<p>omg! ok, i think i'm creating a completely distorted image of myself...i don't want any opinions right now...i'm just curious...
northstarmom, how informed would you expect someone to be?</p>
<p>n/m kebree...i've had the prolife/prochoice argument way too many times, so i know what you're talking about...thanks, though</p>
<p>He also says in that book, Mountains beyond Mountains (fantastic book btw), that he doesn't care what side of the political spectrum you fall as long as you want to help. Remember the Republican guy that funds stuff for PIH at the beginning? he further says that he hates when people try to politicize things. I would argue that he does know a lot about politics but he doesn't particularly care what happens. </p>
<p>But yeah I definitely agree NSM that the OP should know more about it...LAgal do not try to talk about something you know nothing about. If I caught someone doing that in a conversation to me (it's not too hard), I'd immediately lose all respect for that person.</p>
<p>Back to my argument that one can be apolitical and active, let me give you just a couple examples of why politics turns many intellectuals off.</p>
<p>do you realize that there was a recent vote 98-2 in Congress on a sunset provision with about 60 riders on it? no one in the media cared about it, because so few people would be able to understand it. if you were a pol. sci major, you'd be intimately familiar with dirty politics like this. basically politicians get to fund stuff of their own choosing at no cost to themselves due to the peculiar cyclical nature of our Senatorial changes. stuff expires before they have to pay for it--it's like stealing from the treasury. this means that if my parents run a tobacco company, they can have the friendly senator hook them up with a nice $.2 billion subsidy. Did you know that we pay subsidies of $120,000 per US cotton farmer? That we pay more per annum to help influential cotton farmers buy Ferraris than we pay on govt housing? And that it is precisely because of the way politics works that this will never change?</p>
<p>So maybe the OP doesn't know all this. But neither do most people. It's not the end of the world, and I certainlly wouldn't condemn someone as harshly as you did, although you do have a good point to raise about being aware of the world.</p>
<p>please let me clarify myself...i am not THAT clueless...to recapitulate myself, i'm not informed enough to have an hour-long discussion on politics...
i understand what all of you guys are saying, but the past is over...i need help for the future...
NSM, please answer! how much do you expect someone to know? cuz there's so many different degrees of being informed
i can carry on an articulate conversation on just about anything but politics...am i completely screwed?</p>
<p>LAgal, these are my thoughts. Remember, I am not an adcom, but am simply an alumni inteviewer. I don't make the final decisions.</p>
<p>I would expect a Harvard applicant to know more about politics than you know and to have had a favored candidate in the election and to be able to support their preference with some facts. However, I doubt that any interviewer would expect you to talk for an hour about politics, and I doubt that the interviewer will give you a current events test.</p>
<p>Given the fact that we just finished a presidential election and given the fact that virtually all Harvard alum (and undergrads) are very opinionated about politics and are informed about politics, I would be surprised if politics doesn't come up in your interview. I can imagine an interviewer throwing out a comment about politics as an ice breaker, thinking it would be a softball way to start the interview.</p>
<p>Similarly, you could be given an opportunity to talk about a local issue that has been in the news. The interviewer wouldn't be doing this to trap you, but to offer you a chance to state your views and show how you think. It is normal for people who go to a place like Harvard to be up on their current events. That's simply how they are. It's not something they do to impress interviewers. </p>
<p>This is not true of people at all colleges. When I taught at a third tier college, I had to literally teach students how to read the newspaper. Many of the students came from families that didn't get daily newspapers and didn't pay attention to the news. That kind of instruction isn't necessary at a place like Harvard. It's a campus in which students are very politically aware.</p>
<p>I have heard similar thoughts (disenchantment) from more than on kid, LAgal. </p>
<p>BTW you won't be able to crib for your interview and become what you are not, so please don't try. You will only get out onto thin ice by starting a conversation you can't finish. </p>
<p>NSM, while a little harsh, is correct that an apathetic person will not usually fit in in an Ivy setting. Schools want to admit people who will fit and be happy in the school. There is room for variety, but there <em>are</em> underlying similarities that create school identity. At Harvard, you are going to need to "fit" with some of the most driven and intense people on the planet. This sort of person is rarely apathetic and is usually very well informed. </p>
<p>On the other hand, without any makeover, you MAY be able to make a few cogent points that relate to politics. For example, you are correct that the debate questions were generally launching points for PR messages, rather than thoughtful & clear answers. This could be a conversation-- how staged the debates are and how driven by PR. How hard it is for a newcomer to be drawn in when things seem so false & canned.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, newspapers often use these same PR messages ( like "flipflopper") in their quotes in their daily political stories-- that is why you need to read the whole paper, including editorials, letters to editor, etc (hopefully at least two papers), plus some alternative sources (Mother Jones, The Nation, NPR, & dare I say occasionally Fox) and then use the aggregate of all this to begin to form more accurate opinions of the candidates & their positions. The greater the breadth & depth of your knowledge, the more blatantly BS/PR sticks out and the more informed you will be. Otherwise, you are just giving in to what is wrong with politics. Intellectual awareness is the only defense against ever-increasing sound-bite shallowness! </p>
