Prospective students are sure that the college interview will make or break their future, but in reality, they are stressful and usually pointless. The National Association for College Admission Counseling found in its 2017 State of College Admission report that just 4.7 percent of colleges view interviews of “considerable importance” in admissions decisions. A whooping 46 percent of schools said the conversations were irrelevant. The elite-college admissions process is hectic, stressful, and so intense that applications are terrified to leave any stone unturned, even if that stone isn’t worth it. Plenty of schools do not do an admissions interview at all, and the ones who do, clearly don’t find them that important, according to the NACAC study. It is perhaps time to consider why schools continue to offer interviews in the first place. Can’t we just do away with them entirely? Some schools, the ones that give weight to the interviews, make them available to virtually every applicant. That accessibility is a must if the school is going to consider the interview an important part of the process. Schools that use the word “optional” interview probably stress the prospective students out even more, because the student sees that as a step-up, even if it isn’t. Interviews also turn into a source of yet another perceived power imbalance between the haves and have-nots when applying to schools. Students who can afford SAT tutors, college coaches and essay editors already have a leg up. Those students can also usually afford to fly somewhere for an “optional interview.” Others cannot, due to no fault of their own, but they are left without the opportunity to show another side of themselves in person.
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