Interview Day #1!

This past Friday the admissions office had its first summer interview day! This is an opportunity for prospective students and their parents to come to Oberlin, interview with an admissions counselor, take a campus tour, and sit in on a panel session of an admissions counselor, students, and faculty members in order to find out more about Oberlin. This particular interview day wasn't extremely busy, though there were more people that I had expected. I only had to tour once (at 10am), which was probably a good thing since I only got 2 hours of sleep (for no reason, I just couldn't fall asleep) the night before. I spent the day talking to prospies, as we call them, their parents, and, of course, the admissions staff. It's always fun to meet and talk to prospective students and find out their personal story. Everyone has a different path to Oberlin, and usually the story is an interesting one. I met students from New York City, Chicago, Minnesota, Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere. I didn't meet any CA students this time, but I'm sure there will be many who show up.

I think the interview day idea is great. It was a bit strange being in the science center (one of the few places that has a common area big enough for these events to occur) all day instead of the admissions office, but it was fun. The day passed with few real incidents. There were the typical parents who tried to seize control of my tour by asking too many questions, but I've been giving tours long enough that I know how to counteract their attempts. No matter how many college tours they've been on, I've given many, many more (since I've been an Oberlin tour guide since...March of 2008), so I can often predict where their line of questioning will lead. Overall, my tour went fairly well. Nothing too eventful, which is always nice.

The one thing that has been bugging me is that the construction on the Lewis Center (the environmental studies building) prevents us from taking tour groups into that particular building during tours. This is frustrating because the Lewis Center embodies many of Oberlin's best qualities, the foremost of which is pushing conventional boundaries towards new and innovative solutions to current problems (aka running an academic building entirely on solar power). Interested in learning more about the Lewis Center and its amazingness? Follow this link: http://www.oberlin.edu/ajlc/ajlcHome.html

But yes, overall the first interview day was fantastic. I enjoyed meeting new students (as I always do), and I look forward to meeting more. Every Friday for the remainder of the summer is an interview day, so it should be fun times all summer long! Wooooot.