For the past three years, the Admission Office has been developing a pilot program that currently offers optional interviews to Stanford applicants. As The Daily reported last week, interviews for Stanford applicants are currently only offered in twelve areas, nearly all of them in large metropolitan centers with extensive alumni presence. As the Admission Office evaluates the interview program and considers whether to make it a mandatory part of the admission application, the Editorial Board stresses that several major concerns need to be addressed before interviews can be required of all applicants.
As it currently stands, the pilot interview program is only used by a meager section of the total application pool–this year, only about 2,500 of the estimated 32,000 applicants requested an interview, less than eight percent of those who applied for admission. One likely reason for the low number of participants was the limited number of interview locations. Making an interview an application requirement–expanding the number of interviewees from 2,500 to more than ten times that number–would present untold logistical and financial challenges to the University. While several peer institutions are able to maintain a wide network of alumni interviewers, it must be taken into account that their alumni densities by region may be very different compared to Stanford’s, and they have been interviewing applicants much longer than we have.
Even if Stanford Admissions is able to engage the volume of alumni necessary to interview thousands of applicants, training must be standardized and far-reaching while also informative. Styles of interviews would vary widely based on alumni’s area of study, professional background and a myriad of other factors. Ensuring standard feedback mechanisms and an understanding of what questions interviewers will ask will require much greater development than the standard rubric. All told, expanding the interview program into a full application requirement could require millions of dollars and countless hours of organizing and outreach. Even so, the interview program as it currently stands is severely insufficient and possibly even unfair to the majority of applicants.
The Editorial Board believes that giving applicants ways to present themselves outside of test scores, grades and recommendations is a noble goal. However, our admission process is a quite rigorous one already. When over 30,000 applicants are reduced to a select group of 2,300 admitted students, the process leaves little room for error. And we believe that the optional interview program as it stands gives one segment of the applicant pool–those with the means or proximity to attend an interview at one of the 12 current locations–a considerable advantage in that they are able to provide another layer of personal texture to their applications.
One final concern that the Editorial Board hopes is being addressed concerns the socio-economic and ethnic diversity of applicants and alumni interviewers. Stanford alumni come from a myriad of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. However, there is no guarantee that interviewer and applicant will have similar cultural or socio-economic understandings. That is to be expected. But training must be substantial enough that students from backgrounds different than their interviewers are not disadvantaged in the interview process due to potential cultural and linguistic biases.
Should the Office of Undergraduate Admission consider making an interview a requirement of all undergraduate applicants, the interview process must be significantly developed beyond what is presently available in the pilot program. Applicants must be given reliable access to interviews within a reasonable proximity to their home areas, as well as the assurance that they will be evaluated fairly and without prejudice. Accomplishing this expansion of the program, however, may require more funds and time than the Admission Office is able to invest at the present time.