I was contacted by Yale for an alumni interview. In terms of the admissions process, does this mean anything at all really?
Thank you!
It probably means you aren’t in the auto-reject pile. But other than that? No.
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I interview for another competitive school and I don’t think the school eliminates anyone and offers interviews to all (when they have enough alumni interviewers). I just received my list on Friday and I will be interviewing 5 applicants for the ED round - I have found the qualifications of the students I have interviewed in the past (over 30 years) to vary greatly. One piece of advice - do not over google your interviewer - I have found it a bit unsettling when I have met a student for an interview and they know so much about me - this is my chance to learn about you and not have you show me how much you know about me.
Yale is different. They have said they will not interview all applicants, just those that they need more info from.
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My friend called admissions at Yale and the person who answered the phone told her while they are only interviewing candidates they need more information from in some areas if they have enough people to conduct interviews they are giving interviews to everyone. We live in Massachusetts and my daughter had an interview. I think the most likely outcome is she won’t get in just like most applicants to Yale. Good luck to all and keep working on your regular admissions applications.
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I am a Yale alumni interviewer in a major city. We try to interview every single applicant - there is no prioritizing students and as far as I know the admissions office does not rate them for us in any way. Now that we have gone virtual, they are expanding outreach to areas that traditionally did not have enough interviewers.
The interview is one small way for Yale to learn a tiny bit about you, and for you to ask questions of an alum that might not be answered on the website. It’s not a make or break process and an invite has zero implications for your chance of admissions.
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My wife was an alumna interviewer some years ago, and did it for about 5 years. Over that period of time, none of the students whom she interviewed was admitted to Yale (at least as an undergraduate). The most frustrating part of her job was to meet all these amazing students (most all of whom, in her opinion, could do the work at Yale and would be an asset to the university), and ultimately learning that none of them made it to Yale.
That’s been my experience as well. I’ve been doing it for many years, and I don’t think any of the students have been admitted. Some have been truly stellar, some less so, but all have been smart and interesting. It’s really tough out there. People should definitely not think that getting an interview email is a sign.
The AO changed their policy recently. They explicitly disclosed this for the 2020-2021 cycle:
During the 2020-2021 admissions cycle, all interviews will be conducted virtually. Because of limited virtual interviewing capacity, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will prioritize interviews for students for whom the Admissions Committee needs more information. Interviews will remain optional, and students who do not receive an interview will not be disadvantaged. Interviews for First-Year Applicants | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions
I think they did this in response to the significant increase in apps. They don’t want to burden alumni interviewers with a wasteful exercise (each interview takes me at least an hour and a half of interview time and I spend around an hour or 2 to write each report). Then the AO has to read each report. It might take them 5 minutes to read and note an assessment but that aggregates to about 90,000 man hours.
If you have well below average stats for Yale and you do not get an interview, time to move on. If you get an interview, you will still likely not get accepted based on the numbers. The school completes about 18,000 interviews annually and only accepts around 2,100 annually. Not all of the acceptances had interviews (could be major hooks, some no doubters, unavailability of interviewer for that region, even by remote). So just by the numbers, somewhere around 10% (probably less) of applicants interviewed actually get accepted.
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Yes my daughter was one of the kids interviewed and rejected last year. She had the stats (gpa, rigor, ACT score) but in hindsight her extracurriculars were just average for this kind of school. She is also Latina. Thought I would add that because i think the URM advantage gets overstated on CC. Good luck to everyone.
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