Do people turn down interviews only after receiving an acceptance?

[UNCafDDS]

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Looking over the threads from previously years, people will write, "Interviewed at xx,xx,xx,xx,xx, rejected from xx, declined interview from xx,xx, attending xx University."

Are the people who are turning down interviews only doing so in Dec or later after receiving at least one acceptance? Or are there cases where someone says, "Yeah, I have 7 interview invitations so far. It is only October, but I know I will get in to at least one of those 7 schools, so I will turn down invitations from new schools who contact me."

TL😀R: Is it crazy to turn down an interview before you have an acceptance?

 

[artist2022]

The way things happened for me last year were that I had lots of offers from schools regarding interviews, but only two of them were before Dec 1st (USC and UCLA). The rest were scheduled December 4th and onwards. Because I heard back from UCLA on Dec 1st, I was able to cancel my other interviews and really only attend the ones I wanted (I attended 2 of my 6 post-Dec 1st interviews). I know there are tons of people who are on like interview 6+ already, but honestly because admissions is such a crapshoot, I think people only begin to decline interviews once they have 1 acceptance in hand. I think it's too much of a ballsy move to decline interviews without an acceptance to fall back on, because in your example, what if they haven't had an interview yet and end up blowing most of those? Then they already declined other interviews and now are screwed.

Basically, I'll answer your tl;dr with my tl;dr: Don't turn down any interviews until you have at least one acceptance at a school you'd definitely go to. 🙂 Risks are too big in having to reapply just because you turned down interviews at places that might've accepted you.

 

[BasicG]

I am fortunate enough to have 8 interviews lined up currently, the other 7 schools I applied to have not sent out interviews yet. As artist pointed out, admissions is a crapshoot and seems totally random at times, which is why I applied to 15 schools with my gf. I might begin declining interview offers if they keep coming in because attending every interview will take up a lot of time and money. As it stands now, I am expecting to miss half a month of school just by attending the 8 interviews I have. So yeah, I might have to filter out school interviews based on cost, location, etc.

But to answer your question, I don't think its crazy to decline interviews pre-December as long as you are confident in your interview skills and have plenty of interview offers (10+). But if not---

Don't turn down any interviews until you have at least one acceptance at a school you'd definitely go to. 🙂 Risks are too big in having to reapply just because you turned down interviews at places that might've accepted you.