We always recommend taking advantage of an on-campus or alumni interview when possible.

Brown: Alumni interviews recommended, but not required. Once your application is received, alumni in your area will contact you. If you do want an interview, then you’ll set up the time and place at that point. This applies to international applicants where possible too. No on-campus interviews.

CalTech: No interviews.

Columbia University: Interviews are not required. Between October and February, a member of Columbia’s Alumni Representative Committee will contact you if an interview is available in the area where your high school is located. To better your chances of getting an interview, turn in your Application for Admission I of your Columbia app as early as possible. The Alumni Representative Committee is totally separate from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, so don’t contact the admissions people if you have interview questions or issues. Note above, if you are a legacy you can arrange an on-campus interview. Columbia does not count all graduate schools into the legacy pool. Please note: applicants are considered to be “legacies” of Columbia only if they are the children of Columbia College or the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science graduates.

Cornell: Cornell can get sort of confusing because you’re applying to a particular college. So, for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, no interview is required, but they do recommend visiting. For the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, for architecture applicants an interview is required, on- or off-campus. For art students, an interview is recommended. For details on setting up interviews for this college, visit www.aap.cornell.edu; keep in mind that the deadline for interviews for early decision applicants is November 10 and for regular decision is January 31. For the College of Hotel Administration, an interview is required, on- or off-campus. Visit www.hotelschool.cornell.edu for more interview information and keep in mind that the early decision deadline is November 15 and the regular decision deadline is February 15. For College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Human Ecology, and the College of Industrial and Labor Relations, no interviews required.

Dartmouth: Dartmouth got rid of on-campus interviews in 2007 so they now have only the alumni interview. The alumni interview is done for early decision applicants between October and mid-November and for regular applicants from December to mid-February for freshman applicants only in the area where the applicant lives based on if there’s an alumnus in the area. The alumni will contact you. Don’t worry if you do not hear from someone, it might just be that there is no one in your area.

Duke: Interviews are optional. To be eligible for an interview with a Duke alumnus, submit the Student Supplement (Form A) by October 20 for early decision applicants and December 10 for regular applicants. Early Decision applicants are first priority for interviews. Regular applicants will be contacted at the beginning of February, but if you submit the form by the deadline and are still not contacted by November 10 for early decision or February 1 for regular decision, send an interview request form online. The whole interview process is done by mid-February. If you don’t do an interview, you can submit an additional letter of recommendation.

Georgetown: Interviews with an alumnus are required, unless it’s geographically not possible. When your application is received, the Admissions Office will send you the contact information for the alumni interviewer in your area, and you make the arrangements with them from there.

Harvard: When and where possible an alumni interview will be set up. The alumni interviewer will contact you via phone, email, or letter. International applicants should initiate contact with an interviewer; you’ll need the information that’s found in the International Interviewer booklet.

MIT: Interview is not required, but strongly recommended. If an interview can be offered to you, the name and contact information for your Educational Counselor who conducts the interview will be in your MyMIT account. Contact them early in the application process; for early action, October 20 is the last day to contact your Educational Counselor to set up the interview, November 1 is the last day to have an interview, and for regular applicants, December 1 is last day to schedule an interview, and December 15 is the last day to have it.

Northwestern: Interviews, which are conducted by alumni, are optional. You’ll get more information on alumni interviews after you’ve applied.

NYU: No interviews offered.

Princeton: You’re contacted by an alumni interviewer once you’ve submitted your application. Interviews are not required, but they recommend that you accept the invitation to do an interview if you get one. No on-campus interviews.

Rice University: Interviews are recommended, but not required. There are two types, offered to high school seniors or rising seniors: the on-campus interview with a Rice Senior Interviewer offered only until December 9, or the off-campus interview with an alumnus. After they receive Part I of your application or your Common App, they’ll send you more information. It’s your responsibility to set up the interview. For early applicants, request an interview by October 15, complete it by November 1. For interim applicants, request by November 15 and complete by December 11. For regular applicants, request by December 18 and complete by January 22.

Stanford: No interviews.

University of California: No interviews for any of the UC campuses.

