Hey,
Sorry that I’m so late to the discussion. If I may, allow me contribute to the questions about interviews. I submitted my SCEA application around 10/22 with transcripts and all. However, I have not yet received an interview offer. It is a fact that there is an alumnus interviewer in my region, as a friend who submitted around 10/26 has already received an interview. Because I was told interviews are given with respect to application dates, I am naturally confused. I understand that this does not necessarily reflect on the quality of my application, but am worried nonetheless.
Thanks for clearing this up!
@BKSquared Thanks for explaining more about the review process by the AOs. Do all the apps that receive a thumbs up go to the Ad Com? I’m wondering if all of the acceptances in SCEA are finalized in Ad Com.
Yes, my understanding is the SCEA process is run in the same manner – just fewer candidates but a tighter timeline. The Ad Com in the SCEA have 3 options, accept, reject, defer. I am not sure what final signoff athletic recruits go through since they have been pre-vetted in all cases and likely letters started going out to them in October.
Have any internationals (India especially) got interviews yet? If so, which country are you from?
I live in the Chicago area, have not heard anything and am concerned. I like to think I am a candidate worth at least a serious look. A couple of observations:
- The Yale web site does expressly say that not being offered an interview does not mean anything. and
- There is another person in my school who went early and has not heard anything. And he is a legacy.
On the one hand, I am concerned. On the other, I keep telling myself it means nothing. We have a friend of the family who used to be Dean of admissions at another Ivy. He says they never treated interviews as critical path in the admissions process.
Good luck.
@Thor914, I know it’s a rough wait, but I would believe Yale and your family friend. Serenity Now! Good luck.
Hi, I’m an international student from China but am currently studying at a high school in CA. Got my interview request email a week ago and finished it this Tuesday.
@Thor914 The adcoms are weird, try not to freak out if you haven’t gotten your interview email yet. My friend and I applied on the same day (10/31) from the same city. I did my interview over Skype with an alumni on Long Island while she did hers at our local Corner Bakery. Even my interviewer said that the adcom is super unpredictable. Hopefully that email will be coming your way sometime soon!
@sinotine but you still live in the US. I meant anyone living outside the US – if they had got an interview?
my interviewer didn’t show up! we were supposed to be interviewing now, over skype, but he’s still not online - half an hour late! i really don’t know who to email or call (i’ve already sent him an email).
I had my interview yesterday! I was scared of not being able to find my interviewer and it being too cold. We met in Bryant Park, which is too huge to consider asking any adult male in the vicinity if he was my interviewer. However, he texted me with a landmark & what he was wearing last minute, and it wasn’t as windy as I anticipated. I can’t really ascertain how well the interview went because it was my first one, but we had similar interests – he was a double major in English/Theater, part of the Yale Political Union, worked for a literary journal, etc. He seemed impressed with the lit journal I run & my work at the Guggenheim.
I felt very in control of the conversation – I opened by saying I’m passionate about creative writing, art, and social activism, and then narrowed on each of the three. He asked me some oddball questions, like what book I would make everyone read if I was the “book tyrant” and why, what is the best debate I have ever been engaged in, what is one unanswerable question I have, etc. (He also didn’t explicitly ask “Why Yale,” but I implicitly answered it when he asked me what I’m looking for in college.) He was too experienced to say anything about my chances, but I felt the fact that he was recommending different opportunities for me to check out if I go to Yale showed that he could see me there.
I think that the adcom designated interviews by what our fields of interest are, less of our locations. The two different interviewers that my friend and I had were both in our respective disciplines. I declared an interest in MCB and my interviewer was a Chemistry major, all the other kids he had to interview were in STEM too. My friend and her interviewer were both in the humanities. The fact that @writergirl0316 had a similar experience seems to add credibility to this thought. I really like this, it allows our interviewers to connect with us more and they can share what experiences they had that we can possibly look forward to!
Just had my interview- it was so amazing! It exceeded all of my expectations. The interviewer was super nice and we engaged in some predetermined questions for around the first 30 minutes, and the proceeded to talk about what she loved about Yale and her time there for 45+ minutes. She was a relatively new interviewer (just graduated last year), but she was super welcoming and kind and opened up to me regarding Yale’s quirks. To all interviewers on CC, thank you so much for all that you do to share your love of Yale with applicants. I am now more certain than ever that Yale is the place for me. 
@whatsindestiny Poli Sci
@MyDogsNameIsFat My interviewer was very STEM and I am very humanities… Additionally, she interviewed everyone from my school, not just people in a particular discipline.
@Benji3025 My interviewer just graduated too!
@Benji3025 I’m glad to hear your interview went well
I really hope we all get good news in December, but I lost my confidence entirely. It’s hard to work on other applications when my mind keeps drifting back to Yale!
Anybody have a guess at the latest in November an interview email would be sent to a student? Still haven’t got mine and I want to know when I should give up hope that one’s coming haha. Submitted SCEA on Halloween btw.
@n2theoah not sure if this is correct but I read somewhere that alumni interview reports are due Dec 1 so there is still about 2 weeks left
Realized I made a slight error in my app & just sent in an update… my school does both AP Macro & AP Micro in one year, but my teacher flipped the order. I wrote that I’m currently in AP Micro, but it should say I’m currently in AP Macro. I doubt it’ll matter much anyway because I’m taking both exams, but I would’ve felt anxious that they’d receive my senior year grades and see my first-semester course was different than I indicated. Now I guess I’m really, truly done with this.
I don’t particularly care if they see this before making a decision, as long as it’s on record. My mind is just thinking worst-case-scenario, like that I’d get rescinded for not updating them…
Does background get considered as a hook? I am a German-born Korean Australian citizen but lived in Japan for 6 years, Taiwan for 3 years, before moving to the U.S. My sister was born in Australia and my other sister was born in Japan. I am also a prevalent musician who has been recognized on a national and international level too.