<p>ive heard from many people that interview for ivies are seemingly useless, but i know MIT is a bit different. They seem to be more keen towards the personality or uniqueness of their applicants and care about what he or she is going to offer to their campus. now my question is - is this just a load of, for a lack of a better word - crap? Please if you have experience with MIT and have gotten an interview or not lemme know (:</p>
<p>Well I saw some statistics showing that people who didn’t have the interview had a much lower rate of acceptance than that of those who had one. So it is in your best interests. I had my interview, and it seemed more like a conversation. They answer all your questions and tell you things about MIT that you can’t really find on the internet. It’s up to you in the end, but I’d definitely recommend it!</p>
<p>The interview is (almost) a requirement for acceptance. When I had my interview in October, I met at Starbucks with an alumna from '93. She really wanted to convince ME that MIT was a very good school - as if I wouldn’t want to go there. I guess my interviewer was just putting MIT in the best light possible.</p>
<p>The conversation focused on my personal experiences. I talked a lot about switching schools, sport, scientific interests, and then spent some time asking her questions, too. She told me that no one had ever brought in what I did to talk about a certain custom - be unique!</p>
<p>If you do interview, I recommend bringing in 2 copies of a CV - one for the EC and one for you. This will help the EC remember things about you when (s)he writes the report. Also, it will remind you of things to say. I wouldn’t be worried. After all, I had a lot of fun at my interview.</p>
<p>thank you very very much! do you remember any of the questions your interviewer asked? and should you spend more time focused on yourself or asking questions to your interviewer?</p>
<p>Curiosity -</p>
<p>Go with the flow of the interview. Prepare questions for the EC to answer, but remember, college admissions really are all about YOU. My EC asked me why MIT and we talked a lot about the interests I had on my CV. Before your interview, think why you really want to go to MIT and think of some of your admirable qualities. The interview doesn’t hurt your chances unless you try to mess it up. It will only help your app.</p>
<p>okay thankyou very uch! wish you luck on your verdict from MIT XD</p>
<p>You’re welcome.</p>
<p>@YouKnowWho13, do you know if MIT interview is granted mostly to applicants with more likely chance? I doubt MIT can offer interview to every single applicants so I thought admission officers assess an applicant’s application and then decide whether the applicant will receive an interview? One more question. What if the areas in which some applicants live in do not have any alumni from MIT? Would admission officers offer online interview?</p>
<p>There is no screening for interviews at MIT. I suppose if you live in a geographically-remote area you might have a harder time, but even then you have the option of Skype (which many people in that situation seem to use).</p>
<p>If, for some reason out of your hands, you cannot interview I highly doubt that it will be held against you. It might even be an opportunity for you to go the extra mile to give that kind of personality to your application. They’ll have one less report to read, so maybe a well-placed recommendation from a peer, older brother? </p>
<p>I’m actually not sure that what I said is good advice, so maybe ask someone who knows before taking advice from an aspiring applicant!</p>
<p>HateSMUS - </p>
<p>Anyone who lives near an EC that interviews can get an interview. MIT simply assigns you to an EC after you submit Part I of your application. If you live too far from an interviewer or if you are unable to complete an interview, MIT admissions may waive your interview. However, if you are able to have an interview and don’t, then it will (sort of) be held against you.</p>
<p>All of this can be found on MIT’s admissions site - I recommend you take a look.</p>
<p>As others have said if you can have an MIT interview you should certainly take the opportunity as the acceptance rate for students who choose not to have interviews is very low [it’s not clear how much of this is students declining interviews not being serious about their applications though]. That being said, the actual interview has little to no bearing on admissions [with the possible exception of students who act extremely unprofessionally severely hurting their applications]. There are good reasons for this, namely that studies have found informal interviews to have very little predictive validity. Add in the extremely large number of interviewers and the little oversight and training they receive and the very little predictive validity probably drops to zero. However, the interview can be a good way to learn about what MIT is like.</p>