your interest in volunteering and indicate your geographic location. Once this is done, the CAAAN leader in your area will reach out to you to assign prospective student interviewees. In my case, the person in charge made an effort to match prospective students and interviewers based on common academic interests and gender, but this was not always possible. For instance, while I graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, I recall once interviewing someone who had applied to the School of International and Labor Relations.
Some geographic areas have higher demand than others. For example, in New York City, there will be a lot of applicants, and, while they have a lot of volunteers, it is not always possible to interview everyone. Because Japan sees fewer applicants, the local CAAAN chapter tried to interview all applicants from the country. However, a smaller volunteer pool meant that, sometimes, I was reassigned students because they could not find someone else with more similar interests to match them with for their interview.
Because of my role at H&C Education, I am not longer able to volunteer for CAAAN, but I can say, with confidence, that those of us that do it really want to be there! Alumni want to get to know you and learn all about the cool things that you are doing, so keep this in mind when you show up for your own interview.
The Logistics of Alumni Interviews
As an alumni interviewer, I always explained to students that my role in the admissions process was limited: I talked to them and wrote a report at the end. This was a digital submission that I completed through the CAAAN portal, where I had the chance to see all interviewees assigned to me. Under each applicant, I got to see their name, application status, location, and contact information. Because the interview is often part of the application, the application status was usually ‘submitted.’
When a student was assigned to me, I would check the portal for their contact information and immediately email them. Most students responded to my request for an online interview almost immediately. One time, a student requested an in-person interview and suggested a location. While I was able to accommodate this request at the time, please remember that alumni interviewers are busy people, so if they can only meet online, this is okay!
Once the interview was over, I filled out the alumni interview report on the CAAAN portal. The instructions asked that we be as accurate as possible to the students’ words when typing our responses. I honored this to the best of my ability, trying to insert direct quotes whenever possible.
Types of Questions to Expect During Your Interview
These interviews are very brief because alumni interviewers have a specific form that they fill out, generally immediately after the interview. In the CAAAN form, I had to indicate whether it was an online or in-person interview and the date on which it was conducted. If I sent a request for an interview, followed up, and never heard back from a student, I indicated that as well. This is key: the interview is not a mandatory part of the application, but declining it, or failing to respond, will seriously jeopardize your chances of getting accepted.
The questions were very straightforward, and I always explained to students that I was reading from a form and that I would be writing their answers as closely as possible before submitting it.
- Why do you want to attend Cornell? (Because Cornell has so many colleges, I would always ask about the University at large, but also about the specific college they had applied to.)
- What is one extracurricular activity that you’ve done throughout high school that you are most proud of?
- Have there been any changes to your grades or schedule since you submitted your application? Have you won any awards since submitting?
- Do you have any questions that I can answer for you?
Tips for Your Alumni Interview
I will say this again: alumni interviewers actually want to speak to you! They love a chance to talk about their alma mater, reminisce, and learn about why you want to attend their beloved school. More importantly, to them, this is an opportunity to have an interesting conversation with you. That said, here are some things to keep in mind when you go to your interview:
- Be prepared. It sounds obvious, but many students that I spoke to were clearly not ready to speak to me. You will inevitably be asked about why you want to attend a specific school. Therefore, you must be prepared with a valuable, genuine answer: maybe you love the campus, or you can’t wait to join a specific club and take that one class with that one professor everyone raves about. This question is an opportunity for you to show that you have done your research and that you are really interested in attending a specific college.
- Be on time. While alumni interviews are generally very informal, the people who conduct them are usually very busy. When you schedule the interview, make sure that you are able to arrive at the selected destination on time. Sometimes things come up and you may have to cancel—this is okay! Be clear in explaining your situation and offer some alternative times to reschedule.
- Ask questions! One of the best parts of talking to students is getting to answer their questions. I remember one girl asked me about my favorite classes. I got to tell her all about Professor Mary Beth Norton and an incredible class about the Salem Witch Trials and the Cornell Witchcraft Collection. This one one of the best interviews I got to be part of, and I was so happy to hear when she got accepted! Note that it is okay to answer questions that are not necessarily positive, too. There is a lot of value in learning about the parts that alumni didn’t enjoy about their school.
- Breathe. Really. Alumni interviews can be stress-inducing, and those conducting them know that. alumni interviews do not generally sway the final decision of admissions officers because they usually confirm what was already determined by an admissions committee. However, they are an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about the school you are applying to and to have a casual conversation with really interesting people.
Challenges and Rewards
Overall, I can say that I truly enjoyed all these interviews. I appreciated the opportunity to get to know students who were curious about my alma mater, and I loved hearing about all the incredible accomplishments that had led them to their interview with me.
However, there were a couple of interviews that did not go well, mainly because the students did not prepare. During my first interview, I recall that I asked the student, “Can I give you some feedback?” and explained that, for these interviews, the best thing a student could do was demonstrate concrete knowledge of the school. We had just spent fifteen minutes speaking, and it was clear that they did not know much about Cornell. It made me wonder why they had applied in the first place. I told this student that they should prepare for all upcoming interviews to avoid this situation.
Conclusion
While the alumni interview process is not always required, it is a great opportunity for you to show further interest in a school. alumni interviewers genuinely enjoy getting to know you, so use this moment as an opportunity to be yourself, and tell them exactly why you want to go to their school!
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