Using the AAP Portal Middlebury College Alumni Admissions Program Welcome to the 2017-18 admissions cycle! The AAP Portal is your source for interviewing information and your connection to the AAP program. You will be able to change your password, update your personal information with the College, find your AAP chair s contact information, access your assignment list, fill out the alumni report, check decisions, and find other links to newsletters and useful information. Your username will always be the preferred email address we have on file for you. If you have not already established a password for the portal, you will want to do so after logging in with your initial PIN. You will be required to create a new password that contains: 1. At least one letter 2. At least one capital letter 3. At least one number 4. At least 8 characters Please keep your username and password accessible. If you forget your password you can use the Forgot Your Password? link, but note that it will require that you remember the email address you used as your username. Another important note: when you log out of the system you need to close all browsers in order to log out completely. If you do not do this, your login remains active! You should never log into the AAP portal from a public computer, such as a computer used by multiple users at a cyber-café.
Log-in and Profile (Note if you interviewed for us last year: As you look at your AAP Profile, if you need to update the number of interviews you wish to take on, you will need to change those numbers. What you see there is what you indicated last year. Likewise if any other information has changed, please update where necessary.) The first time you log into the new system, you will be presented with a form stating Conflicts of Interest and Best General Practices. Please read through this information carefully, and if you agree with the statements, click the Yes checkbox. If you have a conflict of interest that prohibits you from participating in the program, please click the No checkbox and make sure to click the Submit box so we can remove you from the AAP mailings for this year. Feel free to reach out to us at aap@middlebury.edu if you have any questions about your participation in the program. Once you have clicked the Yes checkbox, you will be asked which rounds you would like to participate in this year. Once you select a specific round, you will be asked how many interviews you would like to do for each round. Note that we combine Regular Decision and Early Decision II since the application due dates are the same. You will also be asked whether you are willing to conduct interviews outside your region via Skype or Facetime: Personal Information It is very important to keep your address up-to-date so that we can reach you and be efficient in our assigning of interviews. Since most communication is conducted through e-mail, and this is also your username for logging in, please let us know right away if your email address has changed, or if you would prefer that we use a different email address. It is also very important that we have your correct mailing address since that is the basis for your interview assignments. Please click either
Yes or No in response to the Is your name/address correct? question. If you click No, the Change of Address link will display. Note that address changes may take up to a week to process. Once you have completed this form, click the Submit button and you will have access to the full Alumni Admissions Program portal.
AAP Portal Basics There are three tabs at the top of the screen, Home, Interviews, and College Fairs: Home Tab Each time you log into the system you will begin on the Home tab. Please review this page for important messages it is our main method of communicating with you throughout the season. You will also find much information in the Useful Links section, including the AAP calendar, tips on interviewing, and the latest AAP Newsletter. Interviews Tab You will probably spend most of your time on the Interviews tab of the AAP website. Here you will find the student s contact information along with the link to the interview form. You can also see the date that the interview was assigned, along with the status of the interview form. College Fairs Tab The College Fairs tab is new this year, and allows you to sign up for college fairs in your area. If you are interested in representing Middl0ebury at a college fair in your area, please send an email to aap@middlebury.edu so we know of your interest, and then check the College Fairs tab regularly for fairs in your area.
The Interviews Tab The Interviews tab is where you will find information regarding the interviews that have been assigned to you, and the status of any interviews you have started or completed. At the top of the page you will see the name of the chair(s) for your region as well as a reminder of the due dates for interviews for each round: The My Interview Assignments section lists the applicants to whom you have been assigned. Click on the name of the applicant and a pop-up will appear list the applicant s contact information, and the File Report link will give you access to the interview report form:
Completing The Alumni Interview Report Form As a staff, we place the most importance on the narrative evaluation. Oftentimes, your anecdotal comments provide information that expands upon statistical qualifications that appear in the file. The quantitative section of the interview is also considered in the admissions process, but we place less importance upon the numerical rankings than we do upon the narrative comments. The Write Up Once you have conducted the interview, it may be helpful to jot down your notes. When ready, log on to the AAP portal to submit your comments. 1. Click on the Interviews tab. 2. Find the student s name under My Interview Assignments, click on their name, and then click on File Report. You will first be presented with general information about our goals for the interview, followed by fields that are pre-filled with the name of the applicant you are reviewing. The first thing you will need to enter is the date your interview was conducted, and the Interview Type: Please take note of the caution statement about saving your work: If you find that you are not able to complete the write-up in one sitting, you can save your work by clicking on the Save For Later button, which will return you to the Home page of the Portal. To return to your write-up simply click the Interviews tab again, click on the student s name, and click File Report.
