<p>My interviewer attended one of Harvard's graduate schools, but not the college. Is this common for Harvard interviewers?</p>
<p>And why, way I inquire, does this matter? It is not like he/she did not go to Harvard at all.</p>
<p>Interviews are a way for people to learn more about the university, and some people have a lot of questions about the undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Remember that the alumni interviewers are volunteers, there are thousands of students who need to be interviewed particularly since Harvard attempts to interview every applicant from the U.S. (something that’s not possible to do abroad because of the relatively low numbers of potential interviewers).</p>
<p>Consequently, with only one exception that I know of (Dave Evans, who is a senior interviewer at Harvard), all interviewers (including the admissions staff) graduated from Harvard College or one of its graduate or professional programs.</p>
<p>This is far better than what exists at most colleges in the country including some other Ivies where even admissions officials may not have graduated from any part of the university that they represent. I was surprised, for instance, that at a college fair, the admissions official representing the state flagship public institution had never attended that university, but instead had attended its biggest rival. </p>
<p>When it comes to learning about the undergraduate experience at Harvard, there are many better ways of learning that information than relying on the interview. My experience in serving as an alum volunteer inteviewer has been that those with the most time to interview are alum who graduated decades ago. More recent alum are in grad or professional school, and usually don’t have time to volunteer.</p>
<p>URMTOHARVARD, I didn’t say it’s a bad thing, but there is a huge difference between the experience at harvard college and at one of the grad schools. I just thought it was interesting, since most of the schools I applied to presented the interview mainly as an opportunity for the student to question someone who went to that school. The fact that Harvard uses people who didn’t go to the college suggests that the interview does serve a purpose beyond asking questions about the school.</p>
<p>I know what you mean, bcjslugger. My interviewers for both MIT and UChicago went there for grad school. For MIT, the guy was pretty old (60’s?) and couldn’t answer 3/4 of my questions, so I was pretty disappointed. I went into my Chicago interview expecting the same, but the interviewer there was a lot younger (Divinity School class of '04 or so), and he had really mingled with the undergrads while he was there and could answer all my questions REALLY well. So, even if the interviewer didn’t go to Harvard College for undergrad, they might still know stuff; I guess it’s hit or miss. You could even ask where the interviewer went for undergrad and how he or she thinks the undergrads of her school and Harvard compare. :)</p>
<p>“The fact that Harvard uses people who didn’t go to the college suggests that the interview does serve a purpose beyond asking questions about the school.”</p>
<p>Very true. Unlike probably the majority of colleges, Harvard uses interviews to actually assess the applicants, and those assessments are taken into consideration for admission decisions. Consequently, what’s most important about the interview is the impression that you leave the interviewer with – whether or not that person attended Harvard College.</p>
<p>The interview truly is evaluative. Harvard doesn’t go so out of its way to enlist tens of thousands of busy alum to volunteer as interviewers just to answer applicants’ questions about the Harvard experience.</p>
<p>Applicants can get wonderful info about the Harvard experience by using a search engine, contacting students via the web pages of Harvard clubs, and by visiting Harvard after they’re admitted.</p>
<p>I’d like to underscore the fact that all 12 degree granting Schools at the University take part in interviewing of applicants. The HAA doesn’t just consist of the College because there are many other programs here at the University which hold just as much, if not more, value in terms of research and contribution than what the College itself does. I’d caution those who read these threads to understand that Harvard is the sum of all its parts and not an isolated School or Institute. We all contribute in different ways and such is the reason there are 12 different Schools and it is labeled a University. Remember that those alums went through tough times to get through their programs and are Harvard graduates and, most often, those graduate students supervised College students or helped with research initiatives and programs. So, please keep these things in mind when looking at the alumni interviewers.</p>
<p>Best of Luck,
Brandon Ruse
Faculty of Arts and Sciences DCE (working towards ALB)</p>
<p>Also remember, many graduate students play an active roll in undergraduate life. Some serve as proctors in the freshman dorms, others are entryway tutors in the houses (and live in the houses as well). Former graduate students who did not attend the college may not be as clueless about undergraduate life as you think.</p>
<p>This is more likely to happen if you live overseas or in an area with very few Harvard alumni. We interview almost 1000 kids per year in my geographic area, and as far as I know, all the interviewers are Harvard College grads (although many of us have a Harvard graduate degree, as well).</p>
<p>I don’t get why everybody is attacking the OP – as somebody in the same situation, I can say that it’s just a legitimate point of confusion. As for my interview (Design graduate), it went extremely well and I wouldn’t’ve traded him for anybody. However, at the outset, of course I was confused!</p>
<p>“This is more likely to happen if you live overseas or in an area with very few Harvard alumni.”</p>
<p>Actually I live about 30 minutes away from Harvard, and I know countless Harvard alum living in my town (which is partly why I was a little confused at the start).</p>
<p>I found out today that the interview will actually be held with two people at the same time- one who went to Harvard College and one who went to a Graduate school. I’m not complaining (in fact I actually believe it may be to my advantage), however this is very different from my other interviews, and I was wondering if it’s an uncommon occurrence, or something that happens more often for Harvard.</p>
<p>Havard gets more than 20,000 applicants each year, and attempts to interview all of them. Most of the interviews are conducted by alumni volunteers. Depending on where one lives, there may be hundreds of Harvard applicants. Examples of places with such high numbers are NYC, Boston and D.C.</p>
<p>Most alum do not volunteer to do this time-consuming work (Each interview takes about an hour, add to that transportation time and time to write the report, which usually is one page long). Consequently, Harvard is delighted to have the services of any alum – including graduate and professional school ones – who are glad to help.</p>