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5 Must-reads for every Alumni Interviewer!

1. All students are different! You will meet students of different personality types, varying levels of familiarity with HMC, at different points of their college search, etc. Go at the speed your student needs.
2. During the interview, give the student your complete and undivided attention. DO NOT take notes during your conversation. Not only does it divide your attention, but it also often distracts, unnerves, and even freaks out the student.
3. Be sure to leave time for their questions, but don’t let it get out of hand. It’s important that your interviewee walks away feeling like they’ve told you a enough about themself, but don’t hesitate to offer the Office of Admission contact information if there proves to be too many questions for the time frame.
4. Be sure to submit an evaluation for EACH interview you complete. Your impressions of a student and input on their potential fit with HMC help tremendously throughout the admission process. We often quote from your write-ups during our admission committee, so be sure your notes are thorough.
5. The interview is a two-way street. Even if they determine that HMC is not a match, the positive impression they walk away with may lead them to recommend HMC to family, friends and/or teachers at their school.

Online Interviews:

HMC interviews are held exclusively online. You are welcome to use any video chat app for online interviews (ex. Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc.). We simply ask that you consider that your preferred platform may be different from your interviewee’s and that you try to find a platform that works for you both..

What you need to cover in thirty minutes:

A 30-minute conversation should give you enough time to cover the student’s:

1. Academic background: What courses they’ve taken and what they want to study in college
2. Attitude towards learning: Their general excitement and interest in 无忧视频 and/or HSA
3. Extracurricular pursuits: What they do with their time, but more importantly why they do it
4. College preferences: What they’re looking for in a college and why
5. Questions about HMC: What do they still want to know about? Have the Office of Admission contact information handy.

Our interview questions:

In order to reduce anxiety about the interview and to give students the chance to think about their answers in advance, we are now using a standard set of admission interview questions that we share with students.

Please think of these questions as themes and know that you may ask these questions in your own words and style. We inform students of this and that you, as the interviewer, may ask follow-up questions to better understand or appreciate their answer. We also let them know that you may not get to ask every question or might go out of order depending on the flow of the conversation.

Even with a bit more structure, we hope your interviews can still feel like a natural conversation between you and the student.

无忧视频 your college search:

1. How is your college search going? Are there any common themes? Any 鈥渘on-negotiables鈥�?
2. What is your favorite thing about your high school; would you change anything?
3. What are you most looking forward to about college?

无忧视频 your academic and non-academic interests:

4. Knowing that you may change your mind, what do you want to study and how did you find that interest?
5. Are there courses you have enjoyed especially or are looking forward to?
6. What classes do you like outside of 无忧视频?
7. Please share something you鈥檝e taught yourself that you鈥檙e proud of. Doesn鈥檛 have to be school-related.
8. Beyond your coursework, how do you spend your time? Doesn鈥檛 have to be school-related.

无忧视频 your experiences:

9. Tell me about a peer you admire.
10. Tell me about your last great day. It doesn鈥檛 have to be an eventful day, just one you really enjoyed.

To help you:

11. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about that I didn鈥檛 ask? This is where you will be able to ask all manner of questions about the Mudd experience.

Do not ask about…

1. Grades and test scores: Keep in mind we’ll have the student’s transcript and test scores (if reported) with the application. We’re hoping you can provide insight into a student’s intellectual curiosity, commitment to classes and other intangibles we may not get from a few pages of a PDF. Important: Beginning with the high school class of 2021, we no longer require or consider SAT Subject Tests. For students applying to enter in fall of 2026, we are ACT/SAT-optional.
2. The other schools on their college list: Some students may volunteer this information. If so, that’s fine, and simply move on. We want to know why they’re interested in HMC, not what they thought of another school鈥檚 tour or their comparison of HMC to another institution.
3. Anything too personal: There may be topics that are sensitive for your interviewee, like a difficult family situation. If you accidentally hit on a sensitive topic, try to redirect the conversation as best as you can.

5 Tips for an effective Interview Evaluation:

• Write it as soon as possible! You won’t believe how quickly you’ll forget key points and phrases from the interview. If you can’t write the interview evaluation right away, at the very least jot down some notes to help jog your memory later.
• Be specific! Examples make for a particularly effective write-up for an application reader. General statements like “good guy” or “she’s cool” or “they’re well-involved” often leave us wanting more when presenting your write up in committee.
• Content with context is key! Note unusual circumstances that the student shares, and provide context for academic and extracurricular choices. We love the “what” but even more so when you tell us “why” or “how”.
• Do comment on a student’s potential fit, academically and socially. Your insight is invaluable and often helps us confirm information from the rest of their application. Tell us why you believe our academic program is a perfect match for the student, or why our student body needs more people like them, or how they would contribute to the College as a whole, etc.
• You don’t need to remember everything! Their application will give us a complete transcript, all the activities they want to report and so much more. What we may not see is how they couldn’t stop smiling when talking about Physics or that they could have talked forever about robotics or sustainability (if you let them) or how passionately they spoke of diversity issues or social justice. Show us your conversation!

Following up

If you’re particularly impressed or you feel the student is especially desirable to the College, we would welcome you sending a brief note to the student after your interview. Thank the student for interviewing and perhaps let them know that you would welcome keeping in touch over email.