I have an alum interview for Harvard next Friday, and besides all the normal nerves, there’s one thing I’m really worried about. There’s a huge weak spot in my application, specifically my grades junior year. I was out in the hospital for a few weeks during the fall semester, at which time the term ended and all my missing work turned into zeros. I wasn’t able to make the work up since it was at the end of the semester, and finished a few classes with a C average. I’m pretty sure the interviewer is going to question me about that, so should I say exactly what I just described? And if he asks what I was in the hospital for, should I say that it was a psych hospital (because that’s what it was) or say something else? I don’t necessarily want to divulge that information to him, it’s really personal and sensitive…
I don’t think it’s legal to ask why a person was in the hospital in any interview.
the person won’t know your specific grades, whatsoever. Only your cumulative GPA.
Well I am kind of in the same boat as you, not the whole being in the hospital thing but my transcript shows a noticeable dip during my junior year. At my interview, which I had today, my interviewer asked me if there was anything else that I wanted him/the adcom to know about me and I described this dip in my grades and my very strong upward trend my senior year. He was interested in this and he took notes, presumably to inform the adcom.
Anyway, I think you should tell your interviewer your situation maybe not to its full extent. Letting the interviewer know about something that you necessarily couldn’t put in your app or couldn’t explain properly won’t harm you. If he/she asks why you were in the hospital, it’s totally up to you to tell a little or a lot.
Also Harvard asks everyone who gets an interview to fill out a pre-interview resume and there’s a spot in there that asks for your GPA but it’s just your cumulative and honestly my interviewer didn’t really talk about my GPA specifically.
Long story short: You decide what you want others to know.
Best of luck to you! 
I had an interview with no pre-interview form yesterday
“Also Harvard asks everyone who gets an interview to fill out a pre-interview resume”
I don’t think this is true, I didn’t have to fill out a form either. I think it probably depends on where you live and what Harvard alumni club covers your area.
Thank you so much everyone! I was never asked to fill out a form either, so we’ll see what happens on Friday.
Also, all the best to you @starsplash ! Thank you, I may just follow what you did and put emphasis on my upward senior year grades more
Usually an interview is not about grades. It is more to get a sense of you as a person, your interests, and how you would fit in the college environment. Please remember that it is also a chance for you to interview the interviewer: it works both ways. Make sure to have questions that explore whether Harvard is the best fit for you.
As for your hospitalization, you or your parents should speak with an advocate or lawyer. The high school should have provided accommodations. Did you tell the school you were hospitalized? Did the hospital have high school classes? Noone’s school should penalize a student who was hospitalized, for any reason. You were entitled to extensions, incompletes, substitute assignments, possibly tutoring: it is against the law for your grades to suffer without accommodations offered in that situation. Unless you did not communicate with the school. You now need a 504 plan, if you have a clear diagnosis.
When you do go to college, make sure to meet with the disability office, and provide documentation of your diagnosis and an MD letter. If you have problems again, you can have some or all of : single room, reduced course load, excused absences, extensions on projects, exams in a room by yourself, etc. etc.
“Also Harvard asks everyone who gets an interview to fill out a pre-interview resume”
That isn’t true. S interviewed with HPY and several others last year. None had background info on him that they mentioned, none requested a resume or any sort of pre-interview information, and most never even brought up the topic of grades/scores and those that did only did so in passing.
The new policy at Harvard for interviewing is that the interviewers won’t know your SAT or ACT scores and are discouraged from asking. Harvard wants the interviewers not to get numbers in their heads (GPA, SAT, ACT, etc) that Harvard will of course already have, but rather to focus on getting to know the person and rounding out the whole application. In the end, of course, everyone should know that the interviews are but a very marginal part of the whole process, as almost all of them are conducted by alumni (many of whom were not even alums of the college, but rather of the graduate schools!) and not by the admissions office. Thus, there is utterly no “standardization” and the process is totally random. Therefore, the admissions office treats interview write-ups with a very large grain of salt. I think you’d have to show up in shorts, flip-flops, halter top, unwashed, halitosis, reeking of marijuana, and use Valley slang before any interviewer would actually say anything that amounts to a “ding.” And, even so, it would matter little in the grand scheme of things on your application.
