<p>So I was already interviewed once, but someone just called me and said he 's an alumni interviewer and wants to set an appointment to interview me too.
What's going on? Am I just that popular?</p>
<p>It's because they cannot make up their mind on whether they should admit you or not and want another interview. You better make a really good impression, as this is the deciding factor in your case!</p>
<p>You're on the edge!!!</p>
<p>Really??!</p>
<p>So it all hinges on this now....</p>
<p>Byerly, NSM can you two confirm this or not? Do you two do second interviews for borderline students?</p>
<p>There could be other reasons. Maybe your original interviewer was found to be unreliable, or lost the report. Maybe your interview contradicted other information in your folder. I mean, none of us know for sure, so just go to the interview and do a good job--just as you would, anyway.</p>
<p>"Byerly, NSM can you two confirm this or not? Do you two do second interviews for borderline students?"</p>
<p>Harvard does not tell us why they want second interviews.
My conjecture is that in at least some cases, these interviews are for candidates on the bubble.</p>
<p>I also agree with the others who have posted that second interviews could be done if interviewers are incompetent, lose interviews, don't provide the information that adcoms find helpful, etc. Even in the case of interviewer error or lack of competence, I doubt that second interviews would be requested unless adcoms were seriously interested in the applicant. This is, however, conjecture, not anything that I have heard from adcoms.</p>
<p>Hi, guys, I am a new CC member and a Harvard alumna interviewer. In the past, Harvard has asked me to do the second interview for three different applicants. In each case, the first interview report was not great, but the adcom really liked the candidate, so it wanted to reconcile a questionable interview with the fact that the adcom liked him/her. Harvard does not want to admit applicants whose interview reports were questionable, but if they like the applicant, they will see if the interviewer was off. It's also true that Harvard will request a second interview when the first interviewer was incompetent AND the applicant looks good enough to be re-interviewed.
However, I don't want to make you nervous about your interview. The best interviews are with students that are naturally engaged and can show a genuine passion for whatever interests them plus comfort with and depth in their academic areas of interest. So at the right time during the interview, show them what excites you academically and extracurricularly. The best thing about being genuine is that you won't have to worry about getting caught faking an interest you can't really talk about. Good luck!</p>
<p>mom555:</p>
<p>just out of curiosity, when were the interview reports due by for Harvard for early action?</p>
<p>There isn't one due date for everybody. It depends on when the adcom is first going to discuss candidates from a particular region. They take faxed or emailed reports until the last possible minute.</p>