<p>I e-mailed them, and they told me that I'd been matched, and I should expect to be contacted soon. That was 2 weeks ago...... and it's not like I live in the middle of nowhere either.</p>
<p>My son applied EA in September, and still has not had an alumni interview. He called the Admissions Office and was told there has been a problem finding an alumnus to do interviews in our area (South Florida) this year.</p>
<p>When I graduate, I will do interviews back-to-back every weekday and weekend I can. Promise.</p>
<p>Until then, though, you'll have to bear with the alumni network and alums who are fuzzy on communication.</p>
<p>Don't worry too much about not getting an alumni interview, though. Your application is not going to be faulted because an alumni either wasn't available or didn't get back to you. I would think that a campus visit counts a lot more in Chicago's book than an alumni interview-- a campus visit shows an investment of time, money, and interest, and alumni interview means you clicked a box.</p>
<p>If you did neither, your "Why Chicago?" answer will probably give the admissions officers everything they need to know.</p>
<p>They haven't called me either. I'm surprised there aren't that many alums in the metro-Boston area.</p>
<p>ThisSideUp: I'm pretty close to NYC (close enough to drive there and back in a day, anyway) and I'm in the same boat. Surprising indeed...</p>
<p>Of course, they might consider NYC out of my range anyway...</p>
<p>How does an alum interview differ from an on-campus interview (both in format and how admissions people look at it)?<br>
I opted to do on-campus and not alum.</p>
<p>I just had mine today....very fun/informal.</p>
<p>No word for D for her interview, either. She did do a campus visit, in November--but although she asked about a campus interview, she was told all the campus slots were filled. Popular place, as we found out when the EA numbers came out! Probably just too much demand for the available interviewers.</p>
<p>Do you really have to know your UChicago stuff for the interview? Like do you need to know all the UChicago traditions and stuff? Will reading "The Life of the Mind" and Wikipedia be enough? Or do you have to do actual research?</p>
<p>I highly doubt an interviewer is going to quiz you about all 300+ items from Scav Hunt lists over the past five years and ask you the linguistic and historical origins of Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko.</p>
<p>If you're interested enough in the school to post on our boards, I'm pretty sure you know all you need to know about the school. Just remember that we have a core curriculum and don't do the whole engineering thing.</p>
<p>My friend, the valedictorian of our class, had an interview recently with a Princeton alumnus, and my friend said that the interviewer completely shattered him because he kept asking questions about all these weird traditions and about a lot of specifics of the college that one would really have to dig in deep to find. So now I'm freakishly scared. Perhaps the princeton guy was just snobby, and in that case, I shouldn't worry too much since UChicago is much more relaxed and fun, but still.</p>
<p>That sounds really awful and inappropriate of an alumni interviewer, who is interviewing somebody who has spent at most a few hours on campus and probably a couple more hours researching the school. If that happens in any interview, grin and bear it and ask questions about those weird traditions. Many alumni use the interviews to wax poetic on their own undergraduate days, and the alumni asking if you've heard of something really obscure provides the perfect opportunity for you to go, "I haven't heard of it, but I'd love to hear about it!"</p>
<p>it's not a huge deal if you dont get an alumni deal, it's really not a huge deal either way. it's more for your benefit than anything.</p>