Love how incredibly helpful this thread has been! I have my interview for Princeton this Saturday, and since I haven’t done any other interviews yet, I was a little nervous about what to expect.
Hope all of you Princeton hopefuls are doing well!
Just received my interview invitation today! I’m really excited. 
Also, just as a reminder for you Princeton hopefuls out there, the Princeton Financial Aid Application (PFAA) is due on November 15th for SCEA. If you still haven’t started the form but want an aid estimate in December, you should start now! Finding all your income information is not a task for a single day.
Best wishes!
Had my interview today! I think it went pretty well. We went to the local library and it was pretty relaxed; he wore jeans.
Questions that were asked…
Why do you want to go to Princeton?
What extracurriculars are you involved in?
Anything in your background that makes you unique?
What is the greatest challenge you have had to overcome?
How would you describe yourself?
He also asked if I was involved with any sports. Can’t remember exact words
Lastly he gave me the chance to ask questions on my own.
There were a few additional minor ones, but these were the main topics of the interview.
He told me that Princeton basically wants the applicant to reinforce their application, show that you represented yourself accurately.
Hope this helps anyone who has yet to receive their interview. Good luck!
Oh, and he also said the interviewers aren’t given any part of your application. They’re completely blind, so make a good impression.
@neptunepaw Thank you for sharing your experience. Best of luck to you! -psy
@asappebble @sugar98 I also applied without the subject tests and have been freaking out for weeks. I couldn’t fit them into my schedule, and they were never advised by my counselor (Im the first person to apply to an Ivy from my school). I really really hope this doesn’t kill my application. I have straight As and solid ACT scores/AP scores. Does anyone know if this hurts your application right off the bat???
It may depend on your major. We went to an info session in March and my son had a Math II and a Biology subject test and I asked the admin officer after the session if that would be enough for engineering and she said no you have to have a physics or chemistry subject test to be competitive. Some schools say you just need a science so we thought his biology would be fine but she told him to take one of the other two sciences. The website says they are not required but she made it sound like you needed them to apply to engineering.
at one of the HYPS schools an admin officer said that unless the kid comes from a severely financially disadvantaged background - even though the websites say the tests are optional - you better have subject tests.
people don’t realize a lot of the admissions statements regarding “holistic” and “not required” are 1) to increase applicant numbers to increase US news ranking and 2) to protect the college from legal stuff. If recruited athletes or legacies or URMs can get in, without subject tests than they can’t really say they are “required”. The word “holistic” came straight from a supreme court ruling from Sandra day o’connors’ written decision on affirmative action.
Yes it really does suck that these admissions people don’t just come out and say if you are from a well off family, and good school if you don’t have 700s on subject tests 99.9% of the time you won’t get in.
it’s also surprising how hard it is to find actual scores for SAT2 tests for the colleges of who’s admitted and who’s not. to each college like they do for SATs and ACTs. wonder what that’s about?
Yeah true, but an admissions officer who visited my school told me that if two applicants are of equally powerful and strong academic, social, etc. calibers then they wouldn’t accept one over the other just because they had subject tests. Idk maybe he was just saying that but it does make sense considering the website states they are optional.
I’m relaying what a stanford admissions officer told me directly face to face without anyone else around after the group dispersed. He said unless you are from a disadvantaged background you will be at a disadvantage without subject tests. This is the first year Princeton said subject tests are optional and - surprise, surprise - their Early applications just went up 10%. (Brown and Penn’s early apps are flat, so we’ll see if this correlates with easing
stated testing requirements.)
Yale has also changed to say subject tests are optional and for the first time applicants can use score choice on subject tests which were not allowed previously. The schools all want to increase their applications as much as possible and their yield. FYI on the campus tour I asked the Stanford undergrad who gave the campus tour if he took subject tests (when the tour was over ) and he did with a 760/800 score on subject tests. So my impression is unhooked whites or asians will be at a disadvantage without good subject test scores. The way to reconcile this is that if there are URMs or first generations they will be fine without them, but most “regulars” will not. That is the most non-cynical way to reconcile. Most people say if something says “recommend” that should be interpreted as “should”
For the 2006-2007 admitted class, Princeton reported the middle 50 was 710-790 for the average of the three highest subject test scores. They required at least three back then. No doubt, scores have only gone up since then as the acceptance rates for top colleges have plummeted in the last ten years.
Welp there goes my chances lol…I guess we’ll just see.
Do all of the Ivies have this hidden policy? Is there any that you won’t be at a disadvantage if you don’t have subjects? Also is it better to submit two relatively low scores (say in the mid 600s) that aren’t consistent with the rest of your scores than to send no scores at all?
Random question, but I had my interview today and it was incredibly mediocre. If I’m definelty not the strongest applicant in the first place, any estimate of how much this could affect my chances?
Another question: what’s happening “live” these days? Are they reading/deciding already? Do they decide on some people’s quickly before they even have an interview? (My DS has his interview tomorrow!!)
If I don’t sit subject tests shoudk I state why somewhere on my app?
@azwu331 : Why do you think the PFAA is due on the 15th? Where are you getting that?
@Waiting2exhale I got the date from the financial aid informational booklet that Princeton sent me via mail over the summer. The date is the recommended deadline for SCEA, but you can submit the form later if you don’t mind not having your projected aid package with your decision in December.