University of Pennsylvania: Interviews are optional. No on-campus interviews unless you are a child or grandchild of an alumnus; contact the Alumni Council for an interview appointment. For everyone else, interviews are offered where there are Secondary School Committees, who will contact you once you’ve submitted your Penn application. For early decision, interviews are done between November 1 and December 1. For regular applicants, interviews are during January and February.

Washington University in Saint Louis: Interviews are encouraged, but not required. There are two types: the on-campus interview or the alumni interview. You can only do one type. When you visit WashU, you can request that an interview be part of your visit, or after you submit your application (or at least your Pre-Application Data Sheet), if there’s an alumni in your area, you can schedule an alumni interview. On-campus interviews end in early March for high school seniors; alumni interviews are between September 1 and January 15.

Yale: Interviews are not required, but if you are contacted by an alumnus, you are strongly encouraged to accept. A member of the Alumni Schools Committee will contact you if they can offer you an interview after you submit your Yale application.

Why are schools getting rid of interviews? When Michele was working at Dartmouth, every staff member plus a hired staff of senior interviewers did 4-5 interviews per day all summer. However, only a small percentage of the students interviewed ended up applying. So why spend 90% of your time over summer doing interviews when so few become applicants? Students were in the habit of visiting 10-12 schools, scheduling interviews, and then deciding on one school to apply to early. Therefore, it makes more sense for the schools to wait until a student actually applies before doing an actual interview, hence the value of the alumni interview (which are only assigned once the student actually mails in an application).

The only downside to alumni interviews is that not all applicants are offered one as it totally depends upon whether there is an active alum near where the student lives. Also, alumni are not really trained (at least not in most cases) as interviewers, so these interviews can be all over the map in terms of what they ask and how they write up the results.

So the on-campus interview is becoming obsolete at many top schools while the alumni interviews, a better use of time, are still going strong.

We’ve had so many questions about college recruiting lately we thought we’d bring you an interview we recently had with John Wolff.  John was recruited to play baseball at Harvard and went on to play professional baseball with the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets!

First, I would like to thank Mimi and Michele for asking me to share my thoughts on college athletics and the recruiting game. Having gone through this process myself and knowing what a major influence it had on my life, I certainly wish I had more access to detailed first-hand information when I was still in high school. To that end, I hope the readers of this blog find value in my experiences and learn from my successes and failures.

1) What was the recruiting process like for you as a high school student?

I played varsity soccer, ice hockey, and baseball at Byram Hills High School in Armonk, NY. I always knew I wanted to play sports in college and, one day, maybe professionally. Although I was well-decorated with a variety of honors in high school (All-State, All-Section, All-League, etc.), I knew that because I attended a relatively small public high school I needed to go above and beyond my high school program to garner serious interest from top college programs.

I played junior-level ice hockey and was selected to the prestigious Empire State Team twice. I also played semi-pro baseball while in high school in order to face a stronger level of competition. I also made sure to attend as many elite baseball tournaments/showcases as possible. Fortunately, my efforts paid off. By competing at these higher levels against top athletes, I discovered that I had the requisite ability to play at the college level. During my senior year, dozens of letters started to pour in from colleges that were interested in me for both hockey and baseball. Many were “form-letters” from colleges that I had never heard of, but many others were handwritten, personalized notes from colleges that wanted me to visit and see the program.  I made sure to fill out all the response cards from the colleges that I was interested in.

I was flattered, to be sure, but I hadn’t heard yet from Dartmouth or Harvard, both top Div I programs. And in truth, there were several other top colleges still in the mix. So I came up with an unusual counteroffer. I went back to the Div III coach, and said, “How about this…if I don’t get into Harvard or Dartmouth, then I will come to your school to play baseball.” He countered by saying, “Okay, but you have to promise me that you won’t go to any other Div III program – you have to come here if you don’t get into Harvard or Dartmouth.”

I told him he had a deal. True, it was a different kind of deal, but then again, my sense is that the entire college recruiting process is a lot more like this  — of offers and counter-offers — than most high school athletes would imagine.

