Any ivy/Stanford acceptances w/o interviews in DMV area?

[Anonymous]

In our experience the interviews had no reference to my DS transcript and spoke mostly about campus life and experience. Based on the interview conversation I would think it was not a measurement of the candidate as much as it was an opportunity to ask questions to see if this school would be a good fit for you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter got an email from Stanford saying that they had no interviewer available to interview her, and said they'd made note of the fact she'd requested an interview. That made me think that it's a good thing to sign up for one, though I'm not sure if it's truly important.

From the other side (Stanford interviewer) they're quite clear to us that there's no penalty for not having an interview, whether or not you request one. Guessing the admission office says that to calm nerves of people who freak out that they're going to be downrated as a result. They won't be.

More generally, my impression is the interview matters very little if at all, unless you come off as wildly impressive in the interview in ways your app doesn't show, or you come off as an utter, total jerk.

That was our basic assumption also - it is possible to fail an interview, but not possible to "pass it". In other words, it may downgrade an application, but not to increase the odds of admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our experience the interviews had no reference to my DS transcript and spoke mostly about campus life and experience. Based on the interview conversation I would think it was not a measurement of the candidate as much as it was an opportunity to ask questions to see if this school would be a good fit for you

Stanford does not provide any information about the applicant to interviewers other than contact info and high school, so there's no basis to ask about transcript (and that's not what's encouraged - it's to discuss things that may not come across in application).

My usual approach has been to ask about what interests the applicant - both academically and extracurriculars. I assume that anyone applying has grades/scores that will be competitive, and if they don't the interview isn't a place to clarify that anyway.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, the interviews are assigned based on interviewer availability, location, and student intended majors.

They are not assigned by someone who knows the grades and test scores. And at that point the essays aren’t even read yet.

At my Ivy we interview about 70% of the applicants in Fairfax Co.

There would be no way to ensure those 70% covered all the potential admits. Even if we wanted to.

Are you familiar with the old Harvard guidelines that were released in the litigation? It strikes me that IVP scores may be used to prioritize. Interviewers aren’t aware of this. So I think the question remains - anyone get in who didn’t interview? If you’re a 4, seems like you’d likely fall in the low priority group and may not get an interview.

“ NTERVIEW PROFILE (IVP):
Below is the language for uniform implementation of the Interview Profile number (IVP) for use with all Schools and Scholarship Chairs. The IVP will serve as a guide for chairs to know when our office needs the reports, and therefore how quickly they need to be assigned. All interviewers will be told that they should submit their interview report no later than two weeks after receiving the interview assignment.
1. An applicant for whom the committee needs more information to reach a decision - please have interview report in as soon as possible.
2. An applicant for whom more information would be very helpful during our deliberations - please have interview report in by the sub-committee deadline.
3. Please have interview report in by December 1 (EA) or March 1 (RA).
4. Based on the materials currently available, the committee needs no additional
information at this time.”
“ This language has been distributed to the S&S chairs via email and can also be found in the updated handbook and website instructions. (Please ask Bryce Gilfillian if you need help accessing the site). Please have a conversation with your chairs to determine if you wish to use the IVP, and please make clear that this information should not be shared with other interviewers or applicants. If your chairs have additional clerical or operational questions about the IVP, please direct them to email []/alum assistant at []@fas.harvard.edu.
When reading, please input your IVP code on the First Reader Rating Form. You should input an IVP for all cases for clubs that use this system or if the coding could be helpful for your own interview tracking purposes. Continue to pass on the folder to your chair and/or code out to Committee Review bin.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter got an email from Stanford saying that they had no interviewer available to interview her, and said they'd made note of the fact she'd requested an interview. That made me think that it's a good thing to sign up for one, though I'm not sure if it's truly important.

From the other side (Stanford interviewer) they're quite clear to us that there's no penalty for not having an interview, whether or not you request one. Guessing the admission office says that to calm nerves of people who freak out that they're going to be downrated as a result. They won't be.

More generally, my impression is the interview matters very little if at all, unless you come off as wildly impressive in the interview in ways your app doesn't show, or you come off as an utter, total jerk.

It sounds like there are only negative possibilities with having an interview.

[Anonymous]

Mine had interviews for all 4 Ivies she applied to last year. Got into 2. Did not get an interview for Northwestern, but got admitted there as well. This was last year.

[Anonymous]

Accepted ED to Dartmouth w/no interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Accepted ED to Dartmouth w/no interview.

Congratulations! This year or during height of pandemic? With ED, school doesn’t need to recruit so that element would be off the table vs rd or an EA variation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter got an email from Stanford saying that they had no interviewer available to interview her, and said they'd made note of the fact she'd requested an interview. That made me think that it's a good thing to sign up for one, though I'm not sure if it's truly important.

From the other side (Stanford interviewer) they're quite clear to us that there's no penalty for not having an interview, whether or not you request one. Guessing the admission office says that to calm nerves of people who freak out that they're going to be downrated as a result. They won't be.

More generally, my impression is the interview matters very little if at all, unless you come off as wildly impressive in the interview in ways your app doesn't show, or you come off as an utter, total jerk.

A little nuance...if you are not offered an interview, then I do not believe it is held against you.

However, if you are offered and interview and you turn it down, or simply go MIA when the interviewer tries to reach you...then I think that does matter. Not that I have a large sample size, but 2 applicants (both RD) were offered interviews and just never responded. Both rejected. My gut tells me perhaps they had an EA acceptance, so were no longer interested. Who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, the interviews are assigned based on interviewer availability, location, and student intended majors.

They are not assigned by someone who knows the grades and test scores. And at that point the essays aren’t even read yet.

At my Ivy we interview about 70% of the applicants in Fairfax Co.

There would be no way to ensure those 70% covered all the potential admits. Even if we wanted to.

Are you familiar with the old Harvard guidelines that were released in the litigation? It strikes me that IVP scores may be used to prioritize. Interviewers aren’t aware of this. So I think the question remains - anyone get in who didn’t interview? If you’re a 4, seems like you’d likely fall in the low priority group and may not get an interview.

“ NTERVIEW PROFILE (IVP):
Below is the language for uniform implementation of the Interview Profile number (IVP) for use with all Schools and Scholarship Chairs. The IVP will serve as a guide for chairs to know when our office needs the reports, and therefore how quickly they need to be assigned. All interviewers will be told that they should submit their interview report no later than two weeks after receiving the interview assignment.
1. An applicant for whom the committee needs more information to reach a decision - please have interview report in as soon as possible.
2. An applicant for whom more information would be very helpful during our deliberations - please have interview report in by the sub-committee deadline.
3. Please have interview report in by December 1 (EA) or March 1 (RA).
4. Based on the materials currently available, the committee needs no additional
information at this time.”
“ This language has been distributed to the S&S chairs via email and can also be found in the updated handbook and website instructions. (Please ask Bryce Gilfillian if you need help accessing the site). Please have a conversation with your chairs to determine if you wish to use the IVP, and please make clear that this information should not be shared with other interviewers or applicants. If your chairs have additional clerical or operational questions about the IVP, please direct them to email []/alum assistant at []@fas.harvard.edu.
When reading, please input your IVP code on the First Reader Rating Form. You should input an IVP for all cases for clubs that use this system or if the coding could be helpful for your own interview tracking purposes. Continue to pass on the folder to your chair and/or code out to Committee Review bin.”

Do the other Ivy League schools have similar policies?