No applications submitted yet. You can sign up for interviews on websites typically. Today’s is a safety to get used to interviewing.
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This is exactly what we did; a safety where interviews are offered but not required to get his feet wet.
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This is what my daughter did as well. She plans to request interviews at a couple of other places, but her app has to be in first and she has some writing to do! The interviews were helpful in getting her comfortable and more confident with the process.
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Interesting! Ours is 7 applications. So if they all use the common app, that might be one essay. But if they are all like Va Tech, then no common app and four unique (but short!) essays.
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I don’t know that I’ve seen a way to sign up for an interview for any of S25s current schools. When S22 was going through this, he did an interview at CWRU. If anyone is looking at them, then I think that’s a good idea. CWRU does look at demonstrated interest, and they give good levels of merit aid, so there I think it is definitely a plus factor.
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Exactly! D25 is only currently considering about 8-9 schools. One or two only have the common app. But, collectively with all the short answer questions there are a little over 30 to do.
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My kiddo is 90% done with his first pass at common app essay + all supplementals (15+). He had a slight panic attack yesterday that he might want to switch from Engineering to Finance but letting that sit before we react. Luckily most of the schools he’s applying to would also work for Business but I have a feeling it’s going to be a long few months!
Of the 16 schools on his list, I don’t think any offer interviews? Surprised to hear so many of your kids have that option.
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This seems to be where we are as well. From what I can tell, most of D25’s schools (mostly state flagships) do not offer an interview for undergraduate admissions. Is anyone seeing something different at that type of school?
I appreciate everyone’s insight into this. It never occurred to me that interviews would start before an application was submitted.
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I found this online: 50 Colleges Offering Admissions Interviews BEFORE You Apply | The College Curators
None of these are on my kiddo’s list. He is also applying to mostly state flagships.
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This is helpful, except I know that BU does not offer interviews except for a few pre-professional programs and it’s listed here as important for admissions.
In case this might be of help to someone: this year Gonzaga changed its deadline options. It now offers EA with a response in December. Might be a nice addition to the low target/safety list for some students, if affordable. Typically, some merit is available to students with good stats (of course, if in need of aid, use the NPC; this one may include a merit estimate).
Feels like the list of top 100 universities with an unrestricted EA response in December is relatively short: UChicago, CWRU, SCU, SMU, LMU, Gonzaga, TCU, Marquette, maybe a couple of others plus a few rolling schools (Pitt, CO Mines) and then there are REA schools that only restrict ED (ND, Gtown).
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D25 is doing hers on Labor Day because the admission counselor will be nearby, so we won’t have to go there to do it. Plus, once the school year really gets rolling, she’ll have less time to do these things.
Her application has not been sent in yet but hoping it’s in before September 2!
Did you all hear that FAFSA isn’t opening until December again? UGH.
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Gonzaga is on S25’s list too!
I’m trying to remember who D23 heard from early, not all top 100 schools, I know Baylor was one but they release in batches, she heard from Baylor in October! Miami Ohio, Elon, Trinity U, and Creighton all before Jan 1.
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So I just wanted to insert an extra plug for Gonzaga. It’s a nice school full of nice kids. My dad graduated from there after Vietnam and went on to get an Ivy MBA and have a very successful career. They took a chance on him after he’d flunked out of undergrad elsewhere and he’s always just been a huge fan.
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My D25’s list is now entirely public schools and there are no interview requirements.
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New to all of this. So what does this mean for schools where kids are applying EA or ED? Financial aid decisions come much later than admissions decisions?
Yes, financial aid decisions for most schools come much later than admissions decisions, especially EA and ED decisions.
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My C19 and C23 had no schools requiring or even recommending interviews—given their fields of interest (and for C23, an intense desire to not go to a small or even medium sized college), it was mostly public institutions or large research-oriented privates. C17, to my surprise (given that one’s LAC focus) only had one that recommended an interview (Earlham), and they went ahead and did it when we toured the summer before her junior year.
C25, OTOH, has multiple places that recommend interviews (probably due to being attracted to medium-sized selective privates). This is a whole different experience, but we’re not really worrying about that til the Common App essay is done.
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Good to know. Gonzaga is on D25s list. We have lots of relatives in the Spokane/Idaho panhandle area so it would be a good OOS choice for her.
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