Yale College Interviewing

If you’re interested in volunteering to interview prospective Yale College students, our regional Alumni Schools Committee (ASC) could greatly use your help. ASC volunteers engage applicants in meaningful conversations about their high school experience, interest in Yale, and hopes for the future, among many topics, as well as working to convey the spirit of Yale to these applicants. In addition, ASC Members write evaluative reports based on these conversations, which are submitted to the Admissions Office electronically. On our local ASC committee, most volunteers interview 4-5 applicants between September and February 15 of every admissions cycle.

Besides being a great way to stay connected with both the University and local Yale alumni, volunteering for the ASC is a way to meet some incredibly talented and accomplished high school students, enhance Yale’s profile in our community, and educate local students, parents, and counselors about Yale College and the selective admissions process. We try very hard to offer an alumni interview to every applicant who has not already had an interview at the Admissions Office—a considerable challenge in recent years given the growing number of applications and shrinking number of volunteers. Last year we had a record number of applicants—328—from our region, which includes all of Maryland except Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties. We are particularly challenged to find interviewers for the growing number of applicants outside of the Baltimore area because we don’t like to ask applicants to travel great distances for interviews.

ASC members play two roles on behalf of Yale: 1) They act as a local representatives of the Undergraduate Admissions Office, serving as a resource for community members who want to find out more about Yale and its admissions process. 2) They conduct evaluative interviews of freshman applicants and provide written feedback about these conversations to the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Yale asks ASC Members to commit to significant time to ASC effort, between 10 and 15 hours per year as a rough guideline. Interviewing takes place from mid-October to the end of November for Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) candidates, and from January through mid-February for Regular Decision (RD) applicants. Yale recommends that ASC volunteers allot at least an hour for each interview and 30 minutes for writing each interview report. In April, ASC members may be also asked to contact admitted students to recruit them to Yale, and are invited to our local yield reception. Some ASC members are also active during the fall and spring recruitment season as Yale representatives at local college fairs.

ASC members must be an alumnus/a of Yale College or one of Yale’s Graduate and Professional Schools. Although Yale College graduates generally have the greatest familiarity with undergraduate academics, residential colleges, and extracurricular life at Yale, many of our best interviewers in Maryland are alumni from the graduate and professional schools who have done of bit of research into Yale’s undergraduate life. However, ASC Members are not permitted to recruit or interview for another undergraduate college.

If an ASC Member’s child is in Yale’s applicant pool during the current admissions cycle, he or she must take a leave of absence from the ASC during that cycle and not conduct any interviews. The Admissions Office also requests that members take a year off from the ASC if a grandchild, sibling, or other close relative is applying to Yale and attends high school in their local ASC.

Independent college counselors or individuals otherwise engaged in helping students prepare college applications (college admission officer, for-profit college preparation consultant, etc.) are not permitted to be ASC members. School-based counselors and teachers may interview, but they should not interview students who attend the schools in which they work.

To join the Greater Baltimore/Maryland ASC, please send an email with your name, Yale degree and year, and contact information to the Admissions Office (asc@yalemaryland.org) so that we can add you into the system and send you log-in information.

For additional details about now to activate your account, schedule interviews, and write and file reports, as well as current admissions officers and statistics, check out the Alumni Schools Committee Website at http://asc.yale.edu.