No interview, should I be worried?

[ohiobornandraised]

Hello GradCafe friends,

 

I'm new to this site, so I'm excited to be here!

 

I'm currently stressing out, and I'm not sure if I should actually be worried or if I just need to calm down- I applied to grad school for Higher Education Administration at a public university in Ohio (which is my top choice,) and my application was received the 2nd of December. Since then, my application status still says 'complete,' and so far I've not been contacted about an interview for the program (which I know might be too soon, since the deadline was the first week on Jan.) What freaks me out is that I know a few students who submitted their application around the same time (a little earlier than me, around November,) and they already had their interviews over winter break, in December. Should I be worried? Or am I just stressing myself out? I'm completely unsure of how their process is when it comes to choosing applicants to interview, and they've been difficult to get a hold of recently.

[TXInstrument11]

Call the grad admissions coordinator to get this straightened out. It may be a system glitch or, if not, the program may be forgiving and let you submit some minor materials late.

 

If you can't contact them for whatever reason, remember that the procedures for interviews and admissions dates vary widely between schools. Some schools send out interview invites in bulk while faculty send out individual emails for others. If the website doesn't have any information on which is the case, you can only hang tight. However, I would not use other students as a guide unless they are applying to the same schools as you.

 

Also, and it varies by schools and discipline as well, I have heard that some places actually only invite students they are unsure of. I can't see that happening much with in-person interviews, which can be time-consuming and expensive, but you can't rule it out either until you have more information.

[ohiobornandraised]

Call the grad admissions coordinator to get this straightened out. It may be a system glitch or, if not, the program may be forgiving and let you submit some minor materials late.

 

If you can't contact them for whatever reason, remember that the procedures for interviews and admissions dates vary widely between schools. Some schools send out interview invites in bulk while faculty send out individual emails for others. If the website doesn't have any information on which is the case, you can only hang tight. However, I would not use other students as a guide unless they are applying to the same schools as you.

 

Also, and it varies by schools and discipline as well, I have heard that some places actually only invite students they are unsure of. I can't see that happening much with in-person interviews, which can be time-consuming and expensive, but you can't rule it out either until you have more information.

 

Thank you for the response and information! The students who already had their interview did, in fact, apply to the same school and program as I did. I called graduate admissions about a week after I completed my application, and was told all of my application requirements were received (including my goal statement, LORs, transcript,resume, etc,) and that the application was sent to the higher ed program right after my application was completed. Since the interview process is a requirement for admission, I'm wondering if I just didn't get accepted and they are waiting to send a rejection. I'm not sure if I should call the higher ed program and see if they have received my application, is it too soon since the deadline for applications was on Jan. 5th?

[TXInstrument11]

Okay, since it was just two weeks ago and they have confirmed receipt of all of your materials, calling them again may not help you right now. I called some adcoms with stupid questions and I could practically hear the eyerolls in their voice, so I would wait until February. If you haven't called a lot though, this may not be too big of a deal.

 

Now, you said that interviews are required, but do you know if they send them all at once or in waves?

[ohiobornandraised]

Okay, since it was just two weeks ago and they have confirmed receipt of all of your materials, calling them again may not help you right now. I called some adcoms with stupid questions and I could practically hear the eyerolls in their voice, so I would wait until February. If you haven't called a lot though, this may not be too big of a deal.

 

Now, you said that interviews are required, but do you know if they send them all at once or in waves?

Thank you for your reply! And it's a rolling admission system, so they send interview invites as they receive the applications.

[TXInstrument11]

Hmm. Since it's rolling, you may need to be concerned then. I'm assuming it would mean that they evaluated your friends' apps around the same time they did yours.

I would try to call the admissions coordinator, for sure. It's better than email because you can remain somewhat anonymous if they don't ask and don't bother to keep record of your number.