<p>Kids are frustrated with politics because if a kid wants to understand politics by watching the nightly news, it is not going to be anything other than PR soundbites for the most part and it will be confusing and unsatisfying. Don't let this stop you. Jump in and read (or if busy, listen to NPR on the radio while driving, bathing, etc for a beginning.)</p>
<p>You also could use a discussion of politics to express your POV on political hot button issues (as a scientist, I bet you have an opinion on stem cell research.)</p>
<p>You will NOT be required to discuss politics for an hour, do not worry.</p>
<p>Be yourself! Talk about things you care about and are knowledgeable about. But DON'T offer a version of yourself that an interviewer will deem "lightweight." Your initial post was very valley girl: 'don't know; don't care.' Actually, you do know more than that. There's a big difference between "I hate politics and won't inform myself" (Lightweight) and "The current system makes it hard for a young person to get a geuine understanding of a candidate's positions and feel engaged" (maybe not exactly heavyweight, but at least evolving.) </p>
<p>IMHO, "lightweight" is <em>not</em> a match for Harvard. </p>
<p>I think that is what NSM was trying to say.</p>
<p>I am worried sick now and nearly on the verge of tears. I don't know what to do! After so much hard work and so many dreams, I can't believe that the decision of my dream school may come to rest on the Presidential election. Is there anything I can do?</p>
<p>did my post cross yours?</p>
<p>SBMom...thank you! Can you please offer advice on what I should do? (NSM seems to be evading the question..a.nd I can understand why)
I will not try to steer the conversation toward politics and will definitely NOT say anything that I am not absolutely certain about. But I don't know what to do if the conversation turns toward politics. I am NOT completely clueless, but I am not as informed as I would like to be, precisely for the reasons you gave. I have not voluntarily zoned out of the world for the last four years--I have really tried to understand what is going on. But the information I have gained is so disjointed; it's hard to make discreet connections.
SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP! WHAT SHOULD I DO?</p>
<p>All you can do is be yourself. You have posted elsewhere that you taught yourself to do some kind of Indian dancing. If that's your passion, talk about that.</p>
<p>thank you, NSM...as it is, isn't the point of the interview to learn more about the candidate? do you think not being very interested in politics would qualify as a reason for rejection?</p>
<p>Yes, that's the point of the interview: To learn about the candidate and to help the adcoms make a decision about whether to give a precious place in the class to that candidate.</p>
<p>From what I have gathered from your posts on various boards, what makes you stand out is that you taught yourself Indian dancing. Even bring a portfolio of dance pictures with you if that would help you highlight your achievements to the interviewer.</p>
<p>I also notice you have posted that you're interested in majoring in biology and history. Be prepared, too, to talk about your interests in those fields.</p>
<p>I can not say whether lack of interest in politics would be cause for rejection. I can say, though, that I don't think I have ever met a Harvard student or alum who lacked interest in politics. I have met Harvard students and alums with unusual political beliefs, but can not recall meeting a student or alum with no political beliefs. I have, however, seen that on lower ranked college campuses, there seem to be high proportions of politically apathetic and/or uninformed students.</p>
<p>LAgal....You are gaining nothing by sittting at your computer and panicking. Pick up a newspaper or go to some of the following sites for a current events read-up:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnn.com/</a> (you'll probably end up with a slightly left of center slant)
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.foxnews.com/</a> (you'll probably end up with a slightly right of center slant)
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml</a> (you'll end up with a left of center slant---find out about "memogate")</p>
<p>Thank you, NSM...if you don't mind, in what part of the US do you conduct interviews?</p>
<p>Haha, making sure you don't get her as your interviewer? That's classic :)</p>
<p>Relax, you are who you are. Go to the interview and have a good conversation about what you know, believe, & feel. Be prepared to reveal yourself and be real. </p>
<p>Just don't cop out in a lightweight manner if politics (or another topic that you are unsure of) comes up. Face it, consider the question, and be accurate in your reply so that even if you don't have the "best" answer, it reveals a real, intellectual you and not a valley girl version. </p>
<p>Interviewer: "What did you think of the recent election?"</p>
<p>You: "Well, I am not as informed as I would like to be, because this was really my first presidential election as an adult, so I am only just beginning to wade through the sea of PR and soundbites in the media and find nuggets of certainty and truth about the candidates, parties, & positions. Most political coverage seems to obscure reality rather than reveal it. It's really difficult to sort through. It is a shame that politics are so off-putting for so many Americans and I think as a newcomer I can see some reasons why this is." </p>
<p>That's all there is to "do." You need some deep breaths! An interviewer can be impressed with an honest answer that isn't "impressive".</p>
<p>I am not posting where I live or conduct interviews. I think that in my intensity, I am typical of Harvard alums, students and alumni interviewers. Many know far more than I do about politics. I have noticed that many alumni interviewers tend to have connects with fields like politics because alum who are in fields like medicine typically don't have time to do interviews.</p>
<p>SBmom, thank you. That really does help. :) I think I'm just going to be myself and, if anything about politics comes up, I'll just tell my interviewer the truth. I've never tried to be someone I'm not, and I refuse to start now. If the school wants to accept me, they will regardless of my degree of interest in politics. Besides, I just checked the calendar and realized that my interview isn't until the 18th.</p>
<p>Thank you, NSM...I'm just really nervous right now. I've gotta find something to do for like the next week and a half so I don't pull my hair out over this!</p>
<p>is it too cold in massachusetts to wear a skirt right now?</p>