<p>If a college contacts you for an interview, does this imply at all that they're interested in you? Just to boost my confidence, I tell myself they wouldn't want to waste their time interviewing a student they have no interest in. Am I completely off?</p>
<p>Depends on the college. Some colleges like Harvard interview every applicant if there's an alum volunteer available to interview them.</p>
<p>Not only do most colleges try to talk to every student, but depending on the selectivity of the college the "interview" may not be quite what it seems! Outside of 75 or so colleges, the rest take many of their applicants. Often the majority. So they know that kids who apply are going to have other choices, and one reason for contacting them is to have a chance to persuade them that X is the right choice. </p>
<p>The "interview" is a perfect vehicle for this, and a chance to employ some well-researched principles in persuasion. Read Cialdini's book "Influence: Science and Practice" which you may encounter later in a psych class, a very easy to read book about the basic principles. Then try to see how many you can identify the colleges using on you! I'll nominate "Committment & Consistency" and "Scarcity".</p>