<p>Does anyone know how much influence these interviews have? and do all students get interviews, or are they for selected applicants?</p>
<p>Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated... =)</p>
<p>Do you mean an alumni interview? If yes, they pretty much mean nothing. If you have a good interview with an adcom, that can help. However, as AdOfficer recently wrote, many of the adcom interviews happen before they've seen your entire file so don't take them too seriously.</p>
<p>Also lilly, you may want to read these threads for a bit before posting chances threads that don't make sense. Kids take these things seriously.</p>
<p>whatttt is that supposed to mean?</p>
<p>and yes it is an alumni interview... so i guess its pointless, but anything helps since my chances of getting in are like 0 to none.</p>
<p>Not all students may be offered an interview, but that is not because they have been pre-screened--it is just because of availability issues. Interviews do often have very little effect on your application, because they usually reflect what is already apparent from your application. An exciting student who seems like they would add a lot to campus will usually already show that in their application, and the same is true of the opposite (a boring wet blanket won't look great in person or on paper). Plus, academics and test scores always come first--if you are very weak in the context of that school's applicant pool, it really won't matter how great you were in person.</p>
<p>Of course, a very positive interview can't hurt your chances, and it could conceivably become one of many small tip factors in your favor, so you should still go for it and show off how great you are!!</p>
<p>I have a slight divergence of opinion here, but it's a matter of degree. Since the race for Elites (Brown included) is so intense, every element can be considered important, in the sense that tips loom large when so many other factors are comparable among such a large body of applicants. A very excellent or very unimpressive interview can be a tip up or down, which in a tight race can be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>^^Exactly...this is what I was trying to get across. A certain small percentage of applicants are strong enough that their acceptance is easy, and a certain small percantage of applicants are weak enough that their rejection is easy. For everyone else, all of the little things add up to spell acceptance or rejection. So, in this way, an interview is important to your application--every little positive aspect helps, and every little negative aspect hurts!</p>