<p>According our local Harvard Club lady, she has invited ALL local Harvard applicants to the reception and about 30 showed up.</p>
<p>Thanks. I met a student at our reception who told me his grades/scores were not that good but hoped to make it up in the interview. So I thought it would mean something.</p>
<p>My interview is in an hour. :-/</p>
<p>That said... our area doesn't have any applicants reception or anything. It's a very populated area with bajillions of applicants (NYC/NJ area), though. I dunno.</p>
<p>NERVOUS.....</p>
<p>Thanks for the info Northstarmom!</p>
<p>My interview went really well. My interviewer was the president of Miramax and she seemed a bit out of sorts (probably because of the writers strike) but we had a lot in common. We had similar academic interests and she either thought I was funny or was just giving me pity laughs whenever I make a joke. Either way, it was nice. The only thing that went poorly in the interview was when I mentioned that my sister went to Yale. She asked me which I liked better, Harvard or Yale and I said Harvard. She asked what was wrong with Yale, and since I don't think there is anything wrong with Yale (I just like Harvard better) I wasn't prepared for that. I made something up and I think she saw right through that, but that I backed it up by saying why Harvard was better.</p>
<p>Mine was excellent, at least I thought so. My interviewer and I chatted about the usual stuff, then we spent a good 10 mins talking about the Patriots and the Celtics...Only thing is I forgot to e-mail him and say thank you. It was a week ago, think it's too late?</p>
<p>My Harvard interview was surprisingly enjoyable.</p>
<p>The conversation started somewhat cold; my interviewer began asking me questions about my scores, rank, gpa...etc. </p>
<p>As the interview went on we started discussing politics, and the results of the primaries and what not. This really broke the ice. He was only 26, just got engaged and had the same taste in music that I had. Good match, I'd say.</p>
<p>When I began asking him questions about Harvard, everything loosened up. He definitely let go of the uptight attitude he came in with. He leaned back, and even let out a cuss word or two. </p>
<p>In the end, the conversation ended up with more of the "friend to friend" vibe, than a "interviewer to interviewee" one. </p>
<p>After about an hour and a half we shook hands and got up. As we walked toward our cars, he told me he had interviewed about 5 other kids, but that he had really enjoyed this interview.</p>
<p>He told me two of the kids seemed like they were living "under a rock," and had not idea of what was going on in the world around them. Another two kids were really smart, eloquent, and informed, but had dry, monotone personalities. The last kid he had interviewed was, "the worst interview" he had ever been part of. The kid was a wreck in every sense of the world- ironically he had perfect test scores.</p>
<p>Northstarmom: what do you think? </p>
<p>My son applied to Harvard on 7th Nov’07 and got an interviewer’s e-mail 6 days later. The interviewer was not an undergraduate student in Harvard, but was a tutor and resident of the Harvard undergraduate dorm as a graduate student. She asked my son to include standardized testing scores and a list of his senior courses in his resume. Each year about 12 – 14 students get admitted from this area.</p>
<p>On the interview date my son went to Starbucks 15 minutes early and saw that she was already there. She looked at his test scores, gpa, rank and said they were excellent and moved on. She mostly asked questions about his courses, ECs, activities, awards etc. She was continuously taking notes. The only question she asked outside of that was “Why does Harvard want you?” My son said the rest of the interview felt more like she was trying to sell Harvard rather than judge him for admission. </p>
<p>Interview took about 1 hr and 15 min. At the end she asked my son if he had any questions. Although my son had a few questions in mind, she ended the interview after answering only one about the flexibility of Harvard’s course list (if my son could major in the sciences but still take something like “Concepts of the Hero in Greek Civilization” for fun).</p>
<p>Why didn’t she answer more than one question? Is this bad? Your opinion is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>My interviewer looked at my test scores, my resume, read my essays, and then proceeded to sell Harvard to me for 90 minutes.
I really wasn't asked anything...rather disappointing.</p>
<p>My went pretty well, except for the fact that the place was extremely hard to find since the address wasn't exaclty right. However, my interviewer was a recent grad (07') and she was extremely nice. The conversation went really smoothly though she asked some things that differed from what my other interviewers asked. Overall though, it went quite nicely. :)</p>
<p>my interview was pretty bad. i fell down the guy's front stairs, to begin. and i also just embarrassed myself in a bunch of other ways by not remembering stuff. oh well. my princeton interview was awesome. =]</p>
<p>red remote, all my Ivy interviewers were just like that! The Harvard interviewer did ask a few questions about me but the Princeton interviewer just sold the school the whole time and kinda talked as if he were my college counselor.</p>
<p>Wheeee! I loved my interviewer (had my interview yesterday, at her house). I only kind of wanted to go to Harvard before, but after I chatted with her for about an hour, I really want to go now, if only to meet people like her :)</p>
<p>She was so cute, and smiley, and bubbly, and we chatted about journalism, snow, pogosticking, Harvard's mascot, the (in?)existence of true altruism, Walden Pond, and all sorts of other fun. </p>
<p>Strangely enough, she sold her school much better than all the other interviews I've had, who spent FAR more time talking about their school. My questions about Harvard must have taken about 5-10 minutes altogether, whereas we chatted about everything else for a good 50-60 minutes. During my Princeton interview, we spent a rather painful 40 minutes talking about Princeton, and only about 20-30 minutes about me. My Princeton interviewer didn't seem very interested in me :( and after I went on, and on, and on, seemed to dismiss everything I said.</p>
<p>Errrr...you guys had really nice, personal interviews. Mine was a typical business-style interview with rehearsed questions and a time-limit of one hour, for when the clock struck 8, the crop of interviewees I'd arrived with left and another crop arrived.</p>
<p>Then again, it should be expected. I live in a community with a lot of rich folk whose parents are on the Admissions boards at Williams and whose hands are in various Ivy-colored cookie jars.</p>
<p>Atomiclightbulb,
Gosh, you sound bitter and ungrateful.
