I have recently scheduled a Harvard alumni interview, and received a PDF of “Harvard Interview Questionnaire” that the interviewer recommended I fill out before the interview. The questionnaire asks things about my academic interests, academic honors, ECs, languages, athletics, summers, favorite books, standardized test scores, etc. The document has a Harvard Alumni Club logo on top, so I don’t think it is unique to my interviewer. I wanted to ask if anybody else has had to fill out a pre-interview questionnaire for Harvard, and if so, how long/elaborate their responses were? Should I answer these as if they were just some other college supplemental questions, or more casually? Thanks!!
Some alumni interviewers ask for applicants to fill out a pre-interview questionnaire and some don’t. Some alumni interviewers ask for a resume prior to the interview and some don’t. Some alumni interviewers appreciate a resume presented at the interview itself and some don’t. Some alumni interviewers prefer to have an open-ended discussion without knowing anything about a student’s GPA, test scores, or EC’s. My suggestion: let your alumni interviewer guide you to what they want and go with the flow.
Answer the questions with the assumption that whatever you write could be forwarded to Admissions, so I would complete the information as if it were a supplemental essay question. The length of response will vary among applicants depending on how involved they have been with their activities.
I would assume the questions are intended to help guide the conversation so I would keep them short, so that the interviewer can take them in easily while sitting down with you.
Yeah, my D had to fill one of those out, and it was very lengthy.
She had the interview last night, and it was with two interviewers, an hour long, and very formal. Very different than other schools.