The Indian Thread #20 (a)

[tastycles]

At one of my interviews, my interviewer said said that at all colleges which have the alum mail you first (like Yale, Brown, etc), they do a sort of selection where only the better prospects are offered interviews. The colleges don't admit this however, so he may have been lying or testing my knowledge.

At places where you request an interview/email the alum yourself (like MIT), the colleges use it more as a measure of interest to see you take the initiative rather than as a meaningful, evaluative process as alumni interviewers are not consistent and not an unbiased source. A friend had a really bad interview because her interviewer had a very poor opinion of her school, and openly admitted to discriminating against students from it.

[iamthebist]

So far, everyone i know has got a call from princeton for an interview. And the geographical location doesnt matter because it's a telephonic one.

[p25india]

@iamthebist: Where are you located ? I am asking because i have not yet received an interview from Princeton.

Anyone else who has received an interview call from Harvard, Princeton, Yale?

[idream17]

@p25india, aren't you already accepted in Stanford? I think I read one of your posts saying just that. I'm sorry if I'm mistaken though. But if you are, won't you be enrolling there? Are you still going to proceed with the rest of the apps?

Also, has anyone here received a likely letter from any of the colleges?

[tastycles]

@p25india: All 3, just finished my Harvard one yesterday.

[Tizil7]

idream ... likely letters are sent out in late February or early March.

[iamthebist]

@tastycles (lol) - You've had all three interviews???

[rew2402]

quick question:
1) i am a 11th grader! will it be too early for me to start filling out stuff on commonapp? i really dont want to hush things later because i rather want to concentrate on my Boards! (i am a ISC student btw)
2) also, in what part does a counselor attaches a reason-of-poor-performance-in-major-tests-application? i mean, in our school theres no counselor so my class tchr will be my counselor and in our school, no one has like ever tried for the US colleges? so they have NO clue how to handle these stuff!?
thanks!

[Framed]

@Tastycles, did your interviewer really say that those with better prospects get interviews?

A friend of mine (one year younger) just received interviews from Upenn and Brown with a 1760 SAT and fairly low SAT2s.

Don't think he was a stronger applicant by any standard- even if his essays were really good.........

[texaspg]

rew2402 - Commonapp gets wiped out in July and reopened in August.

Anywork you do now is for your practice and check out the supplements. Nothing will be left for you to continue.

If you try to set up any information, save the preview pdf file so you can reuse some of it later.

Onething you can work on even today is an essay of 500 words for an open topic or any of the existing topics. They have not changed them in a while.

[Tizil7]

Guys, interviews are based solely on geographical proximity. In fact, there's this thread by a Brown alumni who has been interviewing kids for over 25 years and he admits that interviews serve the purpose of, "putting a friendly face in front of a harsh application process."

And rew2402, I would suggest you look at the forms right now and decide how will fill them. This will fill you with a deep sense of calm when the forms are released again in August 2012. However, on another thought, the recent news on the common app website says that the common app *website* will be revamped for next year. In any case, you should check out the forms. DON'T START FILLING THE FINAL THING RIGHT NOW.

[p25india]

@tastycles: that is great! How was the interview? Where are you located?

@idream17: yes, I have been admitted to stanford REA, but I have also applied to HYPM and Caltech

[Tizil7]

^ Keeping your options open

[contradict]

So far I've had five interviews, and so here's the collected wisdom for all of them:

The college interview only seriously affects your admission if:
*You are meeting with the college admissions officer in charge of evaluating your region's applications (if they like you in person, they'll already have a favorable opinion of you before reading you app)
*You are applying to MIT. (MIT is the only college US college I know who have set aside a specific portion of the app for interviews. The EC's who interview you have been trained, and fill out a detailed form after you interview. And you don't need to set up interviews - they give them to everyone.)

If you are meeting an alum, the interview is less to evaluate you, and more for you to learn about the college/ make you feel comfortable (like Tizil said).

My Princeton interviewer said, and I quote, "I cannot make or break your app - this is mainly for you to get to know the college better. The only way this interview could seriously affect your chances is if you physically assaulted me right now..."

Sometimes interviewers may give you an overly positive/negative vibe, but don't catch yourself building castles in the air/beating yourself up over what they say. They are purely there as the human connection in an otherwise clinical process, and have little bearing on the result.

So guys, getting an interview from any of the Ivies etc means little - it's purely based on (like they say in real estate) LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!

[tastycles]

@Framed: my interviewer did say that, but like I said before I don't know whether he meant it or was trying to test how much I knew.

@p25india: all my interviews have been pretty cool - all the interviewers take it easy and try to make you comfortable. They were somewhat disappointing cause none of them had majored or even taken a few courses in the subjects I'm interested in, but we still had conversations that lasted around one and a half hours each.