Hello, I’m new to cc. I was trying to find threads related to not getting interviews from colleges, but couldn’t really find any. Thus, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out a bit. I applied to 14 colleges in total (3 ea, 11 rd), but I have only been contacted by 2 schools for interviews. This is pretty stressful for me since I am concerned that I won’t have the opportunity to interview since it’s been over 3 weeks since I submitted my applications. Some of the schools that have not contacted me are UPenn, MIT, Vanderbilt, Columbia, and Yale. I’m most concerned about UPenn and MIT since I believe they try to interview almost everyone. Can anyone give me some insight on what to do/what may be going on? For context, I attend a rural boarding school, but some of my peers have received interviews from UPenn, MIT, and Vanderbilt.
Thanks so much for any help! I really appreciate it.
I’m not familiar with the practices of all the schools on your list but, most rely on alumni to do interviews. As applications have risen, there are simply not enough alumni to contact every single student. Most schools no longer use alumni interviews in any kind of evaluative way. I do meetings for Cornell and this year they expect to only be able to reach 1/2 the applicants. It also means nothing that your friends have gotten interviews and you didn’t. My advice is to not worry about it.
Troublemint, my two older sons are interviewers for one of the colleges you listed. They have assured me that receiving an invitation to interview (or not) is absolutely not a reflection of the strength of your application. It is a function of the availability of alum interviewers! Please do not worry…you are good.
The first thing you need to do is google " Common Data Set" and
then look in Section C7: Relative importance of each of the following academic and nonacademic factors in first-time, firstyear,degree-seeking (freshman) admission decisions.
Then look at " Interview."
This will tell if a college requires/thinks it is important.