Interview Subjectivity

I was thinking about interview impact as well. I agree that it depends on both the interviewer and interviewee, and that the outcome can be unpredictable. I also think that interviews have different levels of impact depending on the school. I have some examples from personal experience.

My Columbia interview was outstanding, no doubt about it. I really connected with the interviewer, and we had a great meeting over dinner that lasted almost 2 hours. The problem was that as an alum, he's not a decision maker in the process. He assured me that he would write an extremely positive review, but then told of how he interviewed 2 students the year before, and the guy he rated very highly was dinged, while the girl he gave an average review of was ultimately admitted off the WL. Clearly with Columbia, the interview is not make or break. My result was a WL.

I had a really great time interviewing with Darden as well. The difference in this case was that I interviewed with an Adcom. Darden's policy is that the Adcom that conducts the interview does not take part in the admissions voting for that candidate, but even so I definitely felt like I was speaking with someone who's opinion played a big role in the final decision. Even though she didn't vote for the final decision, a positive review probably carries a lot of influence with colleagues that she works closely with every day. My result was an admit.

I also had 2 very nondescript interviews with UCLA and Duke. I interviewed with a 2nd year student on campus at UCLA. I'm absolutely sure that he asked me the exact same questions as the person before and after. He had about 6 interviews scheduled for that day, each was exactly 1/2 hour, and I'd bet money that none had any significant impact on the final decision, unless a candidate really screwed something up. The interview was just totally generic and not memorable, probably for everyone that mills through the process. Don't have a decision yet.

The Duke interview was also generic. I interviewed with a recent alum in the Bay Area, and the school provided a list of questions that they wanted asked. This made for a very disjointed interview because some of the questions covered the exact same topics that had just been answered in the interview. Again, I find out hard to believe that much of an impact could have been made either way. The interviewer was too busy writing and taking notes to get very involved in the conversation. My result was an admit, but I'm sure the interview was a non-factor.

For both UCLA and Duke, these were not decision-makers and I the interview tools they had were very basic. Just not much of a chance to do much in those circumstances. I understand that some people interview with Adcoms at UCLA & Duke on campus - if you want to help yourself then that would probably be a good idea. If you want to play it safe, then a student/recent alum interview would probably be the most neutral.