Walk into any Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or public library around the holiday season and at least a few tables will be occupied by teen/middle-age dyads, with the older member asking things like, “Why our college?” or “What’s your favorite activity?” These days, just as many of those conversations happen through a laptop camera, with a nervous 17-year-old on one end and a Yale alum in Denver or a Rice junior in a dorm room on the other.
Interviews are rarely among the most important pieces of an application, but at schools where they are evaluative, the interviewer’s report becomes one more piece of information in front of the admissions committee, and a strong conversation can only help. The landscape has also shifted quite a bit in the last few years. Some big-name schools have dropped interviews entirely, several have gone virtual by default, and at some schools the interviewer may now be a current student rather than an alum. Therefore, the College Transitions team is here to offer an updated set of tips to help you make a positive impression in 2026.
How much does the interview count?
It depends on the school. Some colleges use the interview purely to share information and answer your questions, while others treat it as evaluative. Yale states that all of its interviews are evaluative, and Stanford notes that the interviewer’s report “becomes part of your admission file.” Georgetown calls the alumni interview “a key part” of its process and aims to make one available to every applicant, which puts it in a different category from schools where interviews are optional extras. Princeton, by contrast, describes its alumni interviews as informal conversations that applicants can decline without penalty. For a more formal signal, check section C7 of a college’s Common Data Set, where each school rates the interview as “very important,” “important,” “considered,” or “not considered.”
It also helps to know what your interviewer does and doesn’t know about you. At many schools, alumni interviewers never see your application. Harvard interviewers receive only your name, contact information, and high school, and Duke interviewers have no access to your application or academic records. Your job is to introduce yourself from scratch.
Nearly every school also stresses that not receiving an interview, often simply because there aren’t enough volunteers in your area, will not hurt your chances. Take them at their word, and don’t panic if nobody calls.
Who still interviews in 2026?
Before you start prepping, confirm that your colleges actually offer interviews and how you get one. At some schools the interviewer contacts you; at others you have to opt in or request a slot by a deadline, and missing that step means no interview. Here is how a sampling of highly selective schools handles it this cycle:
| School | Who conducts it | Format | How you get one |
| Harvard | Alumni | Zoom, phone, or in person | Assigned at the Admissions Committee’s discretion, partly based on local alumni availability; you cannot request one |
| Yale | Alumni or Yale seniors | In person or virtual | By invitation only; all interviews are evaluative |
| Princeton | Alumni | 30–45 minute conversation | Offered after you apply; you may opt out without penalty |
| Dartmouth | Alumni and current students | In person, virtual, or phone | Interviewer contacts you after you apply |
| MIT | Educational Counselors (alumni) | In person when possible, or virtual | After you apply, an Educational Counselor contacts you if one is available |
| Stanford | Alumni volunteers | In person or video | Indicate interest on the application; alumni contact selected applicants as availability allows |
| Duke | Alumni | Virtual or phone only | Check the interview box on the Duke supplement; an interview is not guaranteed |
| Georgetown | Alumni | In person or virtual | Assigned after you submit part one of the application; complete it if one is assigned |
| Rice | Alumni or current students | Virtual only for 2026–27 | Request in the applicant portal by the posted deadline |
| Wesleyan | Current students | Online | Schedule through the admissions portal |
Sources: each school’s undergraduate admissions website, 2026–27 cycle.
A number of schools have gone the other direction. Penn discontinued its alumni conversations beginning with the 2025–26 cycle, citing more than 72,000 applications and a compressed review timeline, and as of late summer 2026 they had not returned. Northwestern discontinued its interviews starting in 2024–25 in favor of an optional short video, and Brown, which stopped interviewing during the pandemic, made that change permanent in 2022 and now offers optional video introductions. Columbia, Cornell (outside of its architecture program), Johns Hopkins, Amherst, and Williams do not offer interviews at all, and Emory and Vanderbilt do not offer evaluative ones. For a fuller list, see our Dataverse page on colleges offering interviews.
Prep and Practice
Develop intimate knowledge about your prospective school well in advance of the interview. Frantically googling university factoids in the car on the way over (or in another browser tab while your interviewer adjusts their webcam) won’t cut it. Your knowledge of the institution needs to be deeply ingrained so that you’re able to talk naturally and substantively about it.
A well-researched detail makes your interest feel specific rather than generic, and it gives you something substantive to talk about (and, if your interviewer graduated 25 years ago, maybe even something they didn’t know). Be the guy/gal who mentions a research project a professor in your intended department published last spring, a new major or institute the college just launched, or a student-run initiative you read about in the campus newspaper. The college’s own news page, the student paper, and individual department websites are gold mines here, and a single specific detail says far more than a sweeping compliment about the school’s “amazing opportunities.”
Equally important is that you develop an intimate familiarity with your own résumé. Be prepared to discuss your courses, activities, interests, and objectives going forward. Questions you might be asked include:
- Why are you interested in our college?
- What extracurricular activities at school and in your community have been most important to you?
- Which subjects and courses have you enjoyed the most? Which have been the most difficult?
- What will your high school miss most about you?
- If you could change one thing about your current school, what would it be?
- What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?
- What do you like to do for fun?
- Describe a challenge that you have overcome.
- What is your favorite book? Why?
- What is something you have learned recently outside of the classroom?
- Tell me about a time you changed your mind about something important.
- How do you spend a typical weekend?
Reflect on the above and other similar questions beforehand, and check out our list of 35 college interview practice questions for more. Don’t go into your interview cold. Ask your counselor, a teacher, or a family friend to conduct a mock interview and provide feedback, if possible. If your interview will be virtual, run the mock interview over Zoom, too. You’ll likely gain a helpful pointer or two and feel less nervous on interview day.
