一、宾大官方信息原文

　　The Penn Alumni Ambassador Program will no longer offer alumni conversations with prospective students beginning with the 2025-26 cycle, University leadership announced Wednesday in a message to members of the program.

　　In lieu of “brief admissions-season conversations,” alumni ambassadors will now participate in a “sustained year-round volunteer experience focused on supporting students at every stage of their Penn journey,” Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule and Senior Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Hoopes Wampler wrote in the message. The announcement is the latest in a series of updates to PAAP, an initiative designed to build relationships between Penn alumni and new students.

　　Soule and Wampler described the program as a “robust, campus-wide mentorship initiative” with “opportunities to congratulate and welcome matriculating students.” They cited feedback from current alumni ambassadors, including a desire to ensure their “valuable time be made more relevant and rewarding” during the admissions process.

　　In their message, Soule and Wampler attributed the change to the University’s record-breaking applicant pool and the resulting need to redirect alumni “expertise” to encourage "enduring impact.”

　　Vice Dean and Director of Strategic Communications of Penn Admissions Paul Richards described the new model as “the evolution of a strong and long-standing collaboration between Penn Admissions and Alumni Relations,” in a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

　　The complete details of the update to the admission process will be made available on Aug. 1, when Penn’s undergraduate application goes live.

　　“Applicants will be able to see that we no longer list an optional alumni conversation as part of our application requirements,” Richards wrote.

　　Penn received 72,544 applications for undergraduate admission in the last admissions cycle — making it the University’s most selective year on record and marking a sharp increase from the 31,000 applications received in 2012, when PAAP was established.

　　According to a frequently asked questions website linked in the message, this “rapid increase in application volume and the compressed timeline for review have made it challenging to sustain one-on-one conversations in an equitable and timely way.”

　　Under the newly designed program, one-on-one alumni conversations will be replaced with yearlong efforts to welcome, mentor, and support new and current students.

　　“From the moment an admitted student chooses Penn, you will help ease their transition and guide their academic, extracurricular, and professional exploration,” Soule and Wampler wrote.

　　“Alumni volunteers will be able to focus on meaningful and sustained connections with admitted and current students, rather than short conversations with applicants who may or may not end up coming to Penn,” Richards wrote.

　　The message also featured an interest form for alumni to log their involvement and mentorship goals to help guide the program. According to the form, the updated model will also offer opportunities for alumni to receive mentorship from fellow alumni.

　　The announcement comes after Penn Admissions pivoted from alumni interviews to non-evaluative conversations for the 2023-24 admissions cycle. The Penn Admissions website currently describes alumni conversations as an opportunity “for students to learn more about Penn from someone who can speak from experience.”

　　Laurie Kopp Weingarten, president and chief educational consultant at One-Stop College Counseling, previously told the DP that when she brought up the shift away from alumni interviews at a meeting of the Wharton Club of New Jersey, “it was not a good reaction.”

　　“People were not happy,” she said, adding that many people in that group are “active Penn alumni” who are part of the interview program.

　　Chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, Ramanan Raghavendran — who has served PAAP for 16 years — noted his enthusiasm for “piloting new initiatives” for alumni relations.

　　“Ultimately, for me, this is about engaging our 350,000 alumni who each have a wealth of experience and knowledge, a resource shared by very few other universities,” Raghavendran added in the message. “All journeys begin with a first step.

-来源《The Daily Pennsylvanian》

　　二、重要信息提炼

　　1、2025-2026申请季，宾大不再提供校友对话(Alumni Conversations)

　　2、取消校友面试，原因在于：宾大申请量的快速增长和审核时间的压缩，使得校友对话变得更具挑战性，因此需要重新定位校友的角色。

　　3、参与长久的志愿服务代替校友面试成为学校考察和审核要素之一。

　　4、8月以后，宾大不再将可选校友对话列为申请要求之一，宾大官网已经没有Interviews。

　　三、校友面试体验

　　据往届参与宾大校友面试的不少学生都表示体验感很差。据了解，宾大校友面试官大多是硕士或博士，本科生占比太少。

　　甚至有的校友面试官一边在跑步机上运动一边和学生对话，这哪像是面试，简直就跟普通视频通话没两样，没什么价值。

　　此外，根据校友志愿者的反馈表明，目前的校友对话模式已不再具有现实意义。

　　为期一年的欢迎、指导和支持新生和老生的活动将取代一对一的校友对话。

　　以上是关于宾大2025-26学年取消校友面试的全部介绍，如果还想了解更多关于美国留学申请方面的相关知识的，欢迎随时联系Tops6868或在线咨询，托普仕留学专注美国前30高校申请，多年名校申请经验助力你的留学申请。