Hello. I know everyone says that interviews don’t count for much but do you believe this applies to internationals (specifically those from countries listed in the “Countries With Limited Interviews” category)? I ask because I know for a fact that everyone who has gotten in from my country over the past decade or so has had an interview and all those who did not get interviews have all been rejected. I also know that those who weren’t interviewed weren’t denied one due to a lack of availability of interviewers as well. This thought came to my head as I read somewhere else on this forum that while being given an interview in the US is mainly due to availability, for countries listed under the “limited interview” category, the applicants are actually screened before interviews and the poster even referenced the existence of an annual short-list of interviewees in India for a top school from which all the admits are accepted. What are your thoughts?
About a year ago, I received this private message from a very active College Confidential contributor. I assume it applies to international students as well as domestic applicants.
I’m from the UK and was interviewed by Yale and Dartmouth but not By Harvard. The Harvard website and the Harvard Club of the UK website says I would be contacted my an interviewer. I take it that means I’m not getting in haha
@gibby I can see how that would be applicable in countries with a large number of applicants, where there would be a high load/stress on the interviewers but what about a situation in which only 1 person from an entire country is interviewed, while there are more than 1 alums available for interviews present (and more than 1 student applied). To put this into perspective, I’m from a country that sends less than 1 student per year, on average, to Harvard.
Honestly – and this is a complete guess – but with the private message I received in Post #1, I would think if you are from a country that sends less than 1 student per year to Harvard, yet there are alums in your country who could interview you, or who could do a Skype interview with you, then Harvard may have placed you on a “low priority” list for interviews. I don’t know if "low priority’ means a rejection, but you’ll find out in 9 days.
@gibby I was already accepted SCEA back in December, I was just wondering about this because it has been a trend I’ve noticed has been present over the years. I was also wondering if such a similar trend could be observed with the other HYP schools. Have you heard of this high and low priority categorizing occurring at Y and P?
For many years HYPS have been able to interview almost every applicant – both domestically and internationally. However, when applications started crossing the 30,000 and 35,000 and 40,000 marks, I think that became an impossibility. Hence, HYPS are having to prioritize whom they interview. That’s just the new reality. And yes, anecdotally I’ve heard it happening at all those schools, but that has not been confirmed in writing by those institutions themselves.
