Yale 2024 Applicants Discussion

Any international applicants been contacted for an interview???

@BKSquared I applied SCEA, and I still haven’t been contacted for an interview yet. I feel like since I live in a major metropolitan area, and since it’s the SCEA round, there shouldn’t be a shortage of interviewers yet. . .

Does not being contacted for an interview suggest anything about my chances? Did Yale pre-screen applicants and decide that my app was that bad, lol

@beautifulchaos I would not worry about it. After going through some of the threads, I figured you can not infer anything from the invitation to interview. My son applied SCEA as well and he has not received any interview invite.

I would not read too much into this. There are less than 6,000 interviewers and the distribution is uneven across the various regions. A major metropolitan area may in fact have the worst ratio of applicants to interviewers. We separately volunteer for each phase (SCEA and RD) and provide a limit of how many interviews we are willing to do. The average is around 3 total.

All my friends who’ve applied to ivies have either had or are in the process of doing their admissions interviews (we’re international students in a boarding school abroad - some are via skype and some are in person) but I have yet to hear from Yale. Has anyone had or knows they are scheduled for an interview yet?

I havent heard from Yale either… Do you live in East Asia by any chance??

Hi everyone! I saw that nobody had made a thread yet specifically for those applying early action. There seems to be one every year so I thought I’d make one. What are everyone’s thoughts/opinions? Anyone submit their application yet?

just finished interview! i think it went well; my alumni interviewer seemed really into what I had to say about myself and why I liked yale. here’s to hoping good things come from it!

Does anyone know when Yale starts contacting for Alumni interviews?

Hi, I have applied in SCEA for STEM, Biological sciences. I submitted my full research paper on Cancers in India and also LOR from the Oncologist who was my research guide

I have applied in SCEA 2024, not received any interview call yet till 16 Nov. I am an international student from Mumbai. If I don’t get interview call does it mean I am likely to get rejected ?

Hey guys! I’ve been seeing a lot of comments concerning the interview and for those who got an interview I wish the greatest of luck! YOU CAN DO THIS! BLOW THEM OUT OF THE WATER!! :smiley:

For those of you who didn’t get an interview, especially international students here’s a little piece of advice that will hopefully calm you down. I’m not an interviewer or an admissions officer. But I am a student who’s done a lot of research about this process so what I’m about to say you’ll definitely find online.
I’m going to be tailoring this comment specifically to Yale because there are other schools who do prioritize the interview like the UK schools (Cambridge, Oxford, etc) and other US private schools.

But for Yale (and even the other Ivies), the interview has little to no affect on your application. Meaning, if you don’t get an interview calm down. That 100% DOES NOT MEAN you got rejected or will be rejected. The fact that you didn’t get in interview means absolutely nothing and will not hurt you. There are far too many applicants applying to this school that it’s just not possible for the AO’s to give every single one of them an interview, especially international students who may not have any alumni’s in their area.

The interview is small part of the application process that solely serves as a way for the AO’s to get to know you more and an a opportunity for you to get to learn more about the school. That’s it. And by no means are the interviews some sort of interrogation either. Granted there will be some interviewers who will come with a set list of questions, but for the most part almost all the interviews are simply a casual (dare I say informal) conversation. It’s literally just a conversation. Where you’re talking with an alumni and they’re talking to you. They’re just getting to know you and hoping to add details that will either justify the passions and interests and personality traits you and you’re teachers said about you on you application or details that may help you stand out more that the AO’s didn’t already know. The interviewers don’t know your stats, they don’t know your ec’s, they haven’t read your essay. Some may ask for a resume but that’s pretty much in. They come in knowing little to nothing about you and it’s up to you to talk to them and help them see what makes you more unique or to support the theme you’ve presented about yourself on your application.

