Acceptance without interview?

[semiotic_mess]

Hello,

So while I am pretty realistic about the idea that if a school sent out interviews and you didn't get one, you are almost certainly out of the running, BUT I always see people advising that "it isn't over until it's over" and I was wondering what makes people say that in this situation. I am guessing that means that there are sometimes (but probably rarely) exceptions to this? I was hoping to hear what people had to say about this. Do you know of schools or instances where people were waitlisted and/or accepted without being interviewed at a program that has interviews? I am not getting my hopes up at all, but I figure that it's worth it to at least ask questions to bide the time....

[Olórin]

I once knew someone who first got rejected from a program, then got accepted to that program two months later. 

My hunch is that if an adcom that interviews needed more people later in the season, they would still schedule an interview before sending an acceptance or wait list notification. So, it’s possible. But since it’s usually their goal to interview all potential candidates in the same week, it’s unlikely to happen unless they really messed up. 

[LtotheOG]

On 2/8/2021 at 2:47 PM, semiotic_mess said:

Do you know of schools or instances where people were waitlisted and/or accepted without being interviewed at a program that has interviews?

I was never interviewed albeit admitted into history phd at nyu; although as I later found out most if not all of my cohort had interviews.