My son was contacted last week…will have his interview in the next few days.
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I googled her interviewer, I am sure just a coincidence, I believe they are assigned by region, so the interviewer lives near my DD’s boarding school. But attended college for their PHD in the city we live in, is in the same field as kiddo’s dad, and has a side gig that is very similar to my kiddo’s main EC. Do they attempt to match interviewers this way? Probably not, just interesting.
Has everyone who applied for Princeton received interview notification?
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And this is why most colleges discourage applicants from googling their interviewers. You’re overthinking it and arbitrarily assigning weight to something that is probably random. Also, think how weird and off-putting it would be if your kid mentions any of the discovered information during the interview.
Never heard not to Google. I am not overthinking anything, just thought it an interesting coincidence, or maybe they do try to match people some in some way that makes sense. I also disagree that it would be “weird and off putting” people google and research before interviews ALL THE time. Why is it expected that you know everything about a college but you wouldn’t know anything about your interviewer. That is weird to me. Research is expected these days.
We can agree to disagree, but this is how another ivy feels about it:
We know you’ll be tempted to research your interviewer. Please don’t. In the same way that we ask interviewers not to look up Penn applicants online, we ask that you refrain from researching your interviewer using internet searches or connecting with them through social media. The Penn interview is designed to be a fresh conversation between two interested (and interesting) but previously unknown individuals.
If Princeton feels differently, fine. Personally, I like the idea of a “fresh conversation” because it just feels more organic; researching alumni interviewers is a bit try hard to me.
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There are regional coordinators who are responsible for assigning an interviewer for the student. Neither the admissions office nor the regional coordinators have a detailed profile of all the interviewers. All they know is that interviewers are verified alumni, have volunteered and committed their time, then given a set of interview guidelines. It’s not like there’s an excess of interviewers available out there for the luxury of matching up the interviewer based on his or her profile with that of the student’s. Besides, there are typically – and this of course varies depending on the region – a number of students assigned per interviewer. When I was an interviewer (not Princeton), I was assigned on average about five students. I never Googled any of them, and I certainly hoped that none of them had Googled me. In my five years of interviewing, not a single student’s profile had even remotely matched up with my profile.
For those still anxiously waiting to be assigned an interviewer, keep in mind that many interviewers have very busy professional lives as doctors, lawyers, business executives and whatnot while volunteering as interviewers. Many of them do not promptly jump to their assigned duties the moment they’re given the assignment by the regional coordinator. As far as I know, each and every student does get an interview as long as there’s no issue with the availability in the region. When there’s no interviewer availability in the region, they handle the interview by Zoom. My son’s ('22) Princeton interviewer drove nearly 2 hours to meet up with my son as there wasn’t an interviewer available in our small city. His interview with Duke took place via Zoom.
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My friend who was an MIT interviewer for a decade said he didn’t feel comfortable when students mentioned things he guessed they had discovered about him via LinkedIn or Google.
He didn’t look up his interviewees (so he could talk to them with a fresh and open mind) and he preferred they wouldn’t look him up.
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Ok people- chill. The student didn’t google the person, mom did. Out of curiosity. I was interested. Forgive me. Student didn’t and isn’t going to be weird and awkward. But thanks for viewpoint.
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I like to assess how clever and resourceful the applicant is, and knowing about your interviewer can demonstrate that. I consider it a plus factor in my interviewing (for a tippy top school)…
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I’m sure different interviewers have different perspectives and preferences.
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If you applied for financial aid, does the FAFSA still show up as missing on the finaid portal?
Just curious how does Princeton can arrange interviews for most of the applicants who expressed interest? Don’t they get more than 40,000 of applications?
Not sure how they do it. For EA, they receive about 5,000 applications. For regular, they received a shade under 28k.
According to the ivy coach website.
Strong alumni network with lots of volunteer interviewers.
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That’s still a lot!
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So is Friday Dec. 16 the most likely decision date for SCEA based on looking at past years?
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Question about FAFSA showing up on Financial Aid portal:
Ours shows now as received. (FAFSA completed Nov. 1, shows on the portal as uploaded Nov. 22)
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Hi all. I’ve done alumni Pton interviews for many years - it is great that Pton can interview pretty much all students who want an interview. There are a lot of volunteers and v involved alumni network- i do c 6 a year and more if they need it. For what it’s worth def would not be offended if a student had googled me for background info- Obviously there is a balance between informed and stalker vibe to get right 
I would not judge the mom that researched at all-
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How many do they typically accept during EA round?
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