3. Once you have entered the Interview Date you need to select the Interview Type. If you were unable to meet with the student, please click the Unable to Interview checkbox and you will be presented with several options: After selecting the reason that you were unable to conduct the interview you will have the opportunity to describe in more detail your interaction with the applicant: Make sure you click the Submit button to complete the process! 4. For most applicants, you will select one of the interview types indicating that you met with the applicant either in person (Face to Face) or via Phone or Video Conference (Skype or Facetime). Selecting one of these options will display the seven main sections of the interview report: The Applicant Academic/Intellectual Qualities Extracurricular Additional Qualities Middlebury Potential Ratings Final Review Each of these sections on the form has a description of the information we are seeking followed by a text box. Below the text box is an interactive count of the number of words remaining for each section. Remember that brevity is the soul of wit!
Here is an example of a partially completed interview: Most people will input their interview reports directly into the portal, using the Save for Later button as needed. However, you may wish to type up your comments in a separate document which you can then transfer into the interview report by copying and pasting. You will need to give us numeric ratings on Academic Depth/Passion, Extracurriculars, Personal, and Overall before submitting the form. A link is provided on the form to assist you with the ratings which span from a 1 (weak) to a 7 (strong) rating, and is also listed at the end of this document. Please make sure that your ratings are supported by your comments.
5. When your report is complete, click the Submit button, which will return you to the Home tab of the portal. Click on the Interviews tab and you will see that the status now says Completed : Checking Decisions Four days after decisions are released to the applicant our decision will display in the Decision column. Here is a list of the decision codes that will display: Decision September Admit February Admit Defer ED1 Deny ED2 Deny Regular Decision Deny Waitlist Code SA FA D1 R1 R2 RF WL
The College Fairs Tab College fairs in your area that we would like to be represented at, but a Middlebury admissions counselor is not able to attend, will show up on this page as we become aware of them. The College Fairs in My Area section lists the address we are using find nearby fairs, and listed below will be any fairs that are currently available for alums: If you would like to attend a fair, click on the Name and a pop-up will display the full address of the fair as well as the date and time: Click on the Sign Up button to register for the fair and it will now appear in the My College Fairs section with a status of Pending. Once the College Fair Coordinator has confirmed your participation in the fair the Status will change to Confirmed :
Interview Ratings Scale 7 Truly exceptional interview; student would be a tip-top contributor to campus one of only a handful each year who are especially compelling personally and/or intellectually, and who could shape this community in exceptional ways; someone who stands head and shoulders above the rest. 6 Excellent interview; student is clearly above and beyond our routine interviewees, offers ingredients to campus that would have a definite impact on others and on the quality of the institution; someone who would be known on campus and be a source of campus pride; a memorable individual. 5 Very solid interview with qualities that show the student has fulfilled more than our standard expectations; carries the conversation in interesting ways, turns the interview into an asset to his/her candidacy; goes beyond merely responding to questions, showing either insight, depth, passion, reflection, wisdom, curiosity, or initiative; someone we d be happy to have on campus. 4 Standard interview; student would be a welcome presence on campus and a pleasant addition, but interview was not anything particularly out of the ordinary; student would be a solid citizen, but no stand-out qualities are apparent; appears to be fairly typical of many of our applicants; a pleasant interview. 3 Below average interview; student might contribute to campus in one sector or another but overall falls below our average student. While not representative of our average profile, the student is still academically engaged and/or community oriented. 2 Poor interview; student is unlikely to add much to campus; interview was clearly underwhelming; student does not demonstrate a sufficient positive contribution to the vitality, depth, or breadth of the Middlebury community, either personally or intellectually; interview memorable mostly for its lack of appeal. 1 bad interview; student did not demonstrate any reason to admit; interview was a clear liability to his/her candidacy; student is not a contender in our pool; intellectual or personal qualities are lacking in ways obvious enough to seriously affect the committee s assessment of the student s candidacy here. 99 Unable to interview