I disagree. Harvard doesn’t openly publish guidelines for alumni interviewers, but Yale does. I imagine Harvard interviewers now receive the same kind of rubric and sample reports: http://asc.yale.edu/samplereports.
Pay special attention to the interview reports for Jerod, Hans, Richard and Theresa. Reading their reports, it doesn’t appear that any of them showed up wearing shorts, flip-flops, a halter top, were unwashed, reeked of halitosis or marijuana . . . and they all got “dinged” by their interviewer.
IMHO, the more prestigious the school, the more the interview seems to matter – at least when there’s any hint of negativity. And from those sample reports, negativity (and truthfulness) occur with regularity.
Relax about the interview. That is the best way to have a good interview. Remember you are interviewing them too so have questions about the school prepared.
We know several students who went to Harvard who had been hospitalized, before college, and a few who were hospitalized during college. Don’t feel too “different” or defensive about this but don’t be confessional either.
Again, wherever you end up, make sure you have contact with the disabilities office, and have tuition refund insurance too
Just want you to know there is no need to be nervous about your hospitalization. The interviewer will not know about any gap in your grades or success and will just want to chat about what your interests are and so on.
I cannot believe you got zeros while in the hospital. Something is very wrong. You need an advocate to clean that up for you. Good luck.
- Don't lose sight of what you overcame to return to school and stay on track to apply to college. Bring that confidence to your interview.
- I think it would be a strength for an applicant to discuss the challenges that had been faced and how those challenges may have changed one's perspective.
- If you're still uneasy, you can always explain to your interviewer that your grades suffered due to a hospitalization (of x weeks) and that, if he/she doesn't mind, you would appreciate not having to go into details about it,
Usually the interviews are not about academics because admissions has all that information from your application. Interviews are about your social IQ - your maturity - your readiness for college and those types of things. You can discuss challenges you’ve had and how you overcame them. But I don’t think it’s an interviewers place to explain grades on your transcript. My son had an interview at another IVY and they talked for 2 hours. It was all about football and other stuff outside of academics. There was a little of why do you want to go here stuff too. At the end of the interview he told my son he would be highly recommended and that he had amazing social skills.
There should be no need to go into the hospitalization or your mental health issues at the time or now or in the future Many interviews are just conversations. The interviewer will ask questions to keep the conversation going. The nicest way to handle it is to have a bunch of questions yourself about the interviewer’s own experience. Otherwise, just have a nice chat.
H/Y:
Thanks for the sample Yale interview write up, which seems – for the spectacular candidate “Lindsay” – just a rehash of her resume and uninsightful…
As someone reasonably competent with a dictionary, I also enjoyed reading these sentences: “Lindsay was particularly fascinated by a molecular biology experiment in which she saw how Parkinson’s research findings were tied to the human genome. She was totally enervated by the design and implications of the experiment, and seemed eager to design new experiments that built upon what she had seen.”
“totally enervated”??!! As in, completely worn out and utterly exhausted? Maybe the Yale interviewer meant to write “enraptured” or “entranced” or “enchanted” or “energized” maybe? Great that Yale can’t figure out proper diction and usage.
Bring on the halitosis.
“Great that Yale can’t figure out proper diction and usage.”
What’s to mock? I’m not 100% refined with grammar and vocab when i submit my write ups, I’m sure. It’s a very specific audience and I’m communicating ideas. But it’s a private conversation I’m having with known individuals and I give myself latitude.
The local Harvard alumni association did ask my kid for his scores and grades in detail. So if Harvard has changed their policy this group hasn’t gotten the message.