<p>I’ve got one… tomorrow. Wish me luck, give me advice and I’llt ell you all about it!</p>
<p>good luck!!!</p>
<p>Do you automatically get contacted for an interview after you submit the common app + harvard supplement? Or is there something extra you have to do?</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>what ive heard is that u automatically get contacted even if uve got no chance....im like 80% sure so dont hold me to it!</p>
<p>Every applicant - EA or RD - is given an alumni interview.</p>
<p>Harvard sends your name to the local or regional schools & scholarships committee which will contact you by mail, telephone or e-mail</p>
<p>Whew! It was actually kind of fun. While my interviewer and I had very different lifestyles and viewpoints, we seemed to connect and he said a lot of very nice things about me and my chances. Questions included: "what do you and your friends do?" "what do you think about the candidates/war on Iraq/stem cell research?" "Where have you traveled to?" etc. My interviewer had my name, school and number, that's it, so it was a good thing I brought a copy of my transcript and resume. It was about 1.5 hrs.</p>
<p>Does the interviewer actually let u know if u will get in, or give any hints of it in anyway?</p>
<p>The interviewer does not know whether you will get in. Any interviewer who gives a student any indication that the interviewer knows whether the student can get in is not indicating the truth.</p>
<p>I am an alumni inteviewer for Harvard. Harvard explictly asks interviewers not to estimate chances. I also have seen so many excellent students rejected that I know that there's no way that interviewers can estimate chances. What the interviewer sees is only a small part of what the adcoms see and consider when they make their decisions.</p>
<p>What kinds of things do interviewers look for in the applicants?</p>
<p>how much does the interview matter in the admissions process? is it a big thing, or just a puts-you-over-the-edge type aspect?</p>
<p>The importance of alumni interviews cannot be overstated. Harvard may still be the only school where each and every applicant in the early and regular rounds has an alumni interview. In many regions, candidates are discussed again at the regional level by Schools & Scholarships Committee members, and in a few cases, ranked for the benefit of the Admissions Office.</p>
<p>In some cases, the regional alumni review the docket at later points, and have a substantial degree of input.</p>
<p>On occasion, where there is a disconnect between the ranking given by the interviewer and the impression of an admissions officer in Cambridge, a second interview may be called for.</p>
<p>While there are never any guarantees, it should be born in mind that many interviewers have been doing this work for years. Their opinions are well respected in Cambridge. Interviewers do not gain this respect by raving about every local candidate, but by understanding what Cambridge is looking for, and reserving the greatest accolades for the exceptional cases.</p>
<p>It is not at all unusual for interviewers and regional representatives to go to bat for kids they feel strongly about, following up to reinforce initial recommendations.</p>
<p>In short, alumni interviews can be critical - particularly for applicants who are neither "auto-rejects" nor "auto-admits." </p>
<p>Increasingly, the Admissions Office has looked to the interviewer reports - frequently the only opinion based on face-to-face contact - to help differentiate hundreds.. thousands .. of applications which are all similarly impressive. </p>
<p>Grade inflation on the one hand, and the refusal of high schools to rank graduates on the other, have made it harder to compare candidates on the basis of class standing or grade-point average.</p>
<p>Similar "grade inflation" and the flattening of rankings when it comes to SAT scores has undermined this measure as well. Harvard will tell you that there seems to be relatively little difference - performance-wise - between the 1,450 scorer and the 1,550 scorer.</p>
<p>Finally, teacher recommendations and guidance counsellor reports are less useful than they used to be, as the writers often have little direct knowledge of the candidates, and simply parrot a list of EC's and other information contained in the transcript.</p>
<p>Moral: don't underestimate the potential significance of the alumni interview.</p>