One caution: preparation is not the same as memorization. Interviewers can tell almost immediately when a student is reciting rehearsed answers, and nothing drains the life out of a conversation faster. Know your stories, not your scripts.
Virtual interviews are here to stay
What began as a pandemic workaround is now a permanent fixture. Duke conducts all of its alumni interviews virtually or by phone, Rice is fully virtual for 2026–27, Wesleyan’s student-led interviews happen online, and most other schools let the interviewer choose between a coffee shop and a video call. The good news is that a virtual interview is still just a conversation. The bad news is that it introduces a whole new set of ways to make a forgettable first impression. A few tips:
Test your tech the day before
Download the platform your interviewer is using, check that your camera and microphone work, and make sure your display name is your actual name (not “xXGamerKidXx” or your little brother’s account). Close every other application and browser tab, silence your phone, and log on five minutes early. If your Wi-Fi is spotty, sit near the router or have a phone hotspot ready, and have your interviewer’s phone number handy in case the call drops.
Mind your frame
Position the camera at eye level (a stack of textbooks under a laptop works wonders), face a window or lamp rather than sitting with a bright light behind you, and choose a tidy, quiet background. A clean, neutral wall is perfectly fine; skip the distracting virtual backgrounds. Dress as you would for an in-person meeting, including the half of you the camera can’t see, in case you have to stand up unexpectedly.
Make eye contact with the camera, not the screen
It feels strange, but looking into the lens is how you make eye contact over video. Nod, smile, and react a bit more visibly than you would in person, because subtle cues get lost on a small screen. Pause a beat before answering so you don’t talk over your interviewer when there’s a lag.
Keep the room clear
Parents, siblings, and pets should be elsewhere. Duke explicitly asks that family members not attend interviews, and a parent hovering just off-camera is exactly as obvious to your interviewer as you fear it is. Also, don’t record the conversation; Dartmouth, for one, prohibits recording by either party.
What about AI?
It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: do not have ChatGPT or any other AI tool open during a virtual interview, and don’t tape a script to the edge of your monitor. Your eyes darting to the side of the screen before every answer is noticeable, and a polished-but-generic response is precisely what interviewers are trained to see through. As a Dartmouth student blogger put it, “inauthenticity is easy to spot, even on a Zoom camera.”
There is a subtler reason to take this seriously in 2026. Admissions offices are increasingly aware that written materials may have had AI help, and the interview is one of the few parts of the application that shows how a student thinks in real time. Penn’s new application guidance makes the connection explicit, advising that “if you couldn’t explain, in an interview or conversation, how you arrived at what you wrote, or speak to it in your own words, it isn’t ready to submit.” Many interviewers never see your application, but the admissions officers who read their reports do. Be prepared to discuss the same interests, experiences, and goals that appear elsewhere in your application, and make sure your spoken self and your written self feel like the same person.
Remember the little things
At most schools, the interviewer will contact you by email to suggest a time to chat. Check your inbox (including the spam folder) regularly after you apply, and respond within a day or two. Remember that your interviewer is volunteering time around work, family, and other commitments, so be responsive and as flexible as reasonably possible. You don’t need to be scheduled for pancreas surgery or testifying before Congress to ask for a different slot; if the proposed time conflicts with a game, a shift at work, or a religious commitment, politely suggest two or three alternatives. Saying that you can’t meet after school on Tuesday because you have a ranked Fortnite session at your “bro’s” house, however, is not recommended.
For an in-person meeting, greet your interviewer warmly and follow their lead on a handshake. Say please and thank you, and send a brief thank-you email within 24 hours that mentions something specific from your conversation. As is true in all of life’s arenas, a little politeness and courtesy can go a long way.
Come with good questions
Right before you (or on your screen) is a real-life human being who spent four years at one of your prospective colleges, or who is spending them there right now. Hopefully you will be naturally bursting with questions for them. Ask them about their experiences and how their college has contributed to the person they are today, while acknowledging that an alumni interviewer may be far removed from their college experience. Avoid questions about class size, course offerings, and specific professors that you could answer with a quick visit to the website. Instead, ask questions that your interviewer is qualified to address and comfortable answering, such as:
- What do you think distinguishes your alma mater from other similar colleges?
- What did you find most enjoyable about your college experience?
- If you could recommend one thing to an incoming student, what would it be?
- How did your college help you find your first job or get into graduate school?
- Do you find that your connections to the college community are still strong? If so, how have you maintained them?
- Do you still find that your college education is useful or relevant today? If so, why?
If your interviewer is a current student, adjust accordingly: ask what surprised them most about their first year, what a typical weeknight looks like, or what they would change about the school if they could. For more ideas, see our list of questions to ask college admissions officers.
A note for international applicants
If you live outside the United States, there may not be an alumni volunteer near you, and many schools say plainly that this will not count against you. Some colleges accept third-party interviews from services such as InitialView as an optional supplement for international applicants, and policies differ. Duke will consider an InitialView interview from international applicants in addition to its own alumni-interview process. Vanderbilt does not conduct its own admissions interviews but accepts InitialView from international applicants. Amherst and Williams don’t offer interviews but will accept one you have already completed. Vericant offers a similar live, recorded interview with a human interviewer. Check each college’s international admissions page before paying for one.
Final Thoughts
Whether or not a given college places significant weight on the assessment of its interviewers (some schools do more than others), the process of chatting with a knowledgeable individual should be a positive and enlightening experience. Whether you meet at a coffee shop or on a Zoom call, be your most polite, inquisitive, and knowledgeable self and the interview will take care of itself.
