jnljinson
hi , absolutely agree with that part. however that can also be accomplished with non-interview chats with current students. I make it a point to connect to at least two students from each school before i sit for an interview / fill out the app etc. ( one US student and one international ).
what I am worried is that , when students take the interviews , their heart may sometimes be not into it. again this is only some cases but certainly there is a risk of running into a dis interested student. Also there is an authority / mandate issue compared to a member from the adcom. The students mostly stick to the questionnaire agenda whereas the adcos usually improvises the question list making the interview more engaging.
Jinson, that's a very good point I had not considered. My sense with the student interviews is they're more concerned with fit from a student perspective. I think adcom members attempt to assess problem solving skills, relevant work experience etc. My sense through student interviews is an emphasis is place on how they think you'd fit in class (is this someone I'd want to be in a small group with? Grab lunch with? etc.). For that reason, I found the student interviews to be a pleasant interview and actually some of them were quite fun. At my interview with Duke, we somehow got on the topic of discussing how we'd survive the zombie apocalypse.
So, what I guess I'm saying is, I like the student interview because I can talk about the zombie apocalypse.
Good luck with your Olin interview. Hopefully you'll get someone who cares about the interview. I'll be curious to get your feedback on how it went/what you thought of the interviewer.