The Office of Admissions has hired eight seniors to conduct interviews with prospective students, Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva said.The seniors, hired in the spring to fill the new position of senior admissions assistants, are charged with meeting with visiting applicants-a task previously assigned only to admissions staff members. The assistants conduct up to four interviews per week and each works under the direction of an admissions counselor.

The new policy comes in response to increased demand for on-campus interviews, Villanueva said. "Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to meet those demands," he said. "So now, at least on campus, we're able to accommodate much more than we normally would be able to."

Seniors who applied for the assistant position were heavily vetted, he said, and the eight who began work this semester trained by sitting in on staff-run interviews and reading information about all facets of the University.

Villanueva said the idea for the new policy came from his time at Bucknell University, which also allows student employees to conduct interviews.

Although the University does not require applicants to attend an interview, Villanueva said interviews can play a significant role in the admissions process because they allow prospective students to reveal information that may be absent from their written applications. Speaking with a peer interviewer encourages students to reveal more about themselves, he said.

Jenny Feinberg '07, one of the new assistants, said her experiences at the University make it easier for her to conduct interviews with prospective students.

"As a senior at this school, I know what kind of students do well here, and I know what kind of people really like Brandeis," she said. "And you can get a sense of that from having a conversation with students."

Student-run admissions interviews can also serve as an opportunity to market the University to prospective students, Villanueva said.

"When you have carefully selected seniors and trained them well, they certainly, I would argue, give off the kind of impression of what a Brandeis student really is," Villanueva said.

He added that student-run interviews give applicants "a pretty good indicator that students do well at Brandeis, and that this institution.does an excellent job of preparing you to move on to bigger and better things."

Feinberg, who has begun the process of applying for jobs for next year, said she has also benefited from the interviews. She said her new admissions position has provided her with a better understanding of the give-and-take of an interview.

"I try to get the best out of them," she said of the prospective students. "What is it that's special about them? It's really just about figuring out what they really have or what they can give us.