Went to a Harvard reception for the newly accepted students and families last night. A group of curious parents and I gathered around the person who schedule and conduct student interviews for years and had an interesting chat. He is a charming guys and a talker so he answered many of our questions and told a lot of interesting stories.
Here are a few points I derived from that conversation about the Harvard interview process:
1. Harvard divided the applicants into 4 groups, 1, 2, 3, 4, with 1 containing the strongest applicats and 4 the weakest. The admission office wants the “1” group applicants interviewed as soon as possible. So if you are contacted quickly after submitting your application, you are probably a "1" group. But he also said that because they get the students as the applications come in, some students may be contacted quickly even if they are not "1" if he happens to be the only one coming in at the time.
2. There are two purposes for interviews: to confirm that the applicant is what he/she says he/she is, and to evaluate social skills and personality.
3. The interviewers do not know everything, but they do know the basic information, like SAT scores, ranking in school, etc.
4. Interviews can break an application. He talked about a “1” group kid with very strong academic and EC, perfect SAT, etc. The interviewer said “Do not admit this one.” And that kid did not get accepted.
5. Interview can also make an application if the applicant is on the borderline and the interviewer recommended very strongly.
6. They try to interview everyone. He said he tries to interview the “4” group students in early action and give them advice on what school they should be applying in regular action. They do try to let you know if they don’t think you have a chance of getting in.
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