<p>So my interview was supposed to be at 10AM today at a local coffee shop about 10 minutes away from where I live. So I get there around 9:50, and end up waiting until about 11 AM without my interviewer showing up. I start panicking. What if my interviewer didn't get my confirmation e-mail?! What if I'm at the wrong place?! AHHHH! I tried calling him on his cell phone about a billion times, finally leaving a message. He called back at around 1PM saying he had to take his child to the ER. I sent him my condolences and he still offered to give me my interview tomorrow, same place, same time. Let's hope tomorrow goes better for both him and me.</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>Wow, that must have been nerve-wracking. Good luck tomorrow! I also have my interview tomorrow, but later in the day (4 PM). Please come on CC before then and tell us how it went!</p>
<p>I will definitely come on CC and tell everyone how it went, and good luck on your interview too btlesgirl! I'm sure your interviewer will love you.</p>
<p>I know, I'm just oh-so-lovable!! :blushes:</p>
<p>My child was interviewed by a surgeon who had to reschedule about four times over several weeks. My child was about to ask for another interviewer when the interview finally happened. During the interview, the doctor didn’t go more than two or three minutes without being interrupted by his cell phone. Obviously there was little opportunity to make an impression, good or bad. Nevertheless my child was accepted. As I have said many times on this board, I do not believe that there is anything one can do at an interview to help one’s chances and only something profoundly stupid will hurt your chances. The main purpose of interviews is to keep alumni engaged with the school, not to help the school make decisions about students.</p>
<p>no, its also to see how interested the student really is in the school, and how much he really knows about it/feels the match. it's also to see how the person measures up socially and in person.</p>
<p>You can't rely on thousands of alumni, each with their own perspective who are working as volunteers and have not been trained to make such judgments. There is no inter-rater reliability. If the interviewer says the student came to the interview drunk, they made a pass at my wife, they thought Princeton was in New Hampshire, it will hurt. But if the interviewer says this student is a prefect match or a good match or an OK match, or even not such a good match, it isn’t likely to make a difference. The admission’s office is not going to take the decision making authority out of their own hands and put it in the hands of someone who volunteers to do one interview a year, particularly since only the admission's office knows what they are looking for in terms of a particular student's contributioin to the class they are creating for that year. Besides keeping alumni involved, the interview is a gross tool to help screen applicants out and help confirm a decision to admit, but the difference between an OK interview and a great interview is rarely going to make a difference in an admission's decision.</p>
<p>i totally agree with PDaddy. Also, there are students who are not able to get interviewed perhaps b/c there are no alumni in the student's area. Clearly, an admission officer cannot favor a student who had a great interview over another student with the similar qualifications but without the opportunity of getting interviewed.</p>
<p>The point of interviews is to supplement the admission office with additional information that for some reason could not be put on the application.</p>
<p>Also, if there was something on your application that you did not stress enough, the admission officer will be able to emphasize this.</p>
<p>Useful things to supplement your interviewer with include: the reason you chose your major, future goals, what you do for fun, etc</p>
<p>Just for the record-- interviews are taken into account when assessing the candidate, and a spectacular interview can be just the catalyst to push someone into the accepted pile. For some people, it won't make much of a difference, no, but it remains that interviews are more than just a way of keeping the alumni network kicking.</p>
<p>Good luck, wee 2011ers!</p>
<p>ummm...PDaddy, do you know that all ALUMNI INTERVIEWERS are trained to do what they do? and periodically?</p>
<p>btw, i actually asked my interviewer about this</p>
<p>i just got my interview about two days ago. it went well. my interviewer even asked me to write an email to princeton to provide the adcoms with extra information about myself. he even asked me to mention in the email that he requested me to do so. and he told me he would reinforce those details in his report. he seemed really intent on helping me so i guess in my case the interview was important...</p>
<p>wait albert, what kind of stuff did your interviewer think was so important?</p>
<p>i just had my interview and i think it went really well...we ended up talking for about 2 hours, but now it's all sort of a blur. he basically asked me "why princeton?" and then we went from there...i asked him about his life and what he got out of his princeton education...at the end he told me there was very good "reason for optimism", and he said at the end that he "has more than enough things to write to fill up the report", so i'm hoping that'll all go well...good luck to those that havent had their interview yet...all i can say is that these people really do care, and they're not just in it to keep ties with princeton</p>
<p>My daughter's friend just had an interview with Brown. The interviewer told him it was the best interview he has ever done with a student. I am hardpressed to believe that this is not going to work in the student's favor.
Sorry, no idea yet about what made it so great. Still trying to find out.</p>
<p>the interviewers arent trained, they are given a sheet saying some possible questions and what they should look for, and then given a sheet to fill out in which they talk about ecs of the student or what their interests are and their impressions. Mostly its a way for students to be able to ask questions about pton and to screen out any really terrible candidates who may look good on paper but have terrible social skills or something. You have to do something really stupid or really amazing for the interview to make any difference, and I'm not even sure that the something really amazing would make a difference</p>
<p>So, if an interviewer wrote something like, "Princeton will benefit tremendously from this student's presence on campus. I cannot recommend him highly enough."</p>
<p>You don't think that would have ANY influence?</p>
<p>I have to agree with sunshadow. Any one little thing from ANY part of the application can be the factor that tips you in. Maybe it's one comment, maybe it's an EC, but this tipping factor may very well come from the interview report. Don't underestimate or overestimate any portion of the application. It all comes together.</p>
<p>Yeah you would be surprised on what a little personal insight could do for you.
Plus the Admission Office of course loves their alumni, so they'd probably respect their word.</p>