<p>So I just got an email a week ago inviting me to an alumni interview in my area in February. (FYI, I applied to Wharton.) Just a few questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>If there are active alumni in the region (as there clearly are), does every applicant get an interview? </li>
<li>I read somewhere that interviews are limited to the number of available alumni in that specific region. How do they pick who gets an interview and who doesn't? </li>
<li>Also, would you consider this a good or bad thing? Basically, should I be excited I was invited or not because it's no big deal :P</li>
</ul>
<p>Not everyone gets an interview, even if they have alumni in their area. That was the case for me, and I applied ED to Wharton and was accepted. I don't think it's good or bad if you get an interview. Personally, I would think it's a good thing because 1) you have a chance to showcase yourself to an alumni and 2) you are meeting someone who can be of help to you in the future. </p>
<p>They pick who gets an interview by random selection... it's basically a lottery. Let's say there's 10 people in a region applying to Penn and there's only one alumni there... they might randomly select a few of those applicants to be interviewed by the alumni. In my area, the other person who applied ED to Penn received and interview and I did not. He was rejected (in all honesty, less qualified) and I was accepted, so there's an example of interview not 'meaning' anything.</p>
<p>The Penn interviewer I had last week asked typical college interview questions about EC's, interests, Why Penn, school, etc. As Im sure you have already heard, the all interviews are really informal, and as long as you keep the conversation at a reasonable flow then there is no way that it can go badly.
good luck!</p>