Cut the pre-college stress

Erin Donohoe gulped some water to settle her butterflies then pored over the University of Chicago admissions booklet one more time.

The Westtown School senior was waiting her turn for The Interview.

With two fellow students also scheduled to meet individually that day with Jon Ryan Quinn, the university's assistant director of admissions, Donohoe knew she had to make an impression.

"It's my first one," the Waynesboro native confided, standing outside the room where Quinn was holed up at the Chester County boarding school.

"I've heard that an interview question can be 'What's the most important thing about you?' " Donohoe, who intends to apply to Chicago, said incredulously. "I don't have an answer to that. Who does?"

As seniors spend the fall whittling down their college lists and applying to their top picks, many are also scheduling - and stressing - over the admissions interview.

Well, relax.

That feared one-on-one with an administrator, current student or alum is often helpful, but rarely critical, according to college officials and counselors. Some schools, such as Bucknell University in Lewisburg, have dropped it.

According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an applicant's interview had limited or no importance at two-thirds of 386 four-year institutions surveyed last year for the group's State of College Admission report. The portion of schools that gave the chat "considerable importance" was 10 percent, down from a high of 15 percent in 1995.

Grades, strength of curriculum and test scores have been the top admission factors for at least 15 years, the August report found. The interview ranked 10th among 15 criteria that schools consider.

"I've never thought the interview was a deal-breaker," said college admission adviser Katherine Cohen of New York City, author of The Truth About Getting In. "Out of all the components being evaluated, I think it holds the least amount of weight."

With applications pouring in, campuses can't keep up with requests. Alumni are marshalled, but their feedback isn't always useful. Schools also are conscious of the system's potential unfairness. Less affluent students, for example, may not have the means to travel for an interview.

A lot of colleges favor group information sessions, where a college rep meets several students at once, said Elizabeth Eshleman, director of college guidance at Devon Preparatory School, which recently held a "mock interview" program where seniors got a trial run with 21 college reps.

Interviews help to create a mutually satisfying match, she said - a skill useful not just in applying to college, but in job searches and, Eshleman joked, meeting "the girlfriend's parents."

In three years, campus visits to Bucknell increased from about 9,800 to nearly 14,500, prompting a decision last spring to eliminate virtually all interviews, said Kurt M. Thiede, vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions. "We don't think that 30 minutes one on one with a staff member builds the kind of relationship we want with students," Thiede said.

The college was relying on interns and alumni to help, and "those interviews were uneven," he said. Some graduates "were still living in the 1970s, not that there's anything wrong with the 1970s. But a lot has changed" about the school.

Students who short-list Bucknell can spend a day attending classes and talking in depth with faculty, current students and admissions officers, as 23 students did on Columbus Day, he said. Input from those sessions becomes part of applicants' files.

Generally, the smaller and more selective schools value interviews.

In the admissions group's survey, no institution with 10,000 or more students gave "considerable importance" to the sessions. Many, such as Temple University - where about 17,900 students applied for the current school year - do not recommend them, largely for practical reasons.

But about 13 percent of colleges with fewer than 3,000 students placed high value on the chats. The request for face time also speaks to a student's "demonstrated interest," a factor valued by many small schools, according to the survey.

"An interview isn't going to make or break any application," said Matt Gray, spokesman for Bryn Mawr College. "But if there's two equally strong candidates, it's much easier to deny a piece of paper than a person."

Gabe Hendin, a senior at Barrack Hebrew Academy (formerly Akiba) in Merion, said he was "very anxious" days before his on-campus interview at Washington University in St. Louis. "I felt very unprepared," Hendin, of Wyncote, said.

But after reading up on interview secrets, he started to look forward to it. "It's a conversation," he said.

Jacquelyn Cortes, a biology and premed freshman at St. Joseph's University, recalled her jitters last year before she spoke with Harvard and Princeton alums. But the graduate of Camden's Brimm Medical Arts High School said the Ivy Leaguers "made me feel welcome."

Students shouldn't fear the interview, said Byron Goldstein, a private college admissions adviser in Glenside. "These people are not out to do you any harm; they're actually there to do you good," he said. "You can have another cheerleader working for you."

For highly selective schools, such as Princeton University, optional interviews help distinguish among the plethora of hyper-qualified candidates.

"It's helping us make these fine-line decisions we have to make," said Janet Lavin Rapelye, dean of admission. Ninety-five percent of Princeton's applicants for the Class of 2011 accepted the opportunity to interview - that's 17,900 sessions conducted by more than 6,000 alumni worldwide.

The University of Pennsylvania offers an optional interview only after a student's application has been received.

Penncrest High School senior Lepi Jha of Newtown Square plans to interview with Colgate University when she visits the campus in Hamilton, N.Y., in January. Though she doubts it will count for much, she knows the drill: "You're not supposed to say 'no' to an interview."

At Westtown, Donohoe got last-minute assurances ("be yourself") from Susan Tree, the school's director of college counseling, as Veerasak "Jeep" Srisuknimit of Bangkok emerged from his sit-down with Quinn.

"I didn't have a good question," Srisuknimit fretted. (Admissions officers shouldn't do all the asking, advisers caution.) "It was OK."

And Donohoe took the hot seat.

A college offers insider tips on how to ace the interview at http://go.philly.com/admission

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