After some thought and consultation with my parents, I decided to call back the Harvard coach and told him I would commit to his program. I loved the school and the baseball program is one of the top places to play ball in the northeast. I also called the coaches at Dartmouth and also at that top Div III school and thanked them for their offers. They appreciated my honesty.

In short, I was off to play baseball at Harvard. As you might imagine I was excited. Only one minor problem: When I arrived at school I met my competition. The top recruit from Boston — a kid named Zak Farkes — played shortstop just like me. I knew I was in trouble from day one because Zak was simply a better player than I was. As one might expect, Zak played ahead of me and led our team to a couple of Ivy League Championships. Zak even broke the all-time Harvard career home run record, and he did it in only two seasons on the team. In short, Zak was a phenomenal college player and I spent a lot of time watching him from the bench.

However, even though I didn’t get many at-bats during the Harvard spring season, I made sure to take advantage of my summers and played ball in the very competitive ACBL (Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League). The ACBL is a major showcase league for top college players who want to go pro. I played well there, and even made the All-Star team in the ACBL. Sure enough, when draft time came around during our junior season,  two players from Harvard were drafted: myself (Chicago White Sox) and Zak Farkes (Boston Red Sox).

I have since retired as an active player from professional baseball after spending three years in the minors with the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets. However, Zak Farkes is still doing very well in the Boston Red Sox organization. I still hope to see him in the major leagues in the near future!

2) How did you balance sports and academics at Harvard?

I played three years of varsity baseball before I was drafted by the Chicago White Sox after my junior year. I also played four years of JV ice hockey because I enjoy skating so much. I don’t think the baseball coaching staff at Harvard liked the idea of me playing hockey in my free time but I really enjoyed my time with the hockey program. It was a great way to stay in shape in the off-season and expand my network.

The baseball program at Harvard did a great job of helping the freshmen organize their calendars to accommodate varsity baseball and academic class schedules. I vividly remember having a few sit-down sessions with upperclassmen baseball players and their “inside advice” on what classes to take, at what times, which professors to look for, and which professors to avoid.

During the off-season, we still had early morning weight-lifting sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and we had conditioning sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The weight-lifting and conditioning was in the morning before classes and then we had workouts or practices in the afternoons depending on the weather. That said, the focus was predominantly on academics in the off-season. The coaches stressed the importance of keeping up with one’s studies. During the spring season, it was definitely more of a challenge to maintain quality study habits. There was a lot of travel and playing a Division I varsity sport is a major time commitment. That said, everyone helped each other out and the older players would tutor the younger guys on the road. I found that many professors were extremely accommodating when players had to email in homework assignments while on trips.

3) What was the process like to move from Harvard into the job world?

I’ve had a very unusual transition from Harvard into the “job” world. Because I was drafted by the Chicago White Sox after my junior year in school, I decided to take a semester off and play professional baseball. I then returned to college for one more fall semester and then graduated in the winter one semester behind my original class. As such, I guess my first “real” job was playing professional baseball.

During my years in the minor leagues, I was amazed by the amount of free time I had after practice. At Harvard, there was always a show to see, a party to enjoy, a conference to attend and so on. In my free hours off the ball field, I started keeping a diary that turned into a book called Harvard Boys that was published by SkyHorse in the fall of 2007. The book recounts my first year in the minor leagues and is available on Amazon.com. I heartily recommend it if you are interested in learning more about what life is really like in pro ball.

In my three years in the minors, I moved around a lot and I found it was difficult to keep in touch with my teammates. As such, in my second year in the minors I started an online and exclusive network for professional athletes called eFieldHouse.com. The network is still going strong and growing daily.

This past year I decided to retire from professional baseball and run eFieldHouse.com while also working for a small private equity firm in Greenwich, CT. I enjoyed my experience and I recently decided to attend Columbia Business School with the plan to re-enter the world of private equity/venture capital when I graduate.

Looking back, I think the transition from Harvard to professional baseball was fairly seamless because I felt at home on the ball field. However, it has been much harder for me to retire from baseball. I miss playing the game, but I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life.

If you have questions about the college athletic recruiting process feel free to email me at wolff@efieldhouse.com. I’m happy to offer my thoughts and advice.