Poor Interview

<p>S's summer interview at Haverford was not good: S made some poor responses and by the end he sensed the interviewer was not interested in him, (or was just having a bad day). H is S's first choice and he wishes to apply ED. Will this interviewer be reading S's application, and if so, will a bad interview work against S?</p>

<p>honestly i think the interview is pretty important at haverford. but i don't think it's the end all to the admissions process; interviewers know that they're just 17 or 18 year-olds who are probably nervous and uneasy. i doubt the interviewer would be reading the application, but he/she probably will write a summary of the interview. if your son really wants to go to haverford, he should definitely apply ED and pay extra attention to the personal statement to compensate for what he perceived to be a poor interview.</p>

<p>Basically, admissions at Haverford works like admissions at just about anyplace else. Regional admissions officers read applications from the States/territories/countries they are assigned and select candidates they feel are qualified for admission. Then, the whole office gets together as a group, reads through the application, and the regional officer acts as your psuedo-cheerleader by presenting your "candidacy" to the group. Interviews RARELY hurt your application, even if you think they went bad. So I wouldn't worry too much.</p>

<p>Since there is still plenty of time why not ask for another interview?</p>

<p>I think a lot of this will have to do with what questions your son thinks he may have had trouble with and his actual response. If your son feels that his interview wasn’t representative, why doesn’t he write a letter to the Adcom/ the interviewer and explain 1) HC is his 1st choice, 2) His nervousness with perhaps not having other interviews 3) clarifications with any responses given, ect…</p>

<p>Thank you. The collective wisdom here is so helpful for parents going aound the horn the first time.</p>

<p>I actually interviewed at six selective schools last year, and I felt my interview went very well for every school EXCEPT Haverford. I went to my interview extremely tired, and I disagreed with my interviewer on many points, and got the impression that he didn't think very much of me. However, Haverford is the only school I got into out of all of them. So I suppose you never know.</p>