@GettingRekt , if you insist on reading meaning into a situation which people with experience and knowledge have repeatedly said is without meaning, well, I guess there’s nothing left to say.
@DryMango Thanks… sent them the day before
Just curious, did anyone send their application to Yale-NUS? I figured there wasn’t any harm to it, so I did so.
Yes sent
@GettingRekt - I am an interviewer and was just assigned four interviews at one time a couple of days ago. I plan on contacting the applicants today or tomorrow. Maybe they are also thinking the same as you about what is the hold up. When you say your area has no shortage of Yale alum, do you actually know how many have signed up for the task of interviewing? I live in the DC area where there is no shortage of Yale alums, but there are less than 75 active interviewers in my estimation. This is to cover the hundreds and hundreds of students from the extremely strong Ivy and top tier collegefeeder schools in the area - some which may have 10-15 applicants, many of them legacies. I grew up in DC and got admitted without an interview back in the dark ages. My D is there now and many of her classmates did not have interviews either. For a really strong candidate (which is one that has all the other holistic attributes they seek) and for a really poor candidate (whose scores are too low or recommendations are not convincing), the interview may not be a deal breaker. But for an applicant that is on the bubble, where the committee is trying to see the person beyond the application, the scores, the long list of ECs and the recommendations, sometimes, just sometimes, it can be a factor.
Hi Tperry1982, when you were assigned four interviews, what information can you see about applicants? I guess you should see their name, e-mail address, city. Can you see applicants’s family members information, like parents education level, sibling’s information? Thank you!
No interview here. Any philosophy majors out there?
Just got contacted for an interview, but I’ll be out of town so I really hope I can reschedule…
@lucky2017 - the only information we get is contact information, current school and possible major, if one is indicated. Yale wants it interviewers to talk to the applicant without benefit of that information (which is already available to the committee and irrelevant for the interview). This is your chance to shine as yourself. Good luck
@masquerade98 - contact your interviewer however they contacted you and let them know your schedule. I have done interviews via Skype so you don’t necessarily have to be in the same place. Technology is a wonderful thing.
@Tperry1982 Thanks so much for your answer. It was really helpful (Tried to like it and “helpful” it but I guess you can’t do that). I’m not actually sure what’s up or the number of volunteers in my area so I guess that’s a pretty important consideration. My one concern is that we had two SCEA applicants and they both didn’t get interviews and they both got deferred, so at first we thought maybe there weren’t any alum in the area. But during RD, one of our applicants (not at SCEAer) got an interview request about a week and a half ago, so I’m just a little concerned. I guess my biggest question is, if there was at least one interviewer (as shown during RD), why didn’t either of the SCEAers get interviews? And as an additional note, you said that interviews aren’t going to make or break an applicants, so is it possible that interviews are primarily assigned for those who are preliminarily “on the wall” so to say? (PS I’m well aware that I’m way overthinking maybe, so apologies in advance haha.)
@GettingRekt - You are welcome. There are so many variables in Yale’s holistic application process that there is no real way to tell. Having gone through the process twice (my daughter and myself) and doing interviews for over 20 years, I still don’t have the answer. I must think that they have some value, or I would not keep doing them. Believe it or not, they are quite time consuming and most of us try to write reports that have value. That is why so many alums decide not to do it, I stopped for years when my daughter was young because I just did not have the time.
You application will be read by the your area reader and discussed by committee. There is plenty of time for you to shine through. Good luck.
@Tperry1982 I emailed them and luckily enough they have a second date that I can do interviews on.
I haven’t gotten an interview either (in fact, I’ve only scheduled an interview for a few of my (many) schools, so I’m a little worried), but I live in a population center… (Additionally, I happen to be one of those people whom an interview could help–I don’t think my personality came out as well as it could have in my earlier applications, including Yale.)
Got my interview in 3 Hours, any advice??
Each interviewer will have their own style and questions they like to ask, but I think most experienced interviewers will try to make the interview more of a conversation than a series of Q’s and A’s. While I interview for Yale, my kids’ experience suggest the interview experience is pretty similar among the highly selective colleges that do alumni interviews. For Yale, suggested areas they want interviewers to look out for:
• Intellectual strengths and energy
• Academic interests
• Flexibility in thinking, openness
• Expressive abilities
• Nonacademic interests or talents
• Personal qualities
• Distinctive or unusual talents
and/or circumstances
We do not receive grades, test scores, resume or lists of EC’s. There may be a note relating to a particular area of interest. Personally, I do not ask about grades or test scores or ask for a resume because I don’t want to have any preconceptions about the candidate, and I want to base my report entirely on the interaction with the candidate. My kids have gone into interviews where the interviewer has asked for a resume or it is evident that they have some form of resume in front of them (but not Yale).
While I do not have a preset list of questions, the vast majority of interviews sequence out as follows:
- Introduction/small talk to put the candidate at ease.
- Ask how the school year is going – from here, I can get an idea of what the candidate is interested in academically and in terms of EC’s.
- The conversation can naturally flow from the above to a discussion about favorite subjects/classes/class projects and if that is what they want to pursue in college and as a career, or I may need to prod the candidate to talk about this. From time to time, I may ask for some details about a class or project, and at times I may challenge them about a particular viewpoint or conclusion just to see how they react. Often during the course of discussion in 3, I will ask why they are attracted to Yale given their interests.
- Similar to 3, the conversation can either naturally flow to an EC or I may ask a question to get the conversation to this topic. Here I am trying to get a sense of how deeply involved the candidate is in the activities that the candidate wants to highlight.
- If all the EC’s that the candidate chooses to talk about are school sponsored/based, I may ask a question along the lines what do you like to do outside of school, do you have a favorite hobby, what do you do to relax?
- 3, 4 and 5 will take up 80%+- of the time. Within 3, 4 and 5, the candidate may ask me questions about Yale, e.g., why did you choose Yale, what did you like or dislike about Yale. If I feel that the conversation is stagnating or the candidate is getting tired of talking, I will ask “do you have any questions about Yale?” as a break. Usually though, the questions about Yale come at the end.
- The very last question I will ask is “is there anything you would like to talk about that we have not covered?” Most of the time they will say everything has been covered, but at times they may bring up a particular interest or challenge that may be a new topic or it could be an emphasis on something we had previously just touched upon.
After the interview, I try to write my report that evening tying the specific interaction I had with the candidate to the guidelines that the AO has laid out.
Having said all of this, and as posted throughout CC by other seasoned interviewers, these interviews are not going to lift an otherwise “no” candidate into the “yes” pile or sink a candidate that the AO already loves into the “no” pile (absent something totally extreme). I think the AO uses the interviews to confirm if their read on the candidate is consistent with the interview. Also, the AO makes it very clear to interviewers that we are ambassadors representing Yale, and that we should be selling Yale as much as the candidates are trying to sell themselves. So don’t stress, be prepared (but not robotic) to have a conversation about what makes you you and to get as much information about the college as possible.
@BKSquared - sounds like the ebb and flow of most of my interviews, with a couple of variances. I think you captured it well.
Does intervieweer has a role in making an applicant accepted or rejectsd
@USUG21 the interview report plays a very small role in the admissions process. The admissions officers will utilize it to get another, more “personal” idea of the applicant, but a meh interview will not destroy your chances. The only time an interview could significantly hurt you is if a big red flag comes up that the interviewer then notifies the school of (racism, lying on the app, etc).
Has anyone gotten a likely letter?