Hello! I sort of have this question about quite a few of my interviews. My interview for Cornell lasted about 45 minutes. From what I see with the 2 + hour interviews that get reported on this site, this is a little bit short. However, I feel that I really hit it off with my alumni, and the interview mostly ended because I ran out of questions. This seems to be the way with most of the interviews I’ve taken. What impact would you guys say interview length has on quality of interview? What tips do you have for trying to lengthen an interview, and is this something I should try to work on at all? Thank you so much!
@zeezeebee What major did you apply for? They only do formal interviews for architecture and hotels I think. I assume you are talking about the alumni network Q&A? There have been a few threads on here about that. I was just accepted early decision in December and my alum only talked with me on the phone and for only about 30 minutes. It went well and he said “I think you’d be a great addition to Cornell” at the end. I didn’t see any need to make the conversation linger, that would have just made it awkward. Don’t have too much anxiety into the alumni interview. It’s really just an outreach program and has almost no weight in the admissions decision. After your meeting, they only get 250 words to summarize and if it was neither good nor bad, they will literally write “nothing to report” in their summary. That’s what my guy told me he has had to do before. So your 45 minutes was 15 minutes longer than mine and I got in. You’re done now, right? Why do you need tips on lengthening? I would not contact the alum again, it might come off as desperate. Just my opinion.