I submitted my Princeton application way before the deadline, but I haven’t been given an interview yet. This is also true of MIT, Columbia, and Yale. I live in SoCal so there’s a lot of slums near me. When does the interview period end? Does this mean that they are not considering me if they haven’t contacted me yet?
I didn’t get interviews yet either, from Yale and Princeton.
I wouldn’t worry too much. I do alumni meetings for another school and just got my assignments last week. We have until mid February to meet and submit reports. I would think it would be similar for other schools that have the same notification timeline.
As an aside, our alumni coordinator said that because of the increase in applicants, that probably only 50% of students will end up being contacted and offered meetings. There simply are not enough alumni to go around, even in areas where there are “many.” (I’ve also posted this on other threads that just because a location has many alumni, it doesn’t mean that they have volunteered to do interviews).
I believe Princeton had over 35,000 applicants last cycle. That’s why interviews are not required anymore!
Echoing @momofsenior1, I just got an RD interview assignment last week for Yale. Also alum population does not equal interviewer volunteers. Last year, only about 18,000 interviews were completed for over 35,000 applicants. If you go over to the Yale thread, someone posted that they got admitted SCEA without an interview, so please don’t stress over tea leaves that mean nothing.
@BKSquared ok thank you! Good to know
@momofsenior1 @cuteraspberries ok thank you guys. I just got an MIT interview, but not for the other schools yet. Hopefully it’ll be fine. I appreciate the responses!
If only a percentage of kids get an interview, how is it determined who gets one? Say a student lives in a large metro area and there aren’t enough interviewers to go around, is it just random? Or does admissions send the alumni group a list of kids they cherry picked?
@homerdog I think it depends on the school, committee chair and the regional folks. My alma mater doesn’t give any instructions but my regional chair chimes in.
I can tell you that some areas that are really struggling with numbers have gotten creative about meeting with students. They will do group meetings, go to schools where large numbers of students have applied, utilize remote committees, etc…
When I was coordinating a committee if I was really struggling, my regional rep told me to skip scheduling the private boarding schools or very wealthy districts with tons of GC resources. I know other chairs who skip ED candidates who are recruited athletes or legacies, because we know they already have a direct link.
Frankly I wish we could meet with every single student. The reality though is that has become impossible, thanks in part to the common app.
It will be interesting to read if other alumni interviewers have different guidelines and experiences.
@momofsenior1 thanks! So you would be given a list of all of the kids who applied to your school within a certain radius and then sometimes you would just decide who to see if you weren’t given direct instructions on who to skip? I guess I envisioned alumna getting a list that is reasonable and they interview those kids, that the school narrows in down for the alum and gives them emails of the kids they want them to reach out to.
@homerdog - yes, I was given the names/contact information of every single student who applied in my area. The number grew every year but the last year it was 150 students. I had less than 5 active volunteers, including myself. The average volunteer would talk to 3-5 students over the course of an entire cycle. A very active volunteer, maybe 10. I was a very rare volunteer that would do closer to 15. Obviously the numbers don’t align! We often pooled resources with other areas near by and did group meetings where we invited every student in the region. We would alternate location to make it as convenient as possible. Not ideal but once the university moved to non-evaluative, information meetings only, it worked.
One thing to keep in mind is that the list of students is generated as soon as their application is fully submitted, so admissions staff haven’t started evaluating them yet. No way to cherry pick who to contact.
So an interview is not required in order to be offered admission?
Yeah, interviews aren’t required, but if offered one you should definitely accept
Got my Yale interview invitation about two days ago, fyi
I just got an invite for my Princeton interview yesterday and I haven’t received one for anywhere else, but I assume it is because I live in Nebraska lol
Not Princeton yet, but did for Harvard, Stanford, and Duke.
I still haven’t gotten any from Princeton, Yale, or Columbia. It’s ok though, I still have time. And if I don’t get an interview, I don’t think it will count against me
I got mine last Friday but it’s a Skype interview since we are opposite coasts. The interviewer also said they “look forward to soaking with me”. Not sure how this is going to go
@spdqber haha let’s hope it’s a splash