<p>For this top school, I was interviewed by an alumnus last month. So were a couple of my friends who applied there. (They were interviewed by different alumni.) Now, only I have been called by an admissions staff for a second interview. The staff said she read my file and wanted to talk to me in some detail. Is this a positive indication? The optimist in me thinks that my application may have interested her. The pessimist thinks that the alumnus may not have filed his report, so they want do another interview. Has anyone else been in this kind of situation before? What was your experience? Any advice will also be highly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>Take it is a positive sign.</p>
<p>I'm interviewing to one school twice, but they're set up to see how I've changed over about a calender year from interview one to interview two.</p>
<p>Thanks. I'll take it as a positive sign!</p>
<p>It depends.
But as it is the admission staff who set up the interview, I think you should treasure the chance.</p>
<p>I did. At Yale.</p>
<p>I had my second interview. I got the sense that the admission officer was very interested in my application, she remembered several minute points and asked me for elaboration. It was not stressful at all, she genuinely wanted to know more about me and my experiences. The earlier alumnus interview seemed to be a useless routine. But this one was for real. I am quite optimistic about my chances now, but if I am rejected it will not be for want of thorough consideration by them.<br>
I am glad to find that the top, selective schools really pay great attention to the details in our applications. The effort we put in is worth it.</p>
<p>Good to hear about your second interview going well... yeah, I had had a second interview for one of my colleges, and from what I understand it either means that the first interviewer did not extract the necessary information from you and thus had a second interview, or you could very well be an applicant b/w an acceptance and a waitlist. I think that both of these were personally applicable.</p>
<p>Thanks, Tony88. I hope this pushed me over to the acceptance side!</p>
<p>congrats on getting the 2nd interview; it means that at least you're still in the running because if you were out they wouldn't bother. While it is a point of some contention on this forum, many feel alum interviews aren't that useful. The alums aren't trained interviewers so the quality of what they report can't be given that much credence. They don't have your essays, recs, etc. so they can't really ask you questions based on them. It DOES send a bad sign if you refuse the alum interview, and you can screw up if you come across as disinterested or confess so some serious flaw. </p>
<p>But by and large many people feel that alum interviews can't really help that much (but can hurt). You probably got a call from an actual adcom because there was something else they wanted to find out about you or verify.</p>