<p>Do they really matter that much at all? How important are they in admissions?</p>
<p>In the overwhelming majority of cases, not very important. This makes sense, if you think about it.</p>
<p>Interviews are conducted by volunteer alumni. The admissions office has next to no ability to control either the way interviews are conducted or the quality of the interview reports. They have no way to know whether an interviewer in Little Rock who says an applicant is “outstanding” means the same thing as another interviewer who uses the same adjective in Scarsdale. Alumni who do the interviewing may or may not know much about how their alma mater has changed since their own college days.</p>
<p>It’s exciting for applicants to be interviewed. Colleges hope that their interviewers will represent their institutions well to the applicant pool, so that applicants will come away from their interviews with positive feelings about the institution, whether or not they’re eventually accepted. But the interviews don’t carry a whole lot of weight in the colleges’ decision-making process.</p>
<p>I heard that there had been cases where ppl did their interviews so well they got likely letters two days letter (i think i saw this for last year harvard acceptances) If that’s true, than interviews must play a good purpose wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>Penn Hopeful, remember that post hoc doesn’t always mean propter hoc. I’m not familiar with these cases, but isn’t it entirely possible (even likely, so to speak) that these applicants were two days away from receiving likely letters anyway, completely independent of the timing of their interviews? </p>
<p>Keep in mind, after your interview, the interviewer still has to write up a report, submit it, and then have it read in Philadelphia (or Cambridge or New Haven or Hanover or wherever). Two days seems awfully fast for all that to happen, and a likely letter to be generated, posted and received by the applicant.</p>