<p>A lot of people have said that the interview is like a conversation, but I don’t understand how this can be. My MIT interview last week was definately more of an interrogation than a conversation. He basically asked me to describe what I do in each extracurricular activity and each summer program. It was very tedious, and he never made any comments. He just asked another question when I was done. By the end of the interview, I was tired and bored, and I started fumbling on my responses. The ONLY thing we talked about was myself, except for the last ten minutes when he answered my questions. Needless to say, it was exhausting, and I am pretty sure that I will be rejected from MIT now. So… I’m hoping that I can improve before the Harvard interview. I’m suspecting that maybe I just didn’t give him a chance to talk or, more likely, he just wasn’t interested.</p>
<p>Can someone please tell how their interview was a “conversation?”</p>
<p>Well, it's unlikely that every interview goes te same way. My interviews at some schools were like conversations because, even though I'm sure there was a list of questions the interviewer wanted answers, we didn't move from a to b to c, so to speak. The questions led into each other.</p>
<p>Cliche, but: just be yourself? Your responses should elicit something.</p>
<p>Hmm, my interviewer for Harvard went through my resume with me in much the same way as your MIT one did, but I didn't find it interrogational. Maybe it's because I'd met the guy before (he's the college fair rep)? Or maybe I'm just narcissistic and love talking about myself. His lack of comments must have been frustrating; my guy did respond positively to most of what I said.</p>
<p>Anyway, I wouldn't be so sure your interview was a disaster. If all he did was ask you questions about yourself, and all you did was answer them, how could you have done anything wrong? I think you just had an experience you weren't expecting... it wasn't necessarily bad. Anyway, maybe your interviewer was one of the kind of stereotypical M.I.T. grads, with lots of brains, but not too much social skills. Hopefully your Harvard interviewer will be better.</p>
<p>I love talking but I hate bragging about myself, so I don't think my interview went well. I expected a conversation, but I felt like it was a verbal application, complete with SAT/ACT/SAT II/AP scores. Is that normal? I've never heard of other people being asked their test scores in the interview, but he said that Harvard wanted him to record them. He was a nice person, but I don't think I came across too well. Maybe it was an interrogation because I tried not be modest so he had to question me about things? Modesty=bad for college I guess. But it just feels so fake talking about myself like that.</p>
<p>My interview was kind of strange. We just talked about random stuff like stocks, real estate, his time at Harvard, and bioethics. it was 3 hours long, but it was good conversation. I didnt really feel like an interview. I have absolutely no idea what he thought of me though.</p>
<p>My harvard interview went decently; it started as an interrogation and ended as a conversation. </p>
<p>I have my MIT interview during the beginning of December. I'll apparently be having lunch with my interviewer <_< so hopefully the general atmosphere of the restaurant will elicit a conversational interview.</p>
<p>I had a great experience from the start. My two, not one, but two, interviewers were extremely affable and nice. I took one question and evolved it into a piece about myself, and most of the time, it was my talking and their writing notes down in order to help them write the alumni recommendation. I was the first one to go in a group of Harvard EA applicants that day. I think I made a great impression and I could tell by the interviewers' demeanors that they really did like me.</p>
<p>I mean, obviously, everyone is different. One person may like something that another does not. But just make sure that through talking, you know about global politics, somewhat more about human psychology than others, history, current events, and different things. I mean, honestly, unless you were already attune to these aspects of society, it's really hard to pull it off. I somehow think the interview separates the "I only study" kids from the "I know what is going on and how it affects me" applicants. I don't know. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Wow! Three hours!? Ok, now I'm definitely stressed. I think mine was barely an hour. Oh well, he was nice enough agreeing to meet with me because I bet he's really busy. I specifically said I'd go to his office to have my interview so that he wouldn't have to drive anywhere, but I guess that didn't really matter. It was Friday afternoon (the only other time he suggested was the same time on Thursday, but I couldn't make it so I chose Friday) and I guess after a long week of work there isn't much you'd want to talk about. Or I was just a really bad conversationalist that day. Although, in retrospect, we did talk about quite a few things, but we always got right back on topic because he had specific questions, so not much random stuff like yours, IndianDude.</p>
<p>i had mine last week. it lasted around 2 and a half hours. really, we just shot the breeze and only talked about the school during the last portion when i got to ask him questions. Examples of stuff we discussed include the fire-bombing of dresden, the european union, the strength of the euro against the dollar, and peruvian tariff rates. It was a fun conversation, and completely different than what i expected. It was not an interrogation at all.</p>
<p>We broke off when my person had to go to her Greek lesson. Anyway, I don't know why these times are so unbelievable. When two intelligent people start talking about anything and everything, I imagine it could take a while to grind to a halt.</p>
<p>Kidsampson, Wow, a 2 1/2 hr. interview? Mine was an hour and 45 minutes and I thought that was long. I got along real well with my interviewer also. We talked about current events and my interest in Harvard. He was able to answer a lot of questions I had regarding playing my sax, study groups and day-to-day life on campus. We met at a Barnes & Noble and enjoyed quite a bit of coffee together. Probably one reason why the interview lasted so long. ;-)</p>
<p>well my interview was about 50 minutes. It was a very unusual interview for me. She started off saying her role was to be my advocate to get into harvard. Then she just asked some very general questions and basically let me tell her what I wanted. It was not really conversational. However, she was very nice and at the end she told me about her experience at Harvard.</p>
<p>These all sound like such very strange experiences. If I get an interview for RD, though, it will be my friend's dad. She says that her dad is always the one to interview the kids from the local high schools, so it doesn't sound like there's another person.</p>
<p>I hope my interviewer is nice....a friend of mine said her interviewer (also for Harvard) hadn't done one in a while, so he just asked her to talk about herself. I hope I don't get asked the "Why do you want to attend...." question, but I guess I just have to resign myself to answering that....</p>
<p>Um...would it be wise to ask here if someone else has had the same interviewer as I'm going to have? I know the name already, but the interview hasn't been scheduled yet.</p>