I recently had my interview, and all in all, it went pretty great. So I was just wondering, how much does the interview matter for Harvard admissions? Can a Harvard interview push an applicant into the admit group (or the reject group)?
The interview is supposedly the least important part of the applications process, especially as not all applicants are interviewed, due to the fact that sometimes there are more applicants in a given city/area than there are alumni able to interview them. I suspect a bad interview report, by itself, might give the Admissions Office pause, and possibly push an applicant into the reject pile. However, as many students receive a positive interview report, I don’t think a great interview, by itself, will automatically kick an applicant into the admit pile. This is an interesting article from a while back: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/29Rparenting.html
You sorta feel for the guy who wrote that NYT article. 40 interviews and only one admitted so far. That’s way below the curve. However the next one he gets will put him right smack dab back on it, so maybe the trick is to just keep at it. That probably works for a lot of things.