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It’s late July 2026, and if you’re an international student applying to US colleges this cycle, there’s one item on your list that’s easy to postpone and expensive to postpone too long: the third-party interview. Early Decision deadlines land on November 1, and interview slots with InitialView and Vericant fill up fast as that date approaches. If you want a calm, well-prepared recording rather than a rushed one squeezed in during your ED crunch, late summer is the window to act.
Most students spend the summer polishing essays and finalizing test scores, and treat the interview as an afterthought — something to schedule “eventually.” That’s a mistake, because the interview now plays a more specific and more scrutinized role in an international applicant’s file than it used to.
Why Interviews Matter More for International Applicants Now
Generative AI tools have made admissions offices more cautious about how much of an essay reflects the applicant’s own voice. When every submitted essay reads polished and grammatically clean, admissions officers increasingly look for an independent point of comparison — a live, unscripted conversation that lets them hear how you actually think and communicate in real time. A 12-to-15-minute interview with no script serves exactly that function: it’s much harder to fake than a written essay.
For non-native English speakers specifically, the interview doubles as evidence of spoken English proficiency. A TOEFL or IELTS score tells admissions officers about your test-taking performance, but it doesn’t fully capture whether you can hold a natural conversation, participate in a seminar discussion, or navigate dorm life in English. A relaxed, back-and-forth conversation does that job in a way no test score can.
If you’re mapping out your full application calendar, our related post on the Common App 2026 summer timeline is worth reading alongside this one, so the interview slots into your broader schedule rather than getting squeezed out.
Three Interview Types International Students Encounter
International applicants generally run into three kinds of interview opportunities, and they aren’t mutually exclusive — you may end up doing more than one:
- Third-party interview platforms (InitialView and Vericant): independent companies that record your interview once and send the video (or evaluation) to every school on your list.
- Alumni interviews: conducted by volunteer graduates in your region, offered at the school’s discretion based on volunteer availability where you live.
- School-run interviews: a smaller number of schools run interviews directly through their admissions office, though this is less common and falls outside the scope of the third-party and alumni interviews this guide focuses on.
The rest of this guide focuses on the first two categories, since these are the ones international applicants most often need to actively schedule and prepare for well in advance.
InitialView: A Closer Look
InitialView is one of the most widely used third-party interview platforms among international applicants. The format has two parts: a 12-to-15-minute unscripted conversation, plus a 20-minute proctored writing sample. Both are recorded, and you choose which of your applications receive the resulting video.
Almost all selective US universities accept InitialView submissions as supplementary material. Boston University officially recommends that applicants submit an optional InitialView or Vericant interview. The University of Pennsylvania states that applicants are welcome to submit one, though it isn’t required. And schools that don’t run their own interview programs — including Georgia Tech, the University of Virginia, and Boston University — have noted that these videos are genuinely helpful during file review, giving admissions committees a fuller picture of the applicant beyond the written materials.
Because the format is unscripted, InitialView interviewers follow up on your answers in real time. If you walk in with memorized responses, that rehearsed quality tends to show — and it works against you rather than for you. The format is designed to reward genuine, conversational English, not recitation.
Vericant: A Closer Look
Vericant is the other major third-party interview provider, and it’s owned by ETS — the same organization that administers the TOEFL. Schools that use Vericant interviews as part of their review process include Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, and Washington University in St. Louis.
USC handles it a bit differently: the school explicitly frames third-party interviews as optional, non-evaluative supplementary evidence of English proficiency — not something that factors into the formal admissions score. That makes it a useful option for applicants who already have solid TOEFL or IELTS scores but want an additional data point supporting their English communication skills.
One practical detail worth knowing: a university-level Vericant interview remains valid for one year from the interview date. If you record over the summer, that interview stays usable well into the following cycle — useful if you’re applying across multiple rounds or your timeline stretches longer than expected.
Alumni Interviews: What Taiwan and Asia-Based Students Should Know
Alumni interviews work on a different logic than third-party platforms — they hinge on volunteer availability in your area. Harvard and Yale both offer alumni interviews at the school’s discretion, depending on how many volunteer interviewers are active where you live. Both schools are explicit that your application is considered complete without one, and that not being offered an interview carries no disadvantage.
Princeton’s process runs in the opposite order: the school contacts you after you’ve submitted your application to arrange an interview. It isn’t required, but Princeton recommends accepting if you’re offered one. MIT states that its goal is to offer interviews to as many applicants as possible, though this is still constrained by regional volunteer capacity.
For students based in Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia, alumni interviews are typically conducted virtually rather than in person. Whether you’re offered one often comes down to how many alumni volunteers are active in your city that cycle and how many applicants are competing for their time — factors largely outside your control. That’s exactly why it makes sense to put your energy into the interview format you can actually control: the third-party interview.
For a deeper look at how ED and EA decisions interact with your overall strategy, see our companion post on ED vs. EA for the 2026-27 cycle.
Timing Strategy: July Through November 1
The core principle is simple: record early, because slots — not deadlines — are what run out. Here’s the recommended sequence:
- July–September: Record your InitialView or Vericant interview. Scheduling is more flexible during this window, and you’re not yet buried in essay revisions and test prep, so you’re likely to come across more naturally.
- October: Send the recorded interview to schools alongside your Early Decision application, while finalizing essays and application forms.
- November 1: Most ED deadlines hit. Your interview should already be complete and submitted — this isn’t the stage to be scrambling to schedule one.
- November–January: If you have EA or RD schools still to apply to, the same recorded interview can be sent again — no need to re-record.
Worth repeating: one InitialView or Vericant interview can be sent to every school on your list. You don’t record separately for each application. That’s the real value of scheduling early and getting it done over the summer — one recording session, benefits across your entire list.
Six Concrete Preparation Tips
- Practice conversations, not scripts. Both InitialView and Vericant are unscripted, and interviewers follow up in real time. Practice talking naturally about your interests and experiences in English rather than memorizing polished answers.
- Treat it as a spoken-English showcase. The interview also functions as proof of your English proficiency, which matters especially if you want to reinforce a TOEFL or IELTS score — prepare for it the way you’d prepare for a speaking exam.
- Test your setup ahead of time. Lighting, background, internet stability, and microphone quality all shape the first impression admissions officers get from the recording — do a test run before the real session.
- Prepare specific stories, not adjectives. Admissions officers want to hear what you did and what you learned, not abstract self-descriptions like “I’m a strong leader.”
- Understand how each school actually uses the interview. USC treats it as non-evaluative supplementary evidence, while Vericant partner schools may weigh it more directly in review — knowing the difference helps you calibrate your preparation and expectations.
- Book your slot in the summer, not in October. Late September and early October are peak booking periods for every applicant on the same timeline as you — the later you wait, the fewer good time slots remain.
The interview may look like a small piece of the overall application, but it now carries two important functions: verifying that your essays reflect your own voice, and demonstrating that you can communicate in English in real time. As AI-assisted writing becomes more common, that role is only going to grow. Rather than scrambling in October when the application season is at its most intense, record your InitialView or Vericant interview now, in July, and remove one major task from your list before the November 1 ED deadline.
If you’re not sure how to prepare your talking points or how to practice sounding natural instead of rehearsed, Ivy-Way’s admissions consultants run one-on-one mock interview sessions with students preparing for InitialView, Vericant, and alumni interviews at specific schools, alongside full admissions consulting and essay support. Visit ivy-way.com to learn more and get your interview scheduled well ahead of the 2026-27 application crunch.
