I’m pretty sure that interviewers aren’t allowed to do that haha. They can only make contact within certain periods. Oh well. ^
@DryMango about the “protocol” of drinks and such at a college interview, have a look here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/13490490/#Comment_13490490
My counselor says decisions have already been made and are generally done weeks in advance of the announcement date. Is this true? I ask because I was considering sending my first semester senior grades. I don’t think they would add much value to the app, and I didn’t even score as well as previous grades, but Princeton says they’d like them so I’m not sure.
@Lasvegasmom68 First of all, congratulations to your son on his admission to Princeton! It’s a great school and these four years will fly by quickly (as my '16 son and I can attest!).
I would like to respond to the interview weighting on the application for admission. I personally know a Princeton interviewer VERY well and based on her insights (as well as that gleaned from other interviewers) understand that interviews do not have a significant impact on admission chances, except where they go exceedingly poorly (meaning rude or very questionable behavior on behalf of the applicant). The interview process offers the opportunity for alumni interviewers to be involved in their alma mater and to offer an additional set of comments to the admissions committee where available.
The difficult reality that Princeton (and some other Ivys) have faced in recent years is that many alumni have refused to continue to interview BECAUSE their comments and interviews have played such an insignificant role in the process. Many have made very strong recommendations on behalf of candidates only to experience frustration at that candidate’s ultimate rejection.
As a result of this reduced pool of available alumni, Princeton is unable to offer interviews to all applicants. The alumni are not given the applicant’s application package so they cannot pick and choose which applicants to interview based on strength of application.
Furthermore, a structured interview format is not required of the alumni interviewers. There are general guidelines but there is great latitude to conduct the interview as the alum sees fit.
The more probable interpretation is that having attended Princeton themselves, the interviewer recognized some consistencies between your son and other successful applicants and had a certain level of confidence in the likelihood of being offered admission.
just stumbled across this page…wish I found it sooner lol…just wanted to say how ANXIOUS I am to find out! can anyone relate? like this post if you just want to KNOWWWWWW! (also, if you’d like to share any words of encouragement or patience, i’d love that!)
Does anyone know if a strong AP score in a certain subject can offset an above average score on a subject test in that same area? Do they even consider AP scores in admission? I know I listed mine on the common app. (i.e. a 5 on the AP Chem exam but a 740 on the Chem subject test)
@student709 It’s all speculation but it will probably help.
OMG my friend just said decisions will come out around 3:00 tomorrow…not sure where he got that information or if ot is credible but thats what I heard… :-SS
@nikuedu I think Penn decisions come back tomorrow at 3:00… was he saying specifically Princeton?
he said princeton!! however, as much as I want to believe that he is right, I have a feeling hes not 
@nikuedu Where did he get this information?
@Lasvegasmom68 I agree with @Cantiger above. Your example is survivorship bias. Your son got in (congrats! btw) and had a great interview, which included an alum taking extra time to congratulate him on a great meeting.
But I’ll bet you if he never interviewed, he still would have gotten in. I interview for Yale and our system is almost a duplicate of Princeton’s. What you don’t see are the hundreds of other “this has been my best interviewee ever” comments of students eventually rejected. Like Cantiger said, they can nudge someone ahead (or raise red flags) for those who are on the cusp-- in the grey area in the committee’s minds. But in general, they’re not going to have much effect.
That being said, I encourage all applicants to go and meet with an alumnus/alumna and hear what it’s about and ask questions should you be contacted for an interview.
@samc24
I called the Admissions Office to ask them whether I should send them my first semester grades, and the person said i should. The person transferred my call to an admissions officer and when I asked her about it, she said that the grades would be added to my file.
Also, as per Princeton’s press release on 12/01/2016 regarding Jessica Lee becoming the Director of Admission, Dean Rapelye said “She steps into this leadership role as we begin our deliberations to choose the first members of the Class of 2021, and she brings a dedication to diversity, access and inclusion.” From previous posts on this thread, it seems that till the beginning of December, applications were reviewed and shortlisted to about 1000-2000 applications. Since the start of December, these applications have been going through committee evaluations.
I have no way to know the true motivation of nikuedu but please note the user has just 3 total posts all in this thread today. So note the source before getting to excited.
I think I saw somewhere on the thread that Princeton will notify applicants one week prior to the release date (meaning we’re not going to find out our decisions until next Thursday at the very earliest). Is that true?
@supercilious Last year they announced only 2 days before the decision date
@gmanhax @suburbanambition
Doesn’t the checklist get ‘deactivated’ a week before decisions release?
Also, is it completely sure that decision release will be surely on or before the 15th?
@derpro I mean you could call the admission office and ask 
@supercilious I already called them like four times in the past week 
This wait is agonizing. Do you think it’s because they’re still making decisions?