<p>Is MIT interview important? Some MIT students told me that it is very important. Why is the interview important?
While some Princeton students told me that Princeton interviews carry little weight? Why is that? How does it make the difference. Thanks</p>
<p>When you're in a very competitive applicant pool, everything is important. The interview is a good way for MIT to tell if you're as awesome in real life as you are on paper.</p>
<p>Last year, 16% of interviewed applicants were admitted, but only 6% of non-interviewed applicants were admitted. You could interpret this (as many people do) as indicating that the interview is exceptionally important. You are also free to consider the possibility that students who choose to interview are more competitive for admission in the first place.</p>
<p>Correlation versus causation and all that whatnot, but I'd argue that in this case it's a bit of both. I'm pretty sure that my interview did nothing but help (I know people who know the person who interviewed me; Midwestern towns are smaller than you'd think) and I had a great time just chatting about MIT and my interviewer's kids and physics and God.</p>
<p>Princeton's interview is sort of up for discussion- on the website, they say it's a part of the admissions process, but then it's only supposed to be for your own benefit in order to ask questions. Should you take the opportunity to have one? Why not! Will it actually help? No idea.</p>
<p>Thanks! I've taken both and I think I have done a good job. Anyway, I just want to know how the top schools think of the interview. Is it just a kind of way to strengthen connections with alumni or an important process of application for it is a direct way to contact with applicants or something else? Anyway, whether the interview is important or not, I must try my best effort! That's my philosophy: step by step, do my best!</p>
<p>My first college interview ever was with the MIT EC. Talking to him was
like talking to a friend and helped instill a ton of confidence for
me.</p>
<p>I could tell the MIT interview made a big difference for my EA admittance.</p>
<p>I am quite sure the Pton interview does not count in an equivalent
manner in terms of any impressions conveyed or inputs provided.
(there seems to be quite a variation in the quality of the interviewer-
Pton being a top school will obviously not let non-normalized input
bias their admittance decisions)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>
Oh, I agree -- I do think the interview does something, and I think a good interview can be a big help. I just don't think it's as cut-and-dried as many people seem to.</p>
<p>As an interviewer, I can suggest that the reason that an interview is not as critical a factor as many others is due to the huge variation in quality of EC. If an applicant's interview report is poor because they happened to draw a lousy EC, rather than a because they didn't interview well, then it it hard to penalise the applicant. Therefore, the interview report can vary between being very useful in putting together an admissions decision, and very useless. Actually, MIT grades each EC on each interview report from 1-5, and EC's with a bunch of 1's are likely to be dropped from the panel. </p>
<p>The interview matters most at the extremes, for good and ill. For example, if I am interviewing a candidate who seems never to have encountered soap, then that lack of basic social graces is something that is unlikely to show up anywhere else on the application. A consequential interview report that suggests that the candidate will struggle to work in a team, or indeed to interact with other students in person, may well make a difference in the application process.</p>