The interview can only ever help you. It may give you a slight edge, at least if you’re compared to someone who looks similar to you on paper. But overall, unless you do absolutely terrible during your interview or you’re just a flat out terrible/arrogant human being, it’s not going to make or break your application. The main factors that make or break your application are your stats and ec’s and especially especially your essays.

Hypothetically (for all you visual learners ^_^) the stats are like 30% important, extracurriculars 25% important, essays are 25% important, teacher recs are 25% important. The interview compared to that will be like 2-5% if not less. These are just hypothetically stats by the way they’re not actually real. It’s just to show you how little the interview means in comparison to everything else on your applications.

Also, most of these interviews are alumni interviews. Meaning, these interviewers are mainly alumni’s from the school who are taking the time to give back to their school by interviewing prospective students. Students are generally assigned an alumni interviewer based on the alumni who lives around their area or close to their area. So If you get in interview I guess that means that you were lucky enough to have an alumni living in your area who attended the school. If you don’t get an interview then maybe you don’t have an alumni in the area or there are simply too many applicants in your area for all the alumni interviewers to get to.

In short, not getting an interview or even getting an interview is absolutely, no sign of your admissions status. Getting one doesn’t mean you’re closer to acceptance and not getting one doesn’t mean you’re no longer in the running. There are people who end up having fantastic interviews who get rejected. There are people who have mediocre interviews or people who don’t get an interview at all who get admitted.

If I say something incorrect, don’t be afraid to oppose me. But from what I’ve researched and read, this is the characteristic the interview plays for schools like Yale and the other Ivies and top 20’s. So again for people who didn’t get an interview take a deep breath because I promise you, you’re fine, and it doesn’t, by any means, mean you’re rejected. For those who got one, don’t get too comfortable because that doesn’t mean you were 100% admitted because again this process is holistic. Your interview will be looked over but it won’t fully determine admission.

Hopefully that helps guys.
Don’t give yourselves a heart attack. It’s too early for that :joy:

Plus, You guys are amazing applicants and even if Yale doesn’t work out, I’m sure you’ll get admitted to other amazing schools. :slight_smile:

There’s a lot of good advice on CC about Yale interviews, and in this very thread from @BKSquared, who is a Yale interviewer. BKSquared has said over and over that applicants should not read anything into not getting an interview…and they are still coming out. My student was just contacted yesterday. @Lunarlitgend – you advice “But overall, unless you do absolutely terrible during your interview or you’re just a flat out terrible/arrogant human being, it’s not going to make or break your application” makes me laugh and is spot on. Just don’t be a terrible/arrogant human. Stay calm folks!

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@jzducol What is a “likely letter”? My daughter just had an interview for REA and trying to figure out what all of this means.

^Likely letters in the Fall are for recruited athletes who receive notice that their app’s have pretty much been approved by the AO. Likely letters come out in the Spring for a very limited number of highly sought after RD applicants. SCEA non athletes are all notified at the same time, around Dec 15.

Just for a little levity as we approach Game weekend, the 15th anniversary of the greatest college prank of all time:

https://youtu.be/YuubOQFB9kk

LL is basically an early acceptance notice, given out two months before other acceptance notices. All HYPS practice this. Since recruited athletes are typically required to apply in early round and would have learned about their status by Oct, they are the ones getting LLs in EA round in mid Oct. Other applications have not even been reviewed yet, let alone getting LLs.

Does anyone here know anything about the optional Arts Supplement? My daughter submitted one (showcasing her musical abilities) with her REA application and received a questionnaire on her portal about it last week. Is this commonplace if you submit a supplement?

@BKSquared --Hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

@OH2020MOM --no idea if it is commonplace, but assume so. My student also received the questionnaire after submitting the arts supplement. Good luck to your daughter!

@BKSquared should we read anything into the fact that my daughter’s interview was done by phone by an interviewer across the country (who grew up where we live) when there is an alumni chapter located in our area? From everything I’m seeing, the interviews are usually in person, or Skype.

@Ohdeanor thank you! Same as well to your student!