I recieved an email from rice recently, which suggests me to take the CIEE interview. Should I ? Could this interview offer some actually advantages for my admission?
What interviews do is they demonstrate interest and they allow the admissions people to add dimension to your application. Your interviewer is able to see more personality when they talk to you than normally come across in essays or numbers. For some people, like me, that was important. I’m really passionate about science and learning and interviewing allowed me to really talk about that and make my interviewer feel my passion, which I wasn’t entirely sure would happen as effectively as I wanted it to without the interview. As well, my interviewer was an admissions counselor so she could actually put a face to my name when reading my application which possibly could have helped. That being said, I think most interviewers are students at Rice. There, the advantage is that you can ask them questions and get a better sense of Rice as a school, so it’s a learning experience for you too. However, all of that may not be as important to you, which is fine, and won’t necessarily count against you in any way. But an interview will only help.