Hello All,
My Daughter who is an international has not recieved an interview is by skype or by an alumn, does that mean her chances of attending are on the low side in anyway? Note that she is living abroad so not many alumns ( very few) are present domestically.
Harvard’s website says: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look/interviews
That said, a few international students on College Confidential from countries which have very few alumni (Egypt, Pakistan) have been offered Skype interviews with Admissions Directors. For those students, I would think it’s a positive sign of interest. Conversely, I would take the lack of being offered a Skype interview in a country with limited alumni as a sign that your daughter might be deferred in the SCEA round. If that’s true, hopefully she will receive an interview during the RD round. GL to her and you!
Harvard says that they try to get everyone an interview, but says they can’t get to everyone, especially internationals. They say it doesn’t make a difference if they’re unable to interview an applicant.
Interviews only make a difference in the very rare case. Of course, if the interviewer writes a truly appalling assessment, that might get noticed. My interviewer admitted that he had only one student admitted in over 5 years, during which time he had recommended highly at least a dozen people.