<p>After an ED Deferral, my interviewer seemed astonished that I didn’t get in, said I was easily in the top-tier of interviewees in his experience, and apparently has a high position in the alumni network and offered to inquire about why I was deferred! Does he have this kind of power?</p>
<p>a) he can inquire, i doubt admissions will tell him anything other than the obvious - you were a fantastic candidate, and that is why you were deferred, the limited size of the class led them to make certain decisions. if your question is could he influence them to change their minds? maybe, if he is especially aggressive, they might take another look. but if they admit you it is because you stood out in the pool and not because an alum inquired on your behalf.</p>
<p>b) didn’t you do questbridge match? wouldn’t that have prevented you from being admitted early?</p>
<p>c) some interviewers are astonished when a great interviewee doesn’t get admitted, but the truth is interviews are a piece of the pie and not the whole story. in part because interviewers do not see the size of the whole pool - if they had met more impressive candidates i can imagine their shock being less so (this is supposing such exist). but also because interviewers look for things that admissions officers do not. often interviewers are looking for students they think they might hire for their profession a few years out. which means they often don’t think about students from an academic/intellectual point of view, and what they might add to that. the truth is (and i noticed you were interested in banking potentially long term). there are more ‘top tier’ future econ/banking types out there, but that also means more of them are not admitted because you need to have academic diversity in the class. because interviewers do not ask the same questions or think like admissions officers they often do not see students precisely in the same way.</p>