Interviews

Is it recommended to apply for an interview? Please let me know!

They don’t matter.

True 99.9% of the time but if a featherweight makes the difference between admit and waitlist, then it matters.

The featherweight is never the interview. Could be contact with regional admissions rep – but that seems to be more of a turn a waitlist decision into an admit phenomenon.

@exacademic I’ll have to disagree, anecdotally, I know two “average excellent” students who both got into top schools (Harvard and UChicago) that had awesome interviews with there respective schools. Both had average to below average interviews with each others colleges (Uchicago and Harvard) and were subsequently rejected from them. Both had interviewers that had been doing it for a long time and I imagine were well respected by the AO’s from each school. Now again its a stretch to make the assumption but both adamantly believe that the interviews were the tipping point. JMHO.

P.S. I wouldn’t “blow off” any part of the application process in such a tight race.

My anecdote (which is not the basis of my opinion) is that the two applicants who did NOT interview at UChicago were the ones who got in from my kid’s class. I trust UofC when they say the interviews are optional. Historically, I think essays have mattered more at UChicago than at peer institutions. If you can present yourself well in that context, then the interview won’t matter (unless you do something horrible – e.g. launch into a racist tirade). And if you can’t present yourself well in that context, then the interview is also unlikely to matter. Basically, fit/personality/how your mind works gets documented through the essays which are a common text available to admissions decision makers. Subjective evaluations by non-decision makers (alumni/undergrad interviewers) who met the applicant once are pretty useless by comparison.

@exacademic That’s great but we’ll disagree on this, not taking an interview will not hurt you but it can’t help you either.

We know kids who skipped the interview with Admissions and went straight to the academic dept. of interest. Not saying that’s any better a strategy but it would work under some conditions. One shouldn’t interview at all w/o a genuine desire to connect personally with someone affiliated with the university and to get the answers to questions that are not on the FAQ pages. Don’t interview just to interview or because you think it helps your admission chances.