I am a prospective CMU student. Can I/Should I cancel an interview coming in 2 days?

Hi, I’m currently a high school senior. I scheduled an interview on the CMU campus back in the middle of July for September 5. I would really have preferred to do the interview sometime in October, but at the time, the calendar on [url = <a href=“https://cas-webapp.andrew.cmu.edu/interviewer/month/09-03-2017#calendar%5Dthis”>https://cas-webapp.andrew.cmu.edu/interviewer/month/09-03-2017#calendar]this website showed the last interview available at Sept 5th. I panicked believing that was the latest date I could have an interview, and registered.

Today is 2 days before the interview, but I haven’t had time to prepare. I visited the website again and saw that interviews are now available throughout all of Sept/Oct. I also just found out that you can pick who you talk to for a hometown interview, so I really want to do a hometown interview instead now.

Here are the questions I have:

  • If I cancel so soon before the interview, is that frowned upon?
  • How should I cancel the interview? I think they take a few days to respond my email.
  • Does CMU conduct any hometown interviews on the weekends, or will I have to skip a day of school later?

I would add questions for you to ask for yourself:
Will I be less busy or busier in October than now (mid terms, school activities, common app…)?
Will I be more prepared then in October than now (since I had two months to prepare the September, but I didn’t; would I likely to do that again)?

@amNotarobot Thanks for the help. I am confident that I will be more prepared for an interview by October; I just came back from a vacation, and before that I was studying hard for an SAT, attending summer programs, etc. During the school year I will no doubt be busy but I think I will have less stuff to worry about.

I am curious: What does a student do in order to prepare for an interview?

I understand that you read up on the school so that you are knowledgeable when you talk to them. That you should be able to do in a day. Is there more?

I had an interview at CMU in the beginning of August. @DadTwoGirls to prepare for my interview, I filled out the required interview form. I already knew a lot about the university because it is one of my top choices.

@underscoreone The interview is very relaxed. It’s not hard to prepare for, but remember that today is Labor Day and I highly doubt admissions is opened. So, it might be too late to cancel your visit. If you were to cancel the interview, you would either call or you can do it through chat on their website. Also, I believe that hometown interviews are only in select areas. (For me, traveling to Michigan or somewhere else was definitely not an option) I don’t know where the interviews are held either. You can also have an alumni interview, but I’m not completely sure how those work. Does this help?

My parents pressured me to go to the interview today, so I ended up going. I think I was a bit of a nervous wreck during the interview… I tried to do a little too much talking. Oh well. @Pianomonster20 To your word, the questioning part of the interview wasn’t so bad. I felt less nervous during that time, and I got lots of useful info out of the admissions officer.