<p>Do Harvard alums ask about other schools a student is applying to? If yes, how can I politely decline answering this questions without coming off as rude or shady?</p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t care where else you’ve applied. Harvard knows its most applicants’ dream school. It even asks alum interviewers not to ask where applicants have applied. Some alum interviewers, however, don’t seem to remember those directions.</p>
<p>Just answer the question honestly. It’s not important to Harvard. Then, move on to things that Harvard cares about: why Harvard should choose you from its 29,999 other applicants.</p>
<p>you could just answer - my interviewer asked me, and I told him. I think they expect that anyone applying to harvard will be applying to other top schools.</p>
<p>I answered to my Princeton interviewer and told about five schools. I didn’t say Harvard though :). It won’t make a difference if you tell him or not.</p>
<p>Interviewers are often curious and will ask even though they aren’t supposed to. My older son’s interviewer found out that MIT was my son’s first choice - but it didn’t stop Harvard from accepting him. This same interviewer interviewed my younger son recently. It came up in the conversation that he’d already been accepted by Chicago. When we came to pick up our son the interviewer said he’d congratulated him on already being accepted to a great school. The interviewer’s own kids preferred Cornell to Harvard. I really don’t think you should worry. No one applies only to Harvard, that would be stupid. If you tell the interviewer where else you are applying you can have a conversation about what the school have in common. Sometimes the interviewer may be familiar with the other schools from family or grad school.</p>
<p>^mathmom- seconding your post.
Seriously, I’m interviewing applicants right now, and I really can care less about where else you’re applying to. I won’t count it against you if you’ve been accepted into Yale EA, or are applying to Princeton and Stanford or Michigan or one of the UCs or wherever. We’ve all been there, and I’d actually count it against you if you DIDN’T apply somewhere else, since that would show really poor judgment, stupidity or arrogance. None of which would bode well for acceptance.</p>
<p>hey windcloudultra, besides “why harvard” can you tell us just one more question you usually ask? plz, ud be super cool if u could do that…</p>
<p>@ harvardlite: </p>
<p>I must admit that I’m rather new to this. I’m an 09er. I have done plenty of other interviews in my life, both as an interviewee and as interviewer, in various circumstances. In any case, all that is to say I’ve come to learn all interviews are different, and what I may do and ask as an interviewer will probably be very different from the next person. Don’t go to your interview expecting the same thing. Unless you happen to have me as an interviewer. And even then…don’t assume anything. </p>
<p>As to how I interview; I generally don’t follow a script. I don’t have a list of questions that I go through. I like free-form interviews that go into random digressions and asides, and allow for unpredictable topics to emerge. Being able to carry yourself in a conversation like this is a plus for me. I don’t like questions that are prone to stock answers or are difficult to elaborate on. Ex. I won’t ask why you joined an activity/club. “Why do volunteer with such and such groups?” usually leads to very standard answers. </p>
<p>Inevitably, pre-prepared questions almost always lead to stock answers. Or simply very quirky, but equally-meaningless answers if the person is clever, which doesn’t do it for me either. </p>
<p>Qualities that I do prize from interviewees: a deep and intense curiosity about everything, a good sense of connective-ness between disparate topics/interests (if I’m a biomedical researcher [I’m not], and you’re a musical theater person, how do you attempt to find meaningful common group with me?) and humility. These are qualities that are hard to fake in an interview.</p>
<p>@WindCloudUltra, and everyone else: thank you so much. My interview went well, and I was never asked the question I was worried about!</p>
<p>…but here is a new dilemma that I am having: I want to send the interviewer a thank you note/card, but since she is an alumni, I do not have her contact info. I looked her up in the white pages and found out where she lives, but would it be creepy if I sent her a thank you note to her home address?</p>