<p>I forgot to ask this earlier- but secondary connections aren't anything horrendous right? </p>
<p>My Harvard alum interviewer, in a response to my thank you letter, mentioned he talked with a close friend who happened to be my teacher- who gave me a great note :)</p>
<p>Similar to what happened to me. My interviewer for another school knew my counselor, who absolutely loves me (and same here!). So he put in a lot of good words. =D</p>
<p>my alumni interviewer was my friend's dad. how about that, huh?</p>
<p>I guess this is why the interview may not always count for much/they are very subjective!</p>
<p>Harvard weights their interviews the most from what I hear.</p>
<p>^ You wish. </p>
<p><em>I</em> hear that as long as you don't come off as a complete ass, the interview will not matter in the slightest. I bet 90% of applicants get great marks from their interviewer.</p>
<p>Yeah I do :(</p>
<p>Well they write a report... so if you come off as amazing I'm sure it helps. And not sure if they do some sort of ranking like Yale's 1-9.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, Harvard does weigh the interview more than most other Ivy's. This is my understanding from reading various articles and talking to various people.</p>
<p>If you get through the first few stages of application reviews, (mainly based on grades and scores) then they begin to look into character deeply, which the interview can really help. Interviewers have the opportunity to meet with a local alumni group or even admissions people and review specific applicants they interviewed and effectively advocate for them. Some alumni have more influence than others; the admissions office does value their word. Alumni don't advocate for everyone, but just the ones they feel will do best at Harvard, and admissions knows that. Soooo, I think that the interview does help a select few, but not through connections really.</p>
<p>And that's all I have to say about that....But of course we will never really know</p>
<p>I wonder how the interviewers decide who is "right" for Harvard, or whatever school they interview for. I mean it is the way the person responds to questions or what? I don't get it.</p>
<p>I always worry about this; I know an interviewer for another prestigious university that is so biased towards athletes. If you aren't one, he doesn't like you and rates you badly. I know younger interviewers who are looking for primarily party types-just like they were. While I think the interview may be important in sorting out candidates with obvious deficits in relating-I have concerns about interviewer's own bias.</p>
<p>I hope the interview report counts for a lot. He asked my a lot about my Puerto Rican heritage (woo URM!) which I totally left out of the rest of my app (besides checking the box) :D It was overall and by far the best interview I had.</p>