This must be very frustrating for your daughter. I’m sorry.
I don’t believe I ever shared a closing date; please don’t adopt that date as a deadline of any kind. The only people who truly know absolute final dates are the application readers. Like most big projects run with volunteers, deadlines can be fluid. Interviewers tend to be professionals who are pretty busy outside of their alumni activities. That not withstanding, it is disappointing to hear that there’s been a lack of communication. There could be typo on your alumni’s email address, or similar innocuous reason for the silence.
The good news is that your daughter is getting the emails that are generated by the university’s system. Please make sure she checks her spam, in case the email that comes directly from the interviewer is getting flagged for some reason.
To give you some insight on the process, the interviews are managed by a regional alumni schools committee (ASC) chair. This person has visibility into every interview they have assigned. The ASC chair will pursue all incomplete interviews and reports yet to be submitted as the university’s admissions office closes all applications and begins their review. All sides are working to get complete information to the admissions officers.
Now, what to do?
If your daughter still has the original interview offer email from Princeton, there should be two contact names. The first is the alum assigned to interview her. The second is a contact name, email address, and phone number for the Princeton office of the ASC. This contact is a staff member on campus whose job it is to liaise with the regional volunteers. This is the person I would reach-out to, not the admissions office.
Good luck! Please remind your daughter to breathe and enjoy get Senior year. This blip will not make or break her future.
Thank you for this detailed response. My apologies it was the other poster who identified as an interviewer who mentioned the Feb. 23rd date. My daughter has cross checked spam accounts along the way and the email address used correctly from interviewer last Saturday is the one she responded to second time She also followed up with a text mid-week because interviewer offered that as another form of communication. Showed my daughter your email and she felt relieved, thank you for your sensitivity to this time for her. She will compose and email in response to the Jan 12th email and see how this unfolds.
you really think (for most applicants) the interview is evaluative more than informational? most schools seems more informational, instead of evaluative…
understood. heard one Stanford interviewer, he said in past 5 years, non of whom he interviewed got in regardless his very nice interview report on the candidates. especially for pricenton, almost every applicant gets interview opportunity.
As Princeton calls it interview I will treat it as such and do my best whether it plays a big role or not. AO likes to augment application with a report so that should mean something, maybe pushing one over the finish line perhaps.
Just a general question follow up for my enlightenment. Does the school give you a list of accepted students or how do you (or any interviewer) know who was accepted?
Yes, we get a list of admitted students from our individual region. We use this list to welcome them and invite them to admitted student events where they can meet one another and more alumni. However, interviewers and alumni do not see a full list of applicants. Only the chair of the Alumni Schools Committee is privy to that information.
Email uaoffice@princeton.edu
You likely just had an unresponsive interviewer. The asc chair can reassign you or remind the interviewer to make contact. Also don’t worry because the interview is an optional part of the process so won’t affect the application. Good luck
Because interview is optional and sometimes they won’t do it if alumni is not available. By now most of the interviews are done. When they realize that the candidate is likely going to get in and the interview is not done, they schedule a last minute interview. That is just my personal experience.
Quick questions about Princeton’s financial aid process: If W-2 is not required, would it be updated to “waived” or something similar by their SFS? If so, when would this update happen?