Got an offer for the interview, what does this mean???
It appears to be an excellent opportunity to learn more about UM engineering from an alum. I think the offer of an interview has to do with the availability of alums in your area. It is not an indication one way or the other about the chances for admission. UM says the interviews are informational (rather than evaluative). Below is quoted from the UM website https://www.engin.umich.edu/admissions/undergrad/first-years/admissions/
If you are selected to be a part of the alumni interview program, you will receive an email from Michigan Engineering after you have submitted your application. The interviews are by invitation only, and you are automatically considered for an invitation. Please do not call or email the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to request an interview or to find out if you are eligible for an interview. Your application to the Michigan Engineering will be considered complete with or without an interview.
HAIL interviews are largely informational and will not have a significant impact on your admission to Michigan Engineering. Interviews are not available for every student.
My daughter really enjoyed her HAIL interview last year. It went super and she made a good connection with the alumnus. He had really good perspective about some of her perceived concerns about campus. Very low key.
The HAIL interviews were not at all predictive of admissions decisions as my daughter and her friends were all wait listed (OOS).
Yeah I figured as much that it didn’t mean anything about admittance. Still, it’s an exciting opportunity to speak with a umich engineering grad.
My son also received this email and accepted the offer.
It’d be interesting to know if any applicants that were offered an interview and declined the opportunity were still accepted to the CoE. I see it not only as an opportunity to learn more about Engineering at UMich, but also for UMich to possibly gauge a level of interest. Perhaps they offer the interview as a personal-touch way to hopefully boost UMich to the top of the applicants’ list, and they may well take a rejection of the offer as a sign that the applicant isn’t open to UMich being a top choice option.
I can’t imagine a reason to not do the interview if a student wants to attend. The busiest student in the world can spare 15 minutes for a short conversation to make sure the interviewer knows that UMich is a top choice. Otherwise, why even apply?
@LuvLABS yes kids not doing the interview get accepted… Some kids are just not good interviews. Also many kids doing the interview don’t get accepted. Interviewing typically won’t help you but I think it’s a great chance of just doing an interview for like practice of interviewing. The interview is also to gratify the alumni volunteers. But saying this, it’s a. Great opportunity for the students to gain more knowledge about the college.
My son just received an email from COE apologizing, but too many students accepted the opportunity for the HAIL interview, so he would not be getting one after all. They were very apologetic and provided an area for the students to write anything they wanted. I guess they usually get 40% +/- accept the opportunity and over 60% did this year!
@hsr596, my son also received that email. It’s disappointing, as my daughter did the interview 2 years ago and found it very informative. We are in NY and know that there are lots of students in our area applying, so I guess they just don’t have enough engineering alumni in our region to meet the demand.
I did not get an invitation for interview for HAIL, what does that mean? Does that mean my chances for engineering is nil?
It means nothing. Just that they didn’t have enough alum in your area.
My daughter’s interviewer isn’t even in our state, no idea how she got paired up with him. He also has yet to contact her, so she will have to reach out to him. Odd.
My son was just contacted a couple of days ago. He first got an email from the university saying wait until nov 19 to contact the interviewer if they don’t contact you first. The interviewer is in our state but several hours away. Luckily he offered to drive into town for a personal interview with my son, which I thought was super generous.
how should student address the interviewer? do student directly call them by their first name or should they address using Mr or Ms?
In person? I believe the interviewer will introduce themselves the way they’d like to be addressed.
@learning19 Mr. Mrs, Ms, their name. Same as you would your teacher. If they say,“Please call me Steve” then do that.
My son was given a name/ email address of his HAIL interviewer, but still hasn’t heard from him. The original email said he could email the person if he hadn’t heard by yesterday. Son isn’t sure what to say exactly - maybe something along the lines of he hopes it will work out to find a time for the interview? He knows he should continue to show interest.
Yes I would just say something like Hello, the university gave me your email address for the HAIL interview and I’m connecting to see what is convenient for you, etc.
As an update to mine, our interviewer is several hours out of town but graciously offered to drive into town the day after thanksgiving for an in person interview.
My daughter’s interviewer is in a state halfway across the country! He offered to do it through various means of video chat. I’m a little perplexed how she wound up with an interviewer that is so far away as we live in a major metropolitan city with a huge UM alumni presence, but think it will be a great experience for her nonetheless.
I did one when I was applying. It was a cool experience, but honestly has no impact on the admission process at all. Do it though!