[Danny Diaz]

Yeah, I'm sure the interview session was high up on the Dean's List judges "I wish we could..." list, but I'm not so sure it works well in practice. Yes, the Dean's List people enjoy meeting the kids, but what can you determine in 3 minutes other than the overall perkiness of their demeanor (and maybe generally determine if the essay writer was lying - not that it would be GP at all to do so)?

At Arkansas, the kids walked into the room in front of the judges and the judges said something to the effect of, "So tell us what you do on the team." Really? Yeah. The student then spends 3 minutes recapping basically what's in the Dean's List essay (the essay should be a highlight summary of the student's accomplishments!). Yes, the kids are "selling" themselves to the Dean's List committee, but a humble kid is toast in this type of interview situation.

One of our Dean's List nominee students is a driver, and the Dean's List schedule was released before the match schedules were released. Once we found out both schedules I had to negotiate with other Dean's List candidates (because our driver was in queue or on the field most of the time) to find a time during the interview window where we weren't on the field and we could trade interview sessions. Mad props to 1985 for being so willing to swap! If you've got drivers up for Dean's List, understand this is going to be a challenge you may have to work out.

-Danny