<p>I recently received an e-mail from the Harvard Club in my area asking me to fill out a questionnaire that I am to bring with me to my interviewer. Some of the questions on the form are quite frustrating because they are the type of questions that I have found on many of my college apps (e.g. "What are your academic interests and how have you pursued them?", "Please describe how you have spent the past two summers", and "What fields of concentration and career possibilities are you considering?").</p>
<p>More frustrating and perhaps disconcerting, however, was that the form asked for SAT Scores, AP Scores, GPA, and class rank. I feel these criteria should not be explicitly stated during an interview as they may give an unfair advantage students with stellar statistics. Furthermore, my understanding is that an interviewer's role is to get a more holistic picture of a student based on qualities that cannot easily be quanitified.</p>
<p>I have considered contacting the admissions department at Harvard with my concerns. Do you think my sentiments are justified?</p>
<p>I wasn't asked to bring in a questionnaire like this, but my interviewer asked me all of those questions throughout the interview. I am assuming that the college could have provided her with this info, but she wanted to hear it from me too...I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that you should contact the admissions office, but I do understand where you are coming from. Maybe it is intended for you to be able to explain any circumstances surrounding certain scores, grades, etc.
Good luck with your interview!</p>
<p>Hey langley, I am in the San Francisco Bay Area and the alumni group here also sent us a questionnaire to fill out. It may have been the same, and it did in fact ask us our SAT, GPA, class rank, etc. I just filled it out and when I had my interview those scores never came up. I do hope though that the focus of their writeup will be about who I am as a person and what I do rather than a bunch of numbers--I will leave that up to the admissions committee.</p>
<p>The questionnaire is to help the interviewer direct questions so that he/ she will be able to maximize their time with you. The point is to get a holistic picture so that the interviewer knows how to explore your strengths and even give you a chance to explain your stats.</p>
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<p>Furthermore, my understanding is that an interviewer's role is to get a more holistic picture of a student based on qualities that cannot easily be quanitified.<<</p>
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<p>You are right, but a true holistic picture includes the <em>whole</em> picture of the student, including the stats. We got the same mini-app two years ago when my daughter was interviewed here in SoCal. It's not a big deal and certainly not worth complaining about. It's just a tool the local alumni chapter uses to aid in the administration of the interviews. Just summarize what you've already written a dozen times on various other apps and put that. It worked for my daughter. Good luck.</p>
<p>"More frustrating and perhaps disconcerting, however, was that the form asked for SAT Scores, AP Scores, GPA, and class rank. "</p>
<p>Harvard specifically asks interviewers to obtain that information. Presumably that gives Harvard a chance to doublecheck its own files (which could be wrong if, for instance, the files haven't been updated with the most recent testing). The information also allows interviewers to have concrete facts to use when providing the intellectual assessment that is a required part of their report.</p>
<p>im from southern california as well- i applied to three ivy leagues, and harvard was the first to ask me to bring anything at all to the interview.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard specifically asks interviewers to obtain that information. Presumably that gives Harvard a chance to doublecheck its own files (which could be wrong if, for instance, the files haven't been updated with the most recent testing). The information also allows interviewers to have concrete facts to use when providing the intellectual assessment that is a required part of their report.
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My interviewer didn't ask for nor even mention scores of any kind. That's the way I think the interviews should be conducted.</p>
<p>Well, bad luck mate! But you can still hope that your interviewer won't even care about stats, because this questionnaire seems to be part of your area's standard procedure. Btw, in my interview, we never talked about stats or anything like that at all. It was really intense, though, and we talked about pretty much everything from books to politics...</p>
<p>I wasn't required to fill out any forms or questionnaires, but my interviewer did specifically ask me about my scores, grades and rank during the interview.</p>