Princeton SCEA Class of 2020 Applicant Thread

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Final Remarks (Post #223)

I guess that’s it for me. As a final remark, I would like to thank all of you guys for being so helpful throughout the past few weeks! This CC community is probably one of the best groups I’ve ever encountered, and I really hope that I can know some of you guys better in the near future!

To meaa7130, psywar, sugar98, and everyone else that I’ve met on this thread, I’m rooting for all of you guys! You are all wonderful people, and know that, regardless of where you end up, you’ll be amazing! Good luck with the rest of your college applications!

I’ll see you guys on decision day! Crossing my fingers for good luck! :slight_smile:

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Hi there!

I’m an international applicant from Chile. My interview is in 5 days and I’m happy to know it’ll just be considered. I’m curious about the admission stages. I know they intially have two people read your application. Then, if it looks promising, it goes to a committee.

How many days before decisions release do they certainly know who will be admitted?

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@mprut0987 I got my interview notification and waited a week. Since I have tons of activities scheduled for this month, I emailed my interviewer introducing myself, and also told him which days I was available.

(Funny thing, we agreed to meet on Nov. 27, and last Friday he calls me and says: “Where are you? I’ve been waiting for you for half an hour”. Yes, he confused the dates. He’s 75+ years old.)

I’ve heard of other students who email their interviewers and have no problem. Some alumni are even happy to be reminded! Just be polite :slight_smile:

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@mprut0987 I was in a similar situation. Literally the day after I sent my application, I got an email saying my interviewer would “contact me shortly.” Two weeks passed, and I decided to email him myself. I said something to the effect of: “I wanted to reach out to make sure you did receive my contact information (given email mishaps like junk mail sorting, etc). Regardless, I’m sure you are very busy, so I’ll wait to hear from you at your convenience.”

And then I added my cell phone number, too. He emailed back within minutes and gave no indication that he had forgotten to contact me or anything. I honestly think he didn’t know that he was supposed to be the one to reach out. I had my interview the very next day and it went swimmingly! So definitely don’t be afraid to get in touch with him if you’re getting a little antsy.

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there are some interesting counter- arguments against the asian college discrimination issue. For almost all the schools the admissions folks say half the applicants could handle the academic load, or at a minimum 3 or 4 classes could be filled from just the exceptional applicants.

Stanford for example rejects 69% of people with perfect SATs. Think about that - and Stanford intentionally has lower test score accepted kids than HYP. So when the admissions has thousands of applicants with near perfect test scores how do they choose? Lots of academically talented kids play in orchestra (or asian piano/violin stereotype) and play non-contact or individual sports (cross country). So playing the violin and running cross country is a cliche cause so many kids do that. One consulting group helps un-asian applicants by encouraging them to play a team (or even better contact sport) and not play violin or piano. Kind of sad, but if you think of traits of academically talented kids, most of the time they are similar. Conversely, if there was some asian all-conference defensive lineman elected class president with perfect scores, that would really stand out. I think SAT 2s used to be the thing that helped spread out the applicants, but if those become less important than decisions will be even more subjective.

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Yeah I’ve heard about that consulting group and find it kind of ridiculous. I mean I know in the reality of selective admissions, Asian applicants do need to stand out but ugh it’s just so silly in my opinion to try to make someone less of who they are just because what they love fits into their race’s stereotype. I am also an Asian (female) applying to selective schools this year, and I always feel super awkward when people tell me “I’m not a typical Asian applicant.” I’m just like uhhh what?? For adcoms to assume that every Asian who plays violin/piano, is great at math, has a 36 or 2400 is the same is annoying. I take to issue this perpetuation of the idea that Asian kids need to “be un-asian.” It reinforces the notion that kids should mold their whole high school experience around getting into an IVY. It’s unfortunate that in this day in age, that is exactly what many kids and parents think they need to do :confused:

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I just had my interview over the phone and it was super informal and relaxed！The interviewer kept telling me how brave I was to study abroad all by myself at a young age. Don’t know how she got that information. It lasted only 40 minutes. The questions were similar as someone posted, basically why Princeton and your ECs. She didn’t even dig into my intended major but that’s ok. And I asked more questions than she did. She talked about the eating clubs and how great the humanity classes are even though she is a biology major. Anyway, good luck to everyone!

