<p>Okay, I thought Columbia interviews were not really optional? Is there anyone else who has not been contacted yet? </p>
<p>Also, I have not been contacted for interviews by Upenn and Princeton as well. I have been contacted by all 5 of the other privates I have applied to. </p>
<p>Should I contact them, or is Columbia's interview like Cornell's in the sense that it is more informational than evaluative?</p>
<p>I never got an interview for Columbia and I got a likely letter if that helps.</p>
<p>I didn’t get one either, but there’s no luck for us anymore. The deadline for Columbia alumni to conduct interviews was February 9 for Engineering and February 22 for CC. <a href=“http://alumni.columbia.edu/newsletter/ebm/ARCIntl_jan2009.html[/url]”>http://alumni.columbia.edu/newsletter/ebm/ARCIntl_jan2009.html</a></p>
<p>edit: ^ oh man! :(</p>
<p>–still no interview; no likely letter either.</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>i hope this isn’t representative of our chances to be accepted</p>
<p>Right after I posted, I got an email from Penn about setting up an interview. lol</p>
<p>Still nothing from Columbia & Pton though</p>
<p>Interviews are over - the alumni submission deadline was yesterday. Dont worry they are not essential and, as stated numerous times, you are not at a disadvantage for not having one.</p>
<p>i think it all depends on how active the alumni network of your area is, so don’t worry too much :)</p>
<p>Ugh I haven’t got an interview yet either, I hope it’s a later date for us internationals</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nope, same.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. I got a likely as well with no interview. It’s not that important</p>
<p>think they do any prescreening? I know of two other kids in my HS who have gotten interviews, but I didn’t.</p>
<p>No no no no no and no.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The interviews are not required for admission.</p></li>
<li><p>Getting an interview is simply a matter of whether there is an alum in the area available to do it.</p></li>
<li><p>If there are a lot of applicants and not as many alums, some kids might get one, but they are not “pre-selected”–it’s likely more a matter of when their information came to the attention of the person who hands out the information to the alum who will then set them up.</p></li>
<li><p>Not having an interview will not impact your admission chances. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>While there are a fews schools that use the interview substantively–and they will tell you that they do–most use them to create goodwill with alumni and with prospective students.</p>
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</p>
<p>most use the interview as part of the evaluations, albeit a small part of the eval, a bad interview will nearly guarantee that you don’t make it, and a stellar interview will increase your chances possibly tipping you over the edge. Also there are much better ways to connect alumni to students, very very few students actually develop a long lasting relationship with their interviewer. Interviewing helps yield though.</p>
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<p>this is not entirely true, I finished school from a big city with many active alumni and tons of applicants, there were still too many applicants for all to be interviewed. In my school (small, very competitive), we had like ~10 columbia apps and they only chose me for an interview, it was the same story for other top schools i applied to. I had a non-stereotypical profile and was probably a marginal applicant. I feel they chose me because they wanted to know more about me than was on paper, they had the potential to interview several more kids from my school. other schools that I applied to and got in, took kids who didn’t have interviews.</p>
<p>So overall there’s no real correlation between getting an interview and getting in but the reason for getting an interview is more than just alumni availability.</p>