^ @mediapr, What summer/enrichment program or extracurricular activity are/were you in such that you have five friends in various parts of the country also contacted? There are a lot of anxious candidates who would likely find this information valuable.
Friends are from ISEF. We all keep in touch. So I think success in research competitions must help.
@mediapr That was smart. I ended up having my interview afterward and it was quite a bit awkward, ha.
As a side note, I got the official likely letter today, so paper mail should be starting to trickle out as well.
^ You aren’t the only one I’ve heard of who had an awkward interview after being invited to YES-W. It sounds like there is no communication or coordination, which is not optimal.
Oddly re interview, my DS wrote his interviewer to tell her the good news, and she said she was told to expedite his interview because she knew he was being considered for YESW. So some communication does happen?
Has anyone received the call this week?
@fretfulmother did your interviewer give you about a 10 day window to schedule the interview?
@fretfulmother, that’s interesting. I’ve heard of other cases where the interviewer did not even know what YES-W was, much less that the candidate had received a letter. And @mediapr was essentially told to cancel his interview because it didn’t really matter at this point. It seems like the admissions office is all over the place.
I agree! When the interviewer contacted my son, she asked to schedule the interview within the next couple of days. I believe it was the first week back to school in January. Obviously she knew about YES-W and his candidacy, also obviously didn’t mention it, but very different from some of the other cases here.
Interviewers do not know about YES. They are given no info from the admissions office nor do they have any interaction with admissions. Interviews are randomly assigned based on volunteer ability and are optional. FOR EVERY IVY and most other elite schools. The urgency had nothing to do with YES. It had to do with the deadline for completing interviews which is next week. Even though it is said over and over again, on every admissions website and on this forum, I don’t know why there is refusal to believe it is true that interviews carry basically no weight. This is proof–look how students were accepted here and never had an interview. I have 3 family members who interview for these schools (harvard, columbia, stanford) and all say exactly the same thing. FORGET ABOUT THE INTERVIEW. It is just a chance to interact and ask questions and push the school.
@mediapr, I’m sorry but I believe my son’s interviewer. I saw the email from her with my own eyes.
@mediapr – you’re incorrect. SOME alumni groups were informed to target SOME students who were potential YES-W candidates. From what I can tell, the communication btn New Haven and the regional groups varied. Both for YES-W candidates and some Likely Letter recipients.
@fretfulmother and my interviewer, and my regional admissions officer who called me directly, both told me the interview is not necessary, especially now that I was admitted. But I could still have it if I wanted to just chat. Same scenario for my friend in CA who I just checked with. My interviewer even joked that it certainly couldn’t help me at this point since I was already accepted, only hurt, so I shouldn’t bother :). Wonder why yours still wants to interview your son so badly then? That would make me very nervous! Good luck to him!
@fretfulmother With the likely letter in hand, I agree that the interview is now spurious. When it was still in the air, I know that Yale would have enjoyed to read the writeup to confirm everything else they saw. A sense of urgency was instilled in the interviewer.
At this point, the local alums still have a role to play – that as cheerleader and a friendly face – to get your son (and you) to view Yale favorably and to accept its eventual offer. Bottom rail on top, now! Congrats. I hope your son enjoys his visit to Yale.
There is a school of thought that interviews are more detrimental than helpful at single digit admission schools since they can’t admit everyone the alums write glowing recommendations about but they can reject much more easily if there is a bad interview when they need to turn down 90%+ applicants.
Hi again, I’m the one whose son had the interview the first week in January. So urgency was welcome for obvious reasons. 
it’s someone else who hasn’t had theirs yet, and someone else again who had an interview after being liklied.
@texaspg Yes and no. 1) if a student turns down an interview request, we’re asked to elaborate why. From the language, it’s a negative to the student’s file.
- I’ve written and read other write ups that weren’t glowing but Yale clearly had other plans in mind and the student was admitted in spite of a less than glowing alumni report. It happens. Regularly.
@mediapr “Wonder why yours still wants to interview your son so badly then? That would make me very nervous! Good luck to him!”
I’m going to take this at face value rather than assume you are being obnoxious. So to clarify: my son’s interviewer contacted him with urgency in the first few days of January, had [evidently what she considered a great] interview with him that week, and early this week, congratulated him and revealed that the expediting of his interview was directly connected to his consideration and later receipt of the LL/YES-W invitation. As @T26E4 and @renaissancedad have explained, there is apparent variation in how the interview/planning/LL go, perhaps regional or otherwise.
@texaspg - we worried exactly about your concern for each of the lottery school interviews, i.e. “how could it possibly help”. But what can you do; it would look crummy to decline an interview, so you put your best foot forward and be a good sport. In my son’s case, he practiced some possible questions and answers before each interview. Luckily, in each case so far, he has found some common ground and the interviews went okay.
@fretfulmother not meant as obnoxious–as clearly shown by other responders who were also confused, it was not clear about your son’s situation, and yes, I would be nervous…especially if what you are saying is true that his interview was “expedited” just to evaluate him for YES, then that implies it was necessary for the decision and he had reason to be! Great that he came out on top! He is very fortunate to have such an involved parent. My parent (I only have one) would not know what college confidential was, cannot read my email interactions with an interviewer because she does not speak English, or know anything about this process, and only wants to know if my financial aid situation will work out. So your son is blessed to have someone like you.
^ You have an extremely odd background if you have a single parent who does not speak English and is completely ignorant of the application process while also have 3 relatives who are alumni interviewers at Stanford, Harvard and Columbia.