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You couldn’t have said it better @azwu331! Considering taking up a hiatus from CC myself because MacroEcon is getting tougher by the day and I need to stop procrastinating :(|)

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@andreschile @elk1819 thank you for the very helpful advice! will try :smiley:

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I got an interview!! Yay they didn’t just forget about me! Wow now I’m really nervous…

Also for those who are wondering, the last day to interview is Dec 4.

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I have a question about the benefits of accepting Early Action right away. For example, if a student is admitted to a restrictive early action Ivy League mid-December and does not have to accept until May, what is the advantage of accepting right away in the winter?

For students who accept the offer right away and commit to enrolling, do they get 1st choice for dorms, 1st choice for classes, best options for accepted students weekend or first pick for pre-orientation sign ups?

Overall, do you have an advantage to accept your admissions right away? I am aware that some pre-orientation activities fill up by the time that May rolls around.

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My interview went decently well I guess, aside from one or two blunders. My interviewer was an academic, and she seemed kind of confused, or maybe even put off, as to why someone interested in business would apply to Princeton. And some of her questions were kind of weird or difficult. She asked me at one point, out of nowhere, if I would ever consider trying alcohol, and I said, “I think almost anything is acceptable when used responsibly and in moderation.” And then she went on about how great substance-free housing is… I’m still not sure entirely what to make of certain parts of the interview, but think I still did okay overall…

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@azwu331 Hey, sorry for the very late response, I’ve been crazy busy and it’s finally break! First of all, I absolutely love Princeton. I am so very happy here, and I do not regret applying here REA and eventually deciding to come!

So at this point I think I want to do Molecular Biology. Funny thing is though, I’m not taking any classes this semester which work towards that, just because of how my schedule worked out. My classes are really challenging, and it’s easy to feel like the dumbest person in the room, which can be a daunting, but exciting and stimulating, new experience, since most of us probably felt like one of the smartest in our respective high schools. I play a high-commitment club sport, which practices 5 days a week for two hours, games and travel on Saturdays, and lots of social activities. I also am involved in a musical ensemble, so a few days this semester I have found myself spending nearly 5 hours on extracurriculars, which takes a lot of potential school-working time away, not to mention time for basic things like eating or taking a shower lol. So sometimes this means late nights for me. I could easily work for 3-4 hours a night and still feel uneasy about what I accomplished, if that makes sense. My classes are mostly problem-set based, so depending on what kind of worker you are, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I have friends whose work consists entirely of reading and writing, so it entirely depends on the type of classes you take. One thing I have noticed about my work and the work of my friends is that it is not simple regurgitation of material. Princeton classes force you to think about that you learn and think about the material on a deeper level. Tests and quizzes aren’t simply fact recall, but rather a chance to take the topic one step further and intellectually challenge you.

As far as competition goes, I’ve found that there are plenty of people in the same boat as you, no matter where you fall. Also, because many tests and quizzes come down to studying and knowing how to do problems, you can do very well on one assignment then bomb the next, just depending on your preparation and if you knew how to prepare. I haven’t found myself in a situation where I have done poorly on something and then been made to feel stupid because everyone else did well.

For me personally, let’s just say that I’ve had a lot of fun <:-P this semester- and my grades are not quite like I envisioned. But the fact is, while college can be thought of as the first four years of adulthood, they are also your last four years of being a kid. No matter where you end up, be sure to enjoy yourself. College is SO MUCH MORE than grades- I would even venture to say that as long as your aren’t screwing up big time, grades in college don’t even really matter. Especially if you go to a good school, which you all will, be it Princeton or somewhere else.

The bottom line is this: Princeton is hard af. But they wouldn’t let you in if they didn’t think you can handle it.

Best of luck in the application process, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

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Hi! I haven’t gotten an interview email yet, and I’m getting a little nervous just because I’m from New Jersey, so I would assume they’d have people in my area. Should I just wait it out and hope for the best, or is there someone I should email?

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Hi guys. I was wondering if anyone knew 1. On what date admission decisions actually come out and 2. How- by mail or posted in the app tracker or by email. Thanks!

