I went through my email and realized that an alumnus from Princeton had contacted me to schedule an interview. I must have missed seeing the email earlier because it says it was from almost a month ago. Will this negatively affect my admissions decision to the school?
I would think so. I would immediately email and let them know it hit your spam, and apologize.
I don’t think that would effect your decision, unless the interview is required (don’t know the specifics on princeton). It would be a bigger deal if you failed to show at an interview.
I’m a Duke interviewer and I can tell you each time this has happened to me the student inevitably was denied. True that the alumni interview is optional, but this appears to the Admissions office that you don’t have interest. I agree with the advice from @zbd5421. Email and apologize profusely. Hopefully they might have room for you now.
Duke’s interview evaluations were due on 2/15, not sure about Princeton.
Technically, it says on the Princeton website that the interview is optional and that it won’t affect your chances but come on–that’s like saying “3 years of foreign language are HIGHLY recommended.” They want to see that you did it. Write and apologize and see if you can still set something up.
I, too, interview for Duke, and I fully argee with @sgopal2 (in post #3) and @TheDidactic (in post #4)!
The deadline for interviews has passed, however I read that the interview has no affect on the student’s decision. That statement doesn’t make sense if students are being denied because of no having an interview.
I think the point being made is that the students who were denied did not respond to an interview request. Not responding is just rude, IMO.
@Dhruv97 (re post #6):
Three differing interview scenarios, each if which may be perceived differently by an admissions organization, even with an “optional” interview policy:
a) Declined or did not respond to an interview request: conveys potential lack of interest in the university, which – when the school accepts only about 10 percent of its applicants, with 75+ percent extremely well qualified and entirely deserving of admission – can certainly be detrimental.
b) Has an adequate or better interview: this is the normal – I’d estimate, 95+ percent of the interviews – situation and it has very little impact on the final admission decision.
c) Has a very poor interview, factually indicating a substantial reason to be reluctant concerning admission: this is very rare, but might be the ONLY situation where an interviewer has a meaningful impact on the ultimate admit/deny decision.
Deliberately not responding is rude, yes. It shows a lack of interest as @TopTier says. Declining unfortunately has the same effect. It’s one thing if a person is awkward or heavily nervous or lacks the social “aspect” to interact with a stranger in an interview setting. However, if the person does’t feel like doing the interview, that’s a different ball game and usually affects your application.
Does this mean that ALL admitted applicants have had interviews?
Not all applicants can receive interviews due to availability issues, so no.
It does not. People get admitted without interviews, but it was more because they were not available, not because they declined them.
I wonder how much checking up on potential interviews there is. If the admissions office passes a list to alumni interviewers, there must be some of them that drop the ball and don’t/aren’t able to contact the applicants.
Does the admissions office follow up to see exactly what happened on each one of the potential interviews they sent out?
Well, it’s too late for me now. Guess Princeton was too much of a reach anyways and now I won’t have to anticipate my rejection lol
@JustOneDad (re post #13): At some universities, an Internet based status system permits alumni interviewers to indicate when the applicant has been contacted, when the interview has been scheduled, and the detailed results of the interview. In addition, if an interview was not conducted, the system has several ‘button selections’ to explain why: alumni attempted but was unable to contact applicant, applicant did not respond to e-mails/voice-mails, alumni was unable to attempt contact or unable to conduct interview, applicant declined to be interviewed, and so forth.
Aha. So, are there many schools where they try repeatedly to contact applicants who are listed as ‘not responding’, or do they just assign the next one on the list?
@JustOneDad (re post #16): I can’t address “many schools,” however some universities provide applicant contact information (but never GPA, SAT/ACT scores, curricular rigor, etc.) to a local alumni interviewer. That volunteer contacts and interviews assigned applicants located near his home and/or office. The interviewer determines how many attempts should be made to contact the candidate (I always try at least twice, by telephone leaving a voicemail and by e-mail). In my experience, university admissions only assigns an alum to an applicant; the remainder of the process occurs at the local – alumni volunteer interviewer and applicant – level, obviously with the final interview report eventually going to admissions.
WHen are the decisions sent out? There may still be time. Say something like "Thank you so much for reaching out to me for an interview! I am so sorry that I am late in responding as it went to my junk mail folder and I just noticed it. If it is not too late, I would still like to schedule an interview. If not, thank you for your efforts.’
Also you need to see on the Common Data Set how “Level of Interest” is considered. For Princeton it is “considered” which is the lowest level of caring (Not Very Important or Important)