<p>My S is applying to a school that "strongly recommends but does not require" an interview for applicants. S sent in the Interview Request Card and we were informed today that there are no interviewers in our area. If we still wanted to interview, the nearest interviewer is 180 miles away.</p>
<p>The letter states, "Your application will not be negatively affected by the absence of an interview as you made every attempt to complete the interview with us."</p>
<p>Can we just take them at their word and skip the interview? Or do we need to show we are willing to go the extra mile and make the 3 hour drive?</p>
<p>Frankly, S is swamped right now with school, EC and college applications. This college is a matchy reach but not his top choice. I am veering toward taking them at their word and foregoing the interview.</p>
<p>I suggest a compromise: call the interviewer, explain that you are living 180 miles away--making it a 360 round-trip! and ask if s/he would consider a phone interview (provided your kiddo is comfortable speaking to a disembodied voice--some are not). If that is not a good strategy, explain to the adcom that you are living 180 miles from the nearest interviewer.</p>
<p>I'd take them at their word. At many schools if there is someone nearby but the student can't be bothered to spend time talking to them they wonder how interested the student really is in their school. But that is not your situation, and the school has acknowleged this.</p>
<p>However you could also demonstrate interest in the school by asking the school if there are any current students from your area who your S could talk to when they're home for xmas break in order to learn more about the school.</p>
<p>The schools I know really do mean it when they say it will not be held against you if you ask for an interview and there is no one in your area to conduct one. If the school were higher on your S's list, I'd endorse marite's suggestion of contacting the interviewer (I'd use email to start) to ask if a phone interview would make sense, but in this case given the letter's assurances, I'd take them at their word and let it go.</p>
<p>We are in a similar situation. DD had a very nice phone interview with the person from her top choice school. This week we received a letter saying he will be doing in-person interviews about 2 1/2 hours from here on Sat and Sun of Thanksgiving weekend. Our initial gut feeling was that this might be a nice opportunity for him to put a name with the face. BUT the complications are too many...first the distance from home...second...we are returning from London that weekend. The school also does not require interviews. Since she applied EA, we are just going to let this go... figure that her phone interview is going to have to suffice. EA letters of decision are supposed to be sent sometime in December. We are assuming these in person interviews at the end of November are more for the RD students.</p>
<p>Ours skipped his ultimate school offer for interview. Was not held against him nor a lack of a visitation, in fact they say an interview and visitation is not counted in selection. He visited zip. Alum interview, one in person (MIT) and not impressed or informed, and had a couple phones with canned questions and answers. Everything he wanted to know was published or on the internet.</p>
<p>Some schools do care if you skip a possible interview. But if the schools your S is interested in either report that an interview is not important (hence it's only for informational purposes rather than being evaluative), or state (as this one has) that lack of a local interviewer waives the need for it, you can believe them.</p>
<p>My daughter was in a similar situation and did exactly what Marite suggests. The admissions rep from one school she's applied to was going to be in Los Angeles doing interviews. It would take us over three hours --- if there's no traffic to get to Los Angeles from where we live. Daughter just emailed the admissions rep directly, explained that California is a lot bigger than it looks on the map, and asked if she could schedule a telephone interview instead. The rep actually scheduled the phone interview in one of her slots when she was here in California, so we didn't have to haggle with time differences. It wasn't a problem and seemed to go well.</p>
<p>The suggestions given above seem reasonable to me. I can't imagine that it would be held against your son, since that's what they say and he's clearly interested. I have one other thought, though. Could he contact the interviewer to see if there was any chance of meeting halfway? If there are other students from your area, maybe the interviewer could set aside a day to meet in an area that is a little more convenient to your son as well as other students. My son's Duke interviewer had quite a few meetings at a coffee shop, on one night. I'm sure it was easier for him to set aside an entire evening to do a bunch, than to schedule each one individually.</p>
<p>"The suggestions given above seem reasonable to me. I can't imagine that it would be held against your son, since that's what they say and he's clearly interested. I have one other thought, though. Could he contact the interviewer to see if there was any chance of meeting halfway?"</p>
<p>I don't suggest doing this. Whether the interviewer is an adcom or an alum, I don't think it's a good idea to ask them to drive 180 miles roundtrip to do an interview even if there are other students that they might interview that way. They may already be going out of their way to do any interviews at all.</p>
<p>I do agree with the suggestions for your S to see if it's possible to do a phone interview with the person.</p>