Yale Interview Experience Thread

<p>Mine was fine. We met in her office (she's a lawyer) and talked about me. No tricky questions, nothing I wasn't prepared for. Plus I learned a lot about her and why she chose Yale in the first place/why she kept associated w/ Yale, which was nice since it basically validated my reasons for liking the school. It was around an hour, probably a bit less.</p>

<p>i'm still waiting on a call from the interviewer - he's supposed to call any day now!</p>

<p>So i'm reading through all of the posts and the average time for the interiew was like one hour or 1.5 hrs. Mine was 2.5! I left her area after almost 3 hours. Is that normal? Well we had an AMAZING conversation. I didn't know her, but i had seen her around the community. We talked about everything, like my summer experiences, and my passions, and why i'm so involved. It was kind of weird. I started to like Yale more from our talk, and i figured out my philosophy on what make me me. My interviewer did ask what it was like being the only African American in all my classes so i had to think. But i do well answering on pressure, so it was really relaxed. I had that "Miss America" confidence, without the whole "I will save the children of the planet" talk. </p>

<p>It was good. But what weight does the interview have? If it's a lot, then that's good. She realy liked me and kept on saying i have a great future ahead and she hoped i would get into Y because i would fit in well, yada yada yada...
I loved it. I want to do it again!
:)</p>

<p>Unfortunately, interviews have a minimal role in admissions, if I remember correctly, as it's unfair to those who didn't get a chance to get an interview due to lack of alumni, etc. It could be the final nudge to an accept or reject pile, depending on where your app stands.</p>

<p>But it's great that your interview went well :) It can only help ya</p>

<p>it's so annoying that VA seems to have zero alumni interviewers.</p>

<p>^ I'm from VA. My interviewer said that he always interviewed several students. So... maybe you'll be contacted soon? :)</p>

<p>^From VA here too and my interviewer told me he had a boatload of students to interview. Like gkim310 said, I'm sure you'll be contacted...just hold tight! :)</p>

<p>Unless you know the policies of the Alumni Schools Committee director for your part of Virginia (and it's the same region asgrc06), then don't assure anyone they'll be contacted. If an interviewer says he has a boatload to do, that may mean the volunteer forces are maxed out. Alumni interviews are NOT guaranteed.</p>

<p>^^I understand, however, my interviewer told me that he really enjoys interviewing students and that he had boatloads of students to interview long before he interviewed me (and during). Gkim310 and I were just trying to add a little positivity to grc061390's post. (I'm a very optimistic person and was not trying to come off thinking that I know the policies of the Alumni Schools Committee director.)</p>

<p>How do they pick which students to interview? Those who show promise as serious candidates at Yale? Those who come from the most elite schools? Or is it luck of the draw? Obviously they can't accommodate everyone.</p>

<p>My interviewer just called me. We're meeting this Sunday at a Starbucks - the universal interview location. This guy seems really cool. He used to be a journalist and covered the Chernobyl disaster.</p>

<p>I just had an interview today...
he told me I'd be better off at MIT. Seriously.</p>

<p>Ouch.</p>

<p>10car</p>

<p>ironmetal, that would hurt. >.O</p>

<p>Well, I haven't been contacted and its....what date now? I'm assuming that there was no one since I live near Death Valley in the middle of nowhere...is there something that the less people who apply in your region, the higher your chances?</p>

<p>same as roggle, my interview was pushing 3 hours long! i'm not sure if that's a good thing, but my interviewer and i shared a lot of common interests. however, when she asked me about my favorite classes, i told her "everything except history"... turns out she was a history major. LOL</p>

<p>does a long interview mean a good thing or a neutral thing?</p>

<p>Wait, ironmetal, didn't you say once that you were only applying to Yale because of your mom? lol...</p>

<p>My on-campus interview went well. The time contraints were more obvious there, but I smiled a lot as usual and felt really comfortable on a nice couch. The girl was really sweet, and she seemed really interested in what I was doing. I felt like I did a nice-ish job of appearing passionate and excited about my activities. </p>

<p>My alumni interview went even better, because I had a WashU interview 2 days before, so I was more aware of things I wanted to say, things I'd forgotten, etc. We met in a super-crowed Borders cafe, again a female who graduated '06. She was really nice and basically from the same background as me (she grew up in the area and she is also a minority) so I felt a really nice connection, and we laughed a lot. Both interviews were not long at all, but I talk fast and we never really seriously deviated from the questions.</p>

<p>ahhh interview today! i'm going to die!!</p>

<p>Mine was good. We talked a lot about stuff like the Rolling Stones and Twilight and traveling abroad.. and the things I'd done over the summer, my school, etc.. really laidback topics. Plus, it was in Starbucks :).</p>

<p>Haha, you talked about Twilight?
My interview was more academically focused than most, I would say. The guy asked about some of the competitions I was in, and my interests of course. We talked about creating my own major, his experiences at Yale, and science. He told me his interviews usually last an hour, but ours went on for two, so I will take that as a good sign. He didn't say anything like OH MY GOODNESS YOU ARE A PRODIGY though, not that I expected him to.</p>

<p>lol, yeah, she has daughters my age and we were debating the claim that it's better than Harry Potter (it is NOT!).</p>

<p>i'm not super positive but i think i set the record for this thread- my interview was 4 1/2 hours long!</p>

<p>my interviewer graduated 20 years ago. she was so nice and very informative. living in CA, i haven't had the chance to visit and thus fall in love with the campus so she made me fall in love during the interview after she informed me of all the history, tradition, and buildings. she really educated me and made me feel extremely satisfied that i applied SCEA. </p>

<p>we had our interview at a chili's restaurant from 5-9:30pm. we talked about everything from my life, my background, her background, her interview experience, yale's campus, cesar chavez and how she met him, obama/politics, tennis, and etc. it was completely fun and casual. she said that's how yale's interviews are supposed to be- the interviewer isn't supposed to accost the interviewee. they are just supposed to write a synopsis of the interview that adds a 3rd dimension to your paper app.</p>