How is everyone holding up? Only two more weeks to go. As a parent, I am preparing myself for another rejection. I say another rejection because my older child did not get into its first choice two years ago. It was a shock; even though we knew the chances were slim, it was a hard pill to swallow. Ultimately, everything worked out, and my child got into its second choice. It still took a minute to get over that rejection.
At this time, my child did not have an interview, and we don’t anticipate it still happening. My child sent in their application in mid-September. So I guess Yale most likely has already made their decision on my child’s application.
No interview here either and very much expecting a rejection. Its not his first choice school though, that is happening in RD, he just wanted to try for it.
I don’t think they have made their final decisions at this moment. I listened to the “Inside the Yale Admissions Office” podcast and there are at least two episodes introducing the selection process if my memory is correct. One episode is about the selection committee, and the second episode is about the final review, which is actually a more complicated process than I imagined. Yale AOs did a great job explaining the process and I highly recommend the podcast.
We did listen to the podcasts over the summer. But between podcasts, forums, and so many portal Astrology from the past years, things are starting to blend together, and I am not sure what to believe anymore. Plus, over the past 15 years, only one child has been admitted to Yale from our Highschool. Still hoping for the best until Dec 14, but preparing for the worst.
I’ll just note again I am not sure the phrase “auto-admit” would typically apply to someone admitted without an interview. I instead think those people still have to go through committee, it likely isn’t a sure thing at all they will get admitted at committee, and likely it is really just a determination they COULD get admitted by committee without the additional information an interview would supply. But could at that point could still be long odds–just no longer than the odds if they are interviewed, controlling for everything else (which is what Yale tells alums at least).
Again, this would be analogous to being admitted without first-term grades, or for that matter being admitted before Yale sees what the RD application pool looks like. The fact Yale admits some people like that does not mean they were “auto-admitted”, it just means in those cases the admissions committee was ultimately satisfied it has enough information to make a decision.
Of course we could assess this better if we had a lot more data, but Yale has repeatedly said that it does not disadvantage applicants to not get interviewed, and “many” applicants will get admitted without an interview. “Many” can cover a lot of territory, but I don’t think it is likely to be consistent with non-interviewee admits being “auto admits” in any meaningful sense.
That may still be a secondary goal, but Yale has been pretty clear that the system has changed such as they are focusing interviews on the evaluative issues. In fact, even as application volumes have gone up, they have apparently cut the total number of interviews, which is consistent with a major policy shift.
That said, it is possible there is a bit of a two-way street here. When deciding they don’t need an interview before your case goes to committee, that may just mean they are confident they don’t need more information about your interests and college goals and consequent fitness for Yale. But it is plausible they may also be confident they do not need to try to sell you further on Yale either.
Of course from what I understand of SCEA yield rates, they may not be particularly concerned about selling Yale further to most SCEA admits anyway. But still, at least conceivably if they identified some heightened yield concern about an SCEA applicant and thought perhaps an interview could help reduce that concern, then that could also be a complementary reason to select that applicant for an interview.
I’m sure I will be fine. I am even-keeled to begin with, and specifically do not see this as really high stakes.
My concern is mostly just that I don’t really know for sure how S24 will feel. We’ve obviously talked and I want to say it will be fine, but even he might not really know until it happens.
I really don’t think that’s right… 2/3 of accepted students are interviewed. I don’t think it’s that they aren’t convinced, but just need more information. It’s not necessarily that they are already heading down the road the rejection, but it could go either way.
But I agree, incidentally–it seems like the interview decision is at least often coming early in the process, enough so that there may be no committee assessment at all yet, possibly just the readers flagging the file as being one where an interview might be helpful.
Also, my interviewer told me that an AO said they were having a meeting about me soon which is why they wanted an interview for me… that just anecdotal and kind of vague but idk if it means anything
Off hand that sounds like confirmation that at least in your case, someone decided your case was a good choice for an interview invite before your case went to committee, as opposed to it already being in committee and the committee deciding it wanted to see an interview report.
That said, I would personally not rule out both scenarios potentially happening in different cases.
IMO, with the new policy, an interview means you are in the running. No interview is no news. They have all the info they need to make a decision, but it could be a yes or a no.
While the interview process does have a community “goodwill” component (both applicants and alums), the “sales” occurs after a kid is admitted. Many/most ASC’s host receptions/dinners for admits before the date they have to commit on top of Bulldog Days on campus.
Yale is REA and his top choice is also REA, no ED option. He had some significant ecs happening now that he wanted to include on his application and he retook SAT in November with a higher score. He did update his Yale app, but felt he would stand out more among regular decision than EA that tend to be stronger candidates. With REA I’m not sure there is any advantage over RD, ED maybe. I know a double legacy Yale that applied REA last year and got rejected. S just wanted to make sure his application was as strong as it could be before submitting.
I really think the last thing Yale is worried about at this particular moment in the cycle is being able to sell SCEA admits on actually attending. I am quite sure they are focused on figuring out which SCEA applicants they actually want to admit, because in fact most of them are going to enroll. Which is exciting I am sure, but also grounds for caution as if they get too exuberant with the admits in SCEA, they may be forced into tougher choices than they would want in RD.
That is really interesting. Makes perfect sense, and while I don’t know of many cases like that personally, I wonder if Yale has any indicators for when someone might be treating SCEA that way.
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