<p>As for me, mine lasted a bit over an hour. Questions were standard, nothing unexpected; seemed like my interviewer was going down a list of questions mentally(fave book? most important HS experience? fave hobby? what do you want to participate in at Harvard? what are you looking for in college? many more.. etc) I noticed that she didn't take any notes, which my other interviewers had done. I thought I answered my questions well... my interviewer didn't seem that enthused by my answers, because she didn't really react to anything I said besides with a nod or an occasional smile. However, she was friendly enough and gave helpful, detailed, and sincere responses to my own questions. At the end I gave her my resume and asked for her contact information. Overall, I think it was a fairly decent interview, although I would have liked it to be longer.</p>
<p>Anyway, post your own interview experiences and what you thought about them.</p>
<p>I have a tendency to go on and on when I respond to questions.
Did you do this as well, or were your responses short and focused?</p>
<p>During my first interview with another University, the officer kept scribbling stuff down in a notepad while I was speaking. When she broke eye contact/attention with me, that perturbed me greatly.</p>
<p>Why did your interview last only an hour?
Did she cut it short?
I hope that doesn't happen, because it seems like my interviewer is a busy woman as well : /</p>
<p>Mine was at a La Madeleine. At first I was intimidated because she had graduated in '79 and was a lawyer. But I had nothing to worry about because lady was very nice. Standard questions but she was really interested in what I did over the summers and my essays/short stories from creative writing class because she had been an english major. Also, interviewer was interested in sports. She had been on the rowing team at Harvard. She took a lot of notes. </p>
<p>I thought the interview went well. I was a little too honest if anything. But I think the interviewer found me amusing because she laughed a lot at me (not in the bad way haha).</p>
<p>Mine was a little over an hour as well. Maybe an hour is standard procedure :P</p>
<p>kwu, I have the same tendency to ramble, but I've gotten better at it with practice and it wasn't too bad for me with Harvard tonight :)</p>
<p>I know an hour does not sound like much, and I wanted mine to go on longer too, but when my interviewer contacted me to set up the interview, she said it would last from 30-45 mins, so I do not think an hour is really short. It depends a lot on the style of your interviewer. Mine wasn't extremely talkative, it seemed like she was just trying to cover all the points in terms of what sorts of questions she needed to ask me. </p>
<p>Leticia - it sounds like you connected with your interviewer... nice. My heart leapt up every time my interviewer laughed a tiny bit.. which didn't happen more than a few times..aww. I'm not sure how interviewers are assigned, but mine was basically interested in the same academic fields as I, and was familiar with the kinds of activities I participated in during HS.</p>
<p>I'm korean. My interviewer was korean. I like design. I brought my art work that I sent as a supplement. She is an architecture professor at UW-Milwaukee. My dad is a professor at UW-Milwaukee. She went to MIT grad. My brother goes to MIT right now. She had a dinner appointment with my piano teacher after our interview. She understood the pressure from asian parents and culture. There couldn't have been a better interviewer for me in the whole world.</p>
<p>She wrote down like every freakin little things I said. It went sooo well.</p>
<p>i did my interview when i did my official visit to harvard back in october with one of the admissions officers. i had met her when she came to do one of those information sessions at schools, so she atleast knew me before the interview (for any juniors, i highly recommend going to those information sessions and introducing yourself to the person possibly after. it's nice for them to be able to connect a face with a piece of paper. anyway, i'm rambling). it was really short - maybe 30 minutes. it still went really well. we laughed alot and totally just got lost in conversation. at one point we were talking about seinfeld haha. she didn't have a real list of questions. i think she was just trying to see if i could hold a conversation (which seems to be the impression of recruited athletes). i guess it went well enough to get me a likely letter</p>
<p>Mine went well. We were supposed to talk for the standard 30-45 minutes, but we ended up talking for an hour and a half+. He seemed really interested in what I knew about Asian languages and we talked for a long time about the Japanese alphabet. He also asked some standard questions, what's your fav. book, why Harvard, etc. He was really nice and talkative so that was helpful. He took 3-4 pages of notes. He emailed me afterwards because we had talked about so many other things that he forgot to ask me a few questions that he asks every applicant. So overall it went pretty well, he seemed to enjoy the talk as well which is always a good sign.</p>
<p>I had mine today and it went pretty well. The guy was a first time interviewer and was pretty hilarious, very honest, and could relate a lot to me. It was about an hour and a half long and I enjoyed it...we talked about so many different things that it's hard to remember everything!</p>
<p>I had harvard interview with an alumni in my town. The interview went well. And he didn't give me the feeling that he wasn't following a list of "required" questions. I basically talked as I liked, and he recorded some stats from me, SAT scores etc. </p>
<p>My interviewer also told me that Harvard interview is not very important in admission.</p>
<p>I still haven't contacted my interviewer.. Since im international, I am supposed to send an e-mail to the interviewer that lives in the same city as I do. Is it acutally necessary to have an interview? I want to avoid it, if possible since I'm not very good at talking to strangers.. :( but i'm worried that I have already indicated on my app i am planning to have one,</p>
<p>My interviewer was new at interviewing, so he just told me he had no clue what admissions did with the interviews, other than it just adds another dimension to your application. He told me his job was to basically present me in the best light possible and sort of become my advocate for admission. He said he doubted the interview counts that much unless the interviewee clearly is a flop.</p>
<p>arwen - I had to fill out a pre-interview form they emailed me from my local Harvard Club.</p>
<p>Yes, I filled it out before I got there and actually emailed it to her in advance (as she requested.) We did not discuss my scores until I gave her my resume at the end.</p>
<p>The only thing my interviewer said about my scores was that they were much better than the other people he has to interview...he said this in a sort of side-note, joking way. I don't come from a town known for sending kids to Ivies...most who apply just do it on a whim even though they do not have the scores or ECs. :/</p>