My interview was going really good until he asked me about my SATs and TOEFL. He clearly admired my passion and personality, but had like your score is okay face while I told him my scores. Does this affect my interview?
@VinitShah123 I highly doubt that your interviewer’s opinion on your scores will matter much. He probably won’t include his opinion on your scores in his report, but if he does then the admissions officers will disregard it. It’s the admissions officers’ jobs to make judgments about your scores, not the interviewers. And besides, at a school like UPenn so many people will have perfect SAT (idk about TOEFL) scores that even if you did very well, it’s not going to impress an alum too much, although they might still smile and say something like “wow, congrats!”
@VinitShah123 Are you an international applicant?
@OverseasFather yes I’m a student from Asia
@VinitShah123 I’m an applicant from the middle east who hasn’t yet received an interview from UPenn. Can I ask if you’ve applied for fin aid?
@HYPSM2024 No, I didn’t apply for financial aid
Thanks @VinitShah123 ! I need TONS of aid.
@greatcollegefit I’m an international applicant and I had a Skype interview with a M&T alumni cuz there’s no Penn alumni in my area. Well, I can’t say I had a wonderful conversation and I’m worried about my interview cuz I was too nervous at the beginning of our conversation. ( I didn’t clearly explained my research to him and it caused some confusion, though I tried to explain it again.) Plus, we talked about my experience in Stanford Summer Session besides those typical questions (He only took notes on my personal introduction and my answers to those typical interview questions). Seems like he was very interested in my life at Stanford Summer Session and I told him what I learned from the Summer Session as well as my perspectives toward studying in USA. I don’t know whether that’s a bad sign cuz it had nothing to do with Penn…haha. Our conversation lasted for an hour and I asked him lots of questions. My self rating for my interview is 2.5-3.5/5. Hope that helps.
@greatcollegefit Hope you can have a wonderful interview!
I interview for penn. There is absolutely no prescreening. Interviewers are asked to complete a report and submit it through the alumni interview program portal, but it has little influence In the admissions decision. I don’t typically take notes. I submit the report right after the interview when everything is fresh in my mind so I don’t really need notes. I can glean quite a lot from the informal style of interview that I like to use. I’m happy to answer any specific questions, but honestly the interview is the least influential part of the application and due to limited bandwidth of alumni relative to size of applicant pool in some geographical regions, not everyone even gets an interview, so you guys are really putting too much emphasis on the entire thing , in my opinion.
@dgjb1234 Thank you so much for this. That surely eases our worry!
I know that this is a UPenn thread, however I don’t know where you got this “only strong candidates get a Harvard interview”? All the schools try to interview as much candidates as possible, it only depends on the interviewers availability. Please stop saying things that you are not sure about, you’re only stressing other applicants. Just check the college/university’s website or ask them directly.
@lsmsil I was confused about this as well, but multiple posters on the Harvard thread said that the Asian lawsuit docs indicate that there is a prescreening process where Harvard essentially determines whether or not they want to interview an applicant based on how strong their application is (no clue how in depth this is). And I believe someone there posted statistics indicating that there is a very strong correlation between not receiving an interview and being rejected (can’t say vice versa because Harvard’s acceptance rate is so low lol).
I honestly would look more into this but I’m lazy and I know I’m getting rejected anyways but if you’d like, you’re more than welcome to!
I found that on every college’s website, there is no “only strong candidates get an interview” policy. Everything is done randomly. However, there are some schools that give an interview based on merit, but no Ivy school is amongst them. Yale NUS program or NYUAD are, as far as I know, the only schools that interview selected students based on their candidature.
You can just google “College name” interview policy, and you can find that.
Just don’t bother yourself with these random claims said by no official source.
International Alumni Interview
In your country, we may either not have any interviewers or the number of applicants may be too great for all to be interviewed. You will be contacted if the Admissions Committee requests more information. The absence of an interview will not adversely affect your candidacy.
Got this from my portal. I’m from Morocco so there’s no interviewer in here.
@dgjb1234 Can I know if the superhero interviews are done without prescreening or not? Also, can I know the last possible date of getting an interview?
Does anyone who was deferred from ED see their first semester grades as being received in their portal? My counselor submitted them via the common app and it says ‘downloaded’, so I’m assuming Penn received it. But still strange that it’s not mentioned as received in my portal. Any thoughts on this?
@Beachyone all my daughter’s colleges on the Common App show they downloaded the day after GC uploaded on the Common App. Most school’s portals updated the same day they downloaded. Penn is the only one not showing on the portal. It didn’t have “awaiting midyear report” line like other schools on the portal.
Hi! I read these boards regularly and appreciate all the information but am now looking for some help. My son received a Penn interview request by email last Sunday at 9 pm asking to meet on Monday at a location 45 minutes from our home. We were out of town (though I thought it was very short notice), but my son responded within the hour stating we were away and asking if he could meet later in the week or this coming weekend. No response for 3 days. He resent the email in case it was lost or went to spam. He received a response today that the interviewer would be out of town this weekend but might be able to meet him on Sunday night. She didn’t say when she would let him know. He has had a few other interviews that were very easy to schedule - mostly on weekends and all within 10 minutes of our house. We live outside a large city, so I doubt alumni interviewers are an issue, but does this seem normal? Is it correct that Penn interviews must be completed by the end of the month? Should my son be expected to drive 45 minutes to meet the interviewer? Thanks in advance for thoughts and insight!
Thank you! All of your information is very helpful.