So I posted this in another thread, but I think it would be better if I made it a separate discussion.
A few days ago my best friend was contacted by Yale to preform an expedited interview. He is a pretty talented computer science prospect, but hasn’t like made multi-million dollar company or won intel and siemens. What do you guys think this means? Is this common for STEM kids?
He isn’t a legacy or URM, so I doubt he is the type of person who gets a likely letter. But why should they rush an interview unless they are thinking about likely letters?
I would tell her to concentrate more on making sure he has the interview and not speculate. But, he needs to give it his all at the interview. And please, make sure he has some questions to ask the interviewer. Nothing is worse than crickets from the kid when I ask the applicant if there is anything they would like to ask me.
I have done special interviews. Some have gotten in, others have not.
@Tperry1982 What are the reasons behind these special interviews and what information does Yale tells the alumni interviewers? I am just intrigued by this process, so if you are comfortable I would be interested in an answer.
I received a call from my Yale Alumni interviewer yesterday around 2:00PM. He said that Yale College wanted him to meet and interview me in relation to my application - and he told me to go to his office at noon the very next day. I just came back from this interview, and it was very normal, so I don’t know if it had been an expedited interview.
I am an international applicant applying for Biomedical Engineering.
I misspoke. I don’t mean special as in they tell me they are special. Sometimes we get last minute requests for interviews. Yale never gives us information about our interviewees so we never know what they are looking at. Also, the alumni interviewers are always the last to know whether or not the applicant got in or was declined.
Expedited means more like when it gets close to when the interview reports are due, they will ask the interviewer to do them quickly and get the report in.
There is an ASC director for the region (a Yale alum overseeing and coordinating the process in a volunteer capacity). He or she assigns the interviews to the interviewers in the region.
The ASC Director for the area coordinates the total interview process and is the liaison between Yale and the interviewers. We are responsible for contacting applicants and scheduling interviews. We also upload our reports directly to the Committee. The Director will get notification that it has been uploaded. It is their responsibility to gently remind the alumni of deadlines. If something comes up and the assigned alumni can’t do the interview (illness, unexpected work commitments) then the Director can reassign them.
That has been when I got a request for an expedited interview. The deadline was looming and the alumni, for whatever reason, hadn’t done it. In those cases, our Director will put out a blast email asking if someone can do one quickly.