UPenn Class of 2027 Official Thread

Have any Engineering students gotten Interviews yet
Is it a bad sign if I haven’t gotten one yet?

No, it’s not a bad sign. Interview offers are subject to alumni availability. Interview reports likely aren’t due for several more weeks so there is still time for you to receive an invitation to interview.

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My son didn’t get an interview email but his friend (same school)got one 2wks ago and scheduled to have it on tomorrow. Is it a bad sign?

Interviews are randomly assigned based on availability

thank you

Right before the dealine of course. My kid likes to do everything last minute unfortunately.

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Same thing with my son. He hasn’t gotten one, his friend has. Not sure what to make out of it.

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Don’t make anything of it. The interviews are dependent on the availability and capacity of alumni in the area where the applicant lives. There are plenty of students who have been admitted to Penn without an interview.

As noted in many threads, the alumni interviews are really more about keeping alumni engaged than anything else, though they are useful for applicants hoping to gain additional insight on Penn.

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I don’t know about this. My interviewer lives all the way across the country and has never lived even remotely close to the area I live in. It was a hassle managing time zones.

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Yeah D’s was an interviewer with a 3hr time zone difference.

It’s interesting for sure. My interviewer for Duke was also at a 3hr time zone difference, but they had recently moved there. They had lived in my region for pretty much their entire life. I can see why we were matched since they were technically from my area. UPenn I found honestly weird since my interviewer has no connection whatsoever to my region. Not sure.

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Or alumni from the college or program the student is applying to, or alumni who are simply available. Point is, not everyone gets an interview because it is dependent on the capacity of the alumni volunteers. In the age of Zoom, location probably matters less.

What other factors might they use? Do you think they read through some applications and filter some out based on GPA etc. and then proceed to offer interviews?

No.

That said, if it’s mid-March and they find a particularly strong applicant hasn’t been interviewed, I would not be surprised if they schedule a last minute interview.

But on February 6, it’s random.

Hmm, I see. Some people on Reddit were speculating that they might have done a read-through for some applicants–it’s been >month since applications were due.

Just because high school students speculate on Reddit does not make it true.

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Sure, but to an extent you’re speculating too. UPenn hasn’t come out to say anything and none of us work there, so none of us can say with guarantee how things work with interviews. It’s not about someone being a high schooler or a moderator. Your guess is as good as mine.

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Interesting…so does this mean interviews actually are important at Penn? Or is it “just” important in close cases.

Also, is this specific to Penn (as far as you know) or more general to the “top schools.”

https://ira.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/UPenn-Common-Data-Set-2021-22-Rev-07.2022.pdf. The interview is “important” at Penn, not just considered.

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No specific info on Penn. My hypothesis is based on a peer school.

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