Anonymous wrote:So, parent of current Harvard student here.

Contrary to what people have said, not everyone gets an interview. Usually Harvard liked to interview kids they admit. Yale only interviews kids they have questions about — they admire kids without interviewing them.

DC has reviewed admissions file and the interview was the deciding factor. The AOs had a question and if the interviewer addressed that in their answers, DC would move on to Committee. All of DC’s friends have seen their admissions file and have said the interview was extremely important.

Harvard alumni interviewers love to ask