Would it hurt my chances to not give an interview? Specifically for Princeton, vanderbilt, and Johns Hopkins?
It won’t “hurt” your chances but it certainly doesn’t help.
If an interview has not been offered, you won’t be penalized for not having interviewed. If they offer to have an alum interview you, take them up on it!
If they offer, is there anyway I can say no?
Why would you turn down an offer for an interview?
Hopkins states that their interviews are more informational (for the applicant) than evaluative. They are often conducted by students as an opportunity to answer questions. My daughter did not interview with Johns Hopkins and was accepted ED last month.
I can’t speak for the other schools and it’s true that it’s important at some. I think Vanderbilt does like to see an interview. Good luck!
Most of the schools will say that the interview doesn’t count for much, and that they won’t penalize you. But imagine sifting through tens of thousands of applicants. You go through a bunch of kids from the same area who all look the same on paper.
Then you get to one kid that looks really good. He was offered an interview, but turned it down. If you’re an admissions officer what does this make you think? Do you think he really wants to go to your school? Since almost all of the top colleges are hyper-focused on yield, turning down the interview is not a good idea, even at schools who claim that it doesn’t matter.
If your schools offer interviews, I would say just do it. I personally think that interviews are a way to show who you are off paper. Informational or evaluative, it can only help you if the admissions officers see that you signed up and went through with an interview.
Although technically speaking an Interview won’t hurt your chances, as mentioned above it can help. The problem with this is that other applicants that are “helped” by going through with the interview are more likely to be admitted. Since the university can only admit so many students, not going through the interview hurts you in the relative sense, in that other people have a higher chance of getting in and you have a lower chance.
Interviews are honestly not that bad. If you can request an interview, I say go for it. If someone contacts you, I don’t think it looks good to say no.