They are more informational. It is still important that your child convey their message of why they have chose to apply to UPenn and why they believe the college is a good fit for them.
My son did not have an interview either. He was accepted RD.
1 Like
Not necessarily. The process can be very random.
Congratulations!
Hopefully he did! The interviewer was someone who went to the same high school that he goes to and lives near us now. But I guess we will find out Tuesday. Unfortunately Penn for our school tends to only take legacies and girls for some reason but you never know what will happen this year!
I believe all of them.
Not getting an interview does not indicate a rejection. They do not have enough alumni to conduct interview for all applicants.
Ok, I have a question for those who got an interview, because honestly, I don’t think mine went well. My interview literally lasted for 2 hours, I was burnt out in the end.
So my interviewer asked for how many B’s I got and why I got them, like wth, how can I remember why I got a B in freshmen year? I was probably immature at the time and didn’t know why an AP Class was so freaking hard. He kept asking me to describe each of my extracurricular, and I have to explain to him what I did everyday and specific hours for each of them, I literally had a calculator next to me…
So basically, it was too specific, and I was wondering why he asks me these if they’re already on my application, shouldn’t they be seeing characteristics instead of academic records? Also, the worst thing is I asked him why he chooses UPenn for Graduate school, guess what he said? “I don’t know, i just choose it” I was like WTH, and he kept saying how good CalTech was, bruhhhhh
1 Like
I guess my question was how long were your interviews? Did they ask you these questions?
My interview was about 45 minutes and very casual. My interviewer was very kind and excited that I was looking at Penn. No stressful questions, just usual interview stuff.
lmaoo. this is why interviews never really have much weight on someone’s decision-the interviewers might just be bad at interviewing or contentious or something. I loved my interviewer for Yale but he did ask me some questionable things like which other schools I applied to, my classes, what my parents do, (basically things the interviewer isn’t really supposed to know). Weird.
a long interview is usually good though! good luck.
On their website regarding alumni interviews it says: “There’s no pre-screening of applicant files, and alumni volunteers don’t have access to your application. Penn alumni volunteers receive a thorough training to ensure you have a positive experience. If you receive an invitation for an alumni interview, we strongly encourage you to make time for the opportunity.”
haha, omg what an a$$. Too bad you couldn’t come back with “dude, how many B’s did you get and why?” Btw, he wouldn’t know if you had gotten 0,1 or 100. Some people have such big egos they should NOT be alumni interviewers, or any kind of interviewer at all.
One of my kids had an alumni interview where the person wanted her to come downtown Chicago (we live about 40 mins out on a good day in no traffic) to meet her the day before Thanksgiving, which is the busiest travel day of the year. Besides the fact that my kid wasn’t going to just randomly drive downtown for an interview, the train would take too long and I just don’t get what these people are thinking. Ultimately they decided on a phone call which was good for 2 reasons. a) we had a snowstorm that day and b) the person wound up blowing her off and cancelling that day just beforehand. Can’t imagine what would’ve happened if she had set on her way down there. Then they rescheduled for the following week and the person then didn’t call my daughter had to email her and the woman forgot. Smh. This was a horrible experience for my daughter and this person absolutely should not have been an interviewer. She did not represent this school well at all. I told my daughter when the survey came to fill it out but she never did. My other daughter had a phenomenal experience with her interview at the same school so who knows what’s up. They both got in so it clearly didn’t mean anything.
Bottom line, don’t take much stock into it unless you were the one who was horrendous. Sometimes you just have to play their game and feed their egos.
woah mine only lasted like 30 minutes and it was super casual. The alumni was sitting by her bed and not wearing any makeup lol. She just asked me questions about my background, my interest and why Penn. I don’t think I would have been able to handle a 2 hr interview
1 Like
My interview was somewhat similar. Although it lasted for about an hour and I think it was decent, there were moments when I felt like I had to argue in favor of my school and college choices as if it were a debate - the guy kept asking me questions like “why didn’t you choose UChicago instead of Penn?” and he probably had full knowledge that I had applied to several other schools, including UChicago.
Like, I get that you have to make a good point regarding why you want that specific school but asking about why not other specific schools? Out of all the interviews I had, Penn’s was possibly the most stressful (maybe Columbia’s was worse because the guy kept testing my knowledge regarding famous economists, and I knew almost no one he was citing).
Asking about your grades was completely out of line, in my opinion. The point of the interview is to understand you as an individual, not to nitpick your grades.
1 Like
My interview lasted just over an hour. Definitely could have reached the two hour mark, but my interviewer had another one scheduled right after mine. Honestly went super well, and is currently the main reason I have any hope for an acceptance on the 6th.
I think asking questions about other colleges and socioeconomic background is somewhat characteristic of Yale’s interviews. My interviewer asked these questions and constantly talked about what he though were severe Yale flaws. A friend of mine said his interview was like this too.
How long did your interview last? Mine was about 45 minutes
Thank you! You too for Penn! Yahoo!
Mine was like 20 minutes max, I was really worried when the interviewer cut it so short. I could’ve spoken for another 30 minutes ;). I guess it didn’t go well even though they seem pretty impressed with me and my extracurriculars. But they also had to interview around 20 other kids from my school so that could be a factor as well.
1 Like