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Sorry I wish I knew. Good luck though Mel in your Princeton journey:)

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Does getting an interview rather late mean that my application made it through the preliminary rounds? Or is it not related at all?

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@meaa7130 I was thinking a little bit about that too, particularly because the person I’m interviewing with seems to match with my interests a fair amount–makes me hope upon all hopes that they liked my application and therefore want to use the interview as a chance to sell. Then again maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Anyway they say that 99% of applicants interview, and only a very small number of people get outright rejected (as opposed to deferred) so I think it’s most likely unrelated. Only a couple more weeks until we’ll find out, though! I both can’t wait but also can’t stand the thought of opening that email to find out what happens.

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I don’t believe that getting/not getting an interview has anything to do with your chances of admission. If you got it late, it is possible that there is a lack of interviewers in your area, or maybe it is because interviews are assigned alphabetically.

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Hello guys! Just swinging by the thread for a little while. Hopefully you guys all are doing well on your other apps; I just finished Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth in the past few days and will be finishing up UChicago soon.

@nolasaxman Thank you for taking the time to write such an informative post! It really helps to get to know the school through the lens of a student. Glad to see that you’re doing well at Princeton!

@Mel1997 Princeton tends to release decisions on the second or third Monday of December. My hunch is that they will release on the 14th (or at the latest the 21st) through both e-mail and the application portal.

@meaa7130 @CautiousOptimist As for the correlation between the interview and acceptance, I’ve looked through past SCEA threads and found no real connection between the time of the interview and the ultimate decision (on last year’s thread, the people who were admitted had interviews ranging from early November to early December). However, what I did find was that the nature of the interview could give hints to the decision beforehand. Applicants who had interviewers who knew about their stats beforehand were more likely to be admitted than applicants who had interviewers who didn’t. On the other hand, applicants who had interviewers who shared no common interests (i.e. an English major interviewing a student who wanted to study Electrical Engineering) were more likely to be deferred than applicants who had interviewers who shared common interests. However, the inverse is not necessarily true: having an interviewer who does not know about you beforehand does not mean deferral, and having an interviewer who shares similar interests does not guarantee acceptance. In fact, this information can’t guarantee anything; it’s just a pattern that I found through scouring older threads.

Nevertheless, this whole thing is an observational study, so no conclusion can be decisively made. The only way we can determine causation is to experiment; we can detail how our interviews went and then look back after we receive our decisions to see if there is any real connection between these factors. As for my interview, my interviewer didn’t know any background information about me but shared some similar interests (so I guess that sort of cancels out?).

@manwiththeplan At first, I thought that interviewers were assigned based on regional availability as well, but then I realized that if that were the case, Princeton could just give everyone phone interviews and get it done with. I feel like the process of assigning interviews involves some hidden complex algorithm or something. Perhaps Princeton tries to give everyone a chance for a face-to-face interview… but then what does that mean for the people who have phone interviews with alumni far away? I know for a fact that my interviewer lives fairly close to me; however, she decided to give me a phone interview. Did Princeton assign her to me and let her choose whether to conduct a face-to-face interview or a phone interview depending on the busyness of her schedule, or did Princeton tell her to just conduct a phone interview because the admissions officers had already deferred me and didn’t want her to waste her time…?

One thing I do know for a fact is that interviews aren’t assigned alphabetically; if that were true, I wouldn’t be able to have my interview until the day before decisions come out. :stuck_out_tongue:

One last point that I’d like to make is that, if everything goes to plan, Princeton will be going into committee this weekend to analyze the remaining 1,500 candidates left in the pool. That means that they have already sent approximately 2,700 unlucky applicants, or 64% of the total applicant pool, to the deferral pile. During the next two weeks, they will closely analyze the remaining 36% of the applicants until they weed out another 700-800 students to form their final list of SCEA admits. Perhaps for some of us, our fates have already been decided. Perhaps for some others, our fates will be decided next week. In the end, we will never know when we were sent away, or why we were sent away; we will only know whether or not we survived. But I guess that’s what makes this long wait wishful and unbearable at the same time.

Best wishes to everyone! :slight_smile: