<p>Will interviewing help my chances? What is the interview like? Does anyone have any tips?</p>
<p>My point of view, as the father of a current Wesleyan student and as an alumnus myself, is that having an interview at Wesleyan will give you insights that you will get nowhere else, and, since Wesleyan does not have essays (aside from the Common App) of their own in the application process, it is your best chance to tell the school who you are and why you want to attend. They do not take points away from you if you do not interview there, but you have the opportunity to make a very positive impression on the interviewer (a Wes student, typically) and that goes into your file. That being said, if the rest of your application is weak (poor GPA, low test scores, lousy recommendations and a transcript that indicates that you avoided the most rigorous classes in high school), a stellar interview will likely be of little value. I think this is true of all competitive colleges, but Wesleyan is one school that does give some weight to the interview in making admission decisions. Good luck!</p>
<p>My S interviewed. He viewed it as a great opportunity to “sell” himself, and indeed he got along great with the student interviewer (they went over the alotted time by a half hour), and also happened to run into and talk with an admissions dean at some length before his scheduled interview started. We’ll of course never know whether the interview helped, or if lack of an interview would have hurt, but he was admitted.</p>
<p>In the Common Data Set, Wesleyan identifies the weight it attaches to various elements of the application. If I recall correctly, the interview is given very little weight…but it is considered for those who have one. </p>
<p>It’s a poor way to communicate information to decision makers because (a) you have to gamble that the interviewer will communicate the information in the follow-up report, and (b) you have to hope that the decision makers will pay attention to what’s in that report when – relative to everything else that is considered – it is one of the least important aspects of the application. </p>
<p>My apologies for not feeding you a link to the CDS but I am using an iPod and doing that would take me forever.</p>