First, the inteviewers are volunteers who don't have to take their time to interview.
It sounds like you also live in an area in which there is a plethora of Harvard applicants, and I would imagine, not enough volunteer interviewers to interview each student one on one. It also sounds like many of the interviewers have high level corporate jobs, and may be very used to evaluating interviewees in the kind of structure you described. Consequently, group interviews are done using a structured format to give every applicant an equal chance.</p>
<p>So far several H applicants at my D's school have been interviewed. It appears there are three interviewers in this area, each with a different style. My D's interview was tough and intense. Her interviewer warned and apologised in advance that he would ask questions that would put her off guard. Questions included how she felt about various world issues, what her particular uniqueness was compared to other applicants, why Harvard (in detail), and a lot of stuff that was not shown on her application. Really WHO she was, how articulate, and how she reacts and learns from her jobs, her research, her background, and ECs/interests outside of academics etc. Interview was held at alumna's house, with no distractions, and she mentioned she did most of the talking and was kept on her toes. Seemed to me to have been a very thorough and well planned interview on the alumna's part.
On the other hand, one of her friends was disappointed by his interview with another alumna, where most of the talking was done by the alumna on what he did and his interests rather than concentrating on learning about the student. I guess there are various styles of interviewing without a set structure.</p>
<p>My interview was yesterday.
It lasted a grueling four hours (!) and I broke the cardinal rule of interviews: my dad was sitting there the whole time.
Of course, that wasn't my idea. My interviewer asked that I bring my dad along so they could meet, and then when it was time for lunch my dad tried to sneak off but the interviewer invited him to stay.
Some standard questions were asked (why Harvard? What other schools are you applying to?) but also a few that came out of left field (do you have a boyfriend? why do you like him? why does he like you?) Also, my interviewer really pushed the Naval Academy on me, assuming I don't get into Harvard. He said I should take a gap year, or go to one school for a year, and then apply to Annapolis. Probably because of my family's Navy legacy and the fact that I expressed interest in serving the US abroad.
ECs were not discussed much, and my school record was not even looked at. He told me that he saw his job as finding out who I am, and presenting that to the admissions board, and he couldn't do anything about my record, it is what it is, so why bother?
Definitely not an orthodox interview by any stretch, but overall pleasant, although tiring. I am certain I made good impression when all is said and done.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,</p>
<p>My bitterness was directed more toward the admissions process in my area - not the interviewer. I have parents. I know how hard it would be for them to take time to interview a bunch of 17-year olds who wear "Hahvaad" neckerchiefs.</p>
<p>That said, I have no problem insulting the admissions process. I know how Ivy League admissions operate, and I know that my chances are automatically weakenend simply because of the area I live in and the school-obsessed parents who populate it. </p>
<p>I'm sorry if my distaste with the admissions process in my area came across as a distaste for the interview process.</p>
<p>My interviewer was awesome. We talked for an hour and a half about tons of different topics. He studied astronomy (which I don't know much about), but we started off with talking about chemistry and research, specific techniques etc. He didn't write anything down or really have a list of questions. It wasn't the best interview ever; I didn't reply so eloquently to some of the questions(what do I really think about the Republican candidates? errrr, and why am I really in acadec? errrr), but it was terribly interesting and it was a cool conversation. A curious thing I found was that there are tons of Harvard alumns who do interviews, so no one in my school had the same interviewer.</p>
<p>Well, My interviewer was the president of Jockey International in Kenosha Wisconsin. He was also the father of one of my friends, so we had a connection!</p>
<p>I think it went really well, about an hour. Most of the time we talked about my interests and just sort of expanded on that. We also talked about my high school, teachers, etc. It was about 45 minutes to and hour, which may seem short, but he's a busy man. He followed up to get my test scores, rank, and all those others, so my interview was not at all focused on that.</p>
<p>I got to ask him a few questions about his experience at Harvard, but he wasn't really "selling" the school to me.</p>
<p>I had a very nice time though.</p>