<p>Soooo I did something dumb and applied to Harvard.
I knew I wouldn't get in, but my mother really insisted that I apply. I have a 3.6 gpa and 2060 SAT. I just did it to show her that it was extremely hard to get into this school and wanted to make her aware of how competition has increased since her days.
She honestly thought that because I was Mexican it would help me get in. I just don't think this is the case. </p>
<p>The application was easy, I had a fee waiver, and I didn't have to write a new essay so I filled it out.
Now I've been contacted by an alumni just days after submitting it and he wants me to come to his house for an interview. I would assume I'm going to be telling him my stats and why I want to go to Harvard (which I never really have) and I'm afraid I'll be pulling stuff out of my butt! Would it be absolutely terrible to just not go to the interview, say I'm busy or whatever, or should I go for experience and to see if I really would have a chance? I'm afraid he'll laugh at me when he hears my gpa he's some hot shot lawyer from the 70s.</p>
<p>If you don’t go, you will almost certainly not get in. If I were you, I would do it for the experience and on the off chance that I get in - it’s a relatively small cost for a potentially large benefit. (If you wouldn’t attend if you got in / really have no interested in attending, though, then maybe you shouldn’t go.) </p>
<p>FWIW, my interview was not about why I wanted to go to Harvard. It was about my academic interests and and the path I traced as I developed them. It was a really fun and enjoyable experience, and it gave me a lot to think about in terms of my future academic goals! And I don’t think he asked me about my grades or SAT scores once. </p>
<p>In either case, please don’t just ignore the alum’s email. If you decide not to interview, you should send a polite refusal.</p>
<p>Declining the Harvard Alumni interview is a sure-fire way to get rejected. If invited, you should always go to the interview, if only for practice for other colleges where your chances may be better.</p>
<p>Definitely accept the interview. The fact that you actually don’t plan to attend Harvard may very well work to your advantage: unlike many applicants, you won’t be swayed by anxiety and worries, you won’t overprepare for it, you won’t tell them things you think they want to hear and so on.</p>
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<li><p>You have said that you don’t want to go to Harvard, but you haven’t said why, other than you don’t think you will get in (which is pretty much true of everyone). If you can come up with coherent reasons not to go to Harvard, you have a great set of things to discuss at the interview. If you CAN’T come up with coherent reasons not to go to Harvard, you also have a great set of things to discuss at the interview.</p></li>
<li><p>You have absolutely, positively nothing to lose here. No one is going to laugh at you – I can almost guarantee that. Unless you make a joke. I am a hot shot lawyer from the 70s, by the way. Not Harvard, but the same general neighborhood (I did have coherent reasons not to go to Harvard), and I am thoroughly familiar with hot shot lawyers who did go to Harvard. Neither they nor I would think your “stats”, standing by themselves, provided a basis to consider you unfit for admission to Harvard.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks to you all. You’ve helped me decide that I will attend, if only for the experience. Can’t lose anything from talking to a successful Harvard grad I guess.</p>
<p>For the record I have nothing against hot shot lawyers from the 70s ;)</p>