<p>I had my Harvard interview a few days back and the interviewer called me up a day after that to "email a letter of recommendation to me, writing on my behalf, which could be sent to Harvard". What could one make out of it? Has anything like this happened to anybody?</p>
<p>That is utterly bizarre. I suggest that you send a PM to Northstarmom. She is a long-time Harvard alumni interviewer who can probably help you figure out how to deal with this.</p>
<p>wow, noob interviewer much?</p>
<p>Was the recommendation especially good, or what?</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Wow. 10char</p>
<p>Whoa…yeah, I’d probably PM Northstarmom too.</p>
<p>No need to PM me. I have no idea what the interviewer was trying to do. The person sounds very confused about what they are supposed to be doing. My suggestion is that the OP e-mail the admissions office and ask how to handle the situation. The admissions office probably will contact the interviewer and tell them what they are supposed to do.</p>
<p>Sounds like the interviewer is lazy. S/he wants you to write a letter singing your own praises that s/he could then submit under his/her own name to Harvard.</p>
<p>then again you could slam dunk your own recommendation.</p>
<p>“i think this precocious applicant is the second coming. with an intellect to match einstein’s, and a charm to match casanova’s, you MUST accept this applicant. anything less will lead to my complete repudiation of harvard and my unwillingness to ever donate again. this applicant is godly.”</p>
<p>but i think you should just listen to northstarmom’s advice</p>
<p>“If I had a daughter, I would marry her off to this applicant”</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>I did write the recommendation, trying to stay within the thin red line between too modest and extravagantly bragging, because my interviewer was like “Send it to by this afternoon. Without fail.”, so I didn’t have much of a choice. </p>
<p>Even my interview was something like I have never heard of before. I was practically grilled by two people, seemed more like an interrogation. They asked me all sorts of weird questions “Which country is Gary Kasparov from?” “What do you he is doing now?” And then when I asked them about their Harvard experience, they said “It’s the best darn college in the world, what do you expect?”</p>
<p>I dunno, it was weird.</p>
<p>That is really weird. Hope that all works out okay :)</p>
<p>That sounds horrible, actually. The purpose of an interview is to get to know you better, not to quiz you. =/</p>
<p>hey Adrivit…great co-incidence…i am from India too and i had exactly the same experience…my interviewer albeit told me at the end of the interview itself to send the same sort of mail you were asked to…i also had two people grilling me about Economics, recession,etc.but it wasn’t weird because it is my intended concentration…i quite enjoyed the interview…where are you from?? how many people getting interviewed from your region? my interviewer said that the sorting was done by the ad com and only 4 people had got interviews in eastern India…anyways good luck…</p>
<p>lol that reminds me of slumdog and who wants to be a millionaire</p>
<p>I am from Kolkata too! We had the same interviewer then, maybe Economics was his forte … he seemed uninterested in my Fuzzy logic ideas and everything! Only 4 people? Why is that? How do they select people for that?</p>
<p>How did you guys get an interview? I’m from Kolkata too, and they don’t mention India in the list of countries that can get interviewed by Harvard.</p>
<p>i believe kasparov is laying low…on guard against putin’s henchmen.</p>
<p>@ QuasiProfound : we got a call from a Harvard alumnus…you cannot initiate an interview in India…</p>
<p>Thanks for replying, and sorry to be pushy, but how did they know to contact you? Did you request a viewbook/paper application, or indicate interest in some way? Or, I don’t know, get a Nobel Prize and mention in your acceptance speech (do people give acceptance speeches for that?) that you’d like to attend Harvard?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>