<p>How necessary is it to interview? I think I'm an OK applicant (4.0, 2270), but I can be pretty awkward around strangers lol. I can't see an interview helping me, so is it going to hurt me to not even sign up for one?</p>
<p>0987654321, you are not an OK applicant. You are a strong applicant.
I can’t encourage to skip the interview. I know that more than a few got in last year without an interview.</p>
<p>Countdown, you obviously haven’t spent much time steeping yourself in University of Chicago culture. Showing up at an interview and being “pretty awkward around strangers lol” is going to identify you as a perfect fit for the University of Chicago! It’s no longer, strictly speaking, a REQUIREMENT for admission, but I think it’s fair to say that being awkward around strangers is not a disqualification.</p>
<p>(But that’s OK. You don’t have to put yourself through that if you don’t want to. The official line on interviews is that they can’t hurt you, but might help. As a logical matter, of course, in a zero-sum game like college admissions, that’s completely incoherent. But it reflects what they think about interviews, which is that they aren’t necessary.)</p>
<p>It will not hurt you significantly not to schedule an interview. I think this came up last spring–plenty of accepted students never sat for one.</p>
<p>^ I was one of those.</p>