interviews rare?

<p>does anyone know the percentage of applicants that get interviews?
i've heard around 50 % but not sure of the truth to that statement.
about 25 from my school in my grade applied and none got interviews yet.
8 of these students applied ED and they still haven't gotten interviewed.</p>

<p>Handala92, do you mean they interview every ED applicant that was deferred? Because I know for a fact that not every ED applicant was interviewed this past fall.</p>

<p>i do not even know what “■■■■■■■■” means…
they can’t possibly interview every ED applicant because regardless of whether the other 6 ED applicants from my grade are lying or not, the remaining 2 ED applicants are my best friends and said that they WISH they’d had an interview because perhaps they’d have been accepted already.
anyway, i was wondering if anyone knew the percentage of people that are interviewed, RD or total? does columbia not really place much emphasis on scheduling interviews?</p>

<p>i just looked up the definition of a ■■■■■ and in what way am i interrupting the flow of conversation to provoke negative emotional response?
i’m asking a simple question.
thanks in advance to anyone that has an answer.</p>

<p>iheartmiles, I don’t know what the percentage is. From what I’ve heard, the only thing you can do to increase your chances is to submit your app really early. It’s a bit too late for that now, though, I suppose.</p>

<p>Early? Haha. My D sent her application about Dec 31 and got her interview request last week. She had nothing else turned in on time except the application. It’s a phone interview though (all others have been "live). It’s the luck of the draw, trust me, my D is NOT “all that” as far as candidacy. And “pigsatsea” got a likely letter before her interview. So…don’t worry.</p>

<p>I had my interview today and my interviewer said that Columbia can’t possibly interview everyone. But he also said that the interview doesn’t count for much…they just want to see if there’s something about you that was not on your application. So don’t worry if don’t get one, and don’t think you’re in if you do get one.</p>

<p>btw… i sent my columbia app on the last day and recieved interview about 3 weeks after. But I live in the Tri-state area so alumni are in abundance lol</p>

<p>Handalha25,
You are wrong, and I hope adgeek responds to this thread to set the record straight. The Columbia Undergraduate Admissions Office repeatedly says that not all applicants get interviews, and it does not have an adverse effect on your application if you are not given an interview. I speak from personal experience, as I applied early decision and was NEVER contacted (by phone, e-mail, US mail, carrier-pigeon, etc.) for an interview, but was still accepted early decision. A classmate of mine, who also applied to Columbia ED, received an interview invitation by e-mail and met an alumnus interviewer at a Starbucks for a 40 minute interview. He too was accepted. We both live in New York City, so there are no shortage of alumni interviewers here. Not everyone who applies to Columbia, ED or regular, is given an interview. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re rare, but it’s definitely not 100%.</p>

<p>so here is something to know. </p>

<p>1) columbia does interview about ~50%. but there are a lot of things that must go in to place for that to happen, all of our interviewers have to be healthy and desire to interview, and if apps go up, alumni have to adjust accordingly to keep up pace.</p>

<p>2) 50% means that there are some regions of the world that we get near to 100%, and other regions where we may not do any, in the end it avgs. out to 50%. places with a higher metropolitan area with more alums are probably higher in the percentage range, places with fewer alums are probably not (hence columbia’s phone interview campaign).</p>

<p>3) it means that not every school will be at 50%, so your school might have 25% interviewed, but the school down the street might get 75% interviewed.</p>

<p>4) columbia farms out the responsability to interviews to alumni, so you can’t quite blame columbia here. i think you need to realize that we are busy folks too with other things to do, and often the bit of free time we have is conducting an interview because we care about columbia and the students that attend. we don’t cherry pick applicants because we don’t know anything about how competitive you are. we slog through as many as we can.</p>

<p>5) the interview can matter - how much it matters depends on what you say, how on the fence your application is (something you wouldn’t know), and how good the interview report is. it means that you have to a) be prepared for the interview, but b) don’t sweat the interview (if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen). as i’ve said before having no interview has its advantages in that it is better than having a bad interview. so i caution any student from repeating or believing that the interview doesn’t matter (you don’t know if it does, only the adcom when reading the interview report can know). this is something that doesn’t come from columbia (they would never say that), instead it is the company line that these are important ways to get to know a student, but that if a student doesn’t receive an interview it will in no way be held against them.</p>

<p>6) how rare an interview depends on where you live, how many alumni live nearby, and even then, even if tons of alumni live near you, you are not guaranteed that you will be interviewed (for a whole bunch of reasons - they could be exhausted by the time they see your app, your app could have conflicting information about where you live or go to school and thus inputted wrong).</p>

<p>7) lastly, if you are both prepared for the interview and okay with it not happening, you’ll be in the best frame of mind for the application process. it is when students falsely believe that the interview is either extremely important or not important that they run into trouble. be okay with the ambiguity of the interview, is my suggestion.</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who responded, especially adgeek. Tjat information was helpful. I know that alumni are extremely busy and I’m not sweating the interview, just wondering if I have a chance at getting an interview. I wish the interview rate was higher.</p>