I had my interview today, it went okay / mediocre. The interviewer was really nice, but my brain pretty much stopped working. I feel like I repeated myself too much, said too many ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’. I really geeked out over math but now I feel like I talked too much about it. Am I screwed for admissions? My stats, ECs, recs etc. are good, it’s just the interview I’m worried about… (I know that college admissions is a crapshoot as whole).
I’m really disappointed in myself because I know I could have done better.
I have been a Stanford interviewer for the past 5 years and have interviewed about 30 people and have also met with the admissions officer for my region. From what Stanford tells us and also from my gut feeling, I think the interview only a matters a little only if it is either exceptional or terrible. By terrible, I mean no eye contact, monosyllabic answers, no knowledge or obvious interest in Stanford. (I have had only one of these.) Otherwise, it is basically a tool by Stanford to increase its yield. It wants to keep up with Harvard and get bragging rights to who has the highest yield. So for the vast majority of applicants, the interview makes no difference.
Hi my d applied to Stanford (4.o GPA (valedictorian) and 1580 SAT, interesting extracurriculars but no national/international level awards) but have not recd an interview call. Is this a bad sign?
@TimSmith76 No. It’s based on alumni availability in your region (even if there are alumni, they need to be willing to interview), and is something completely out of your control.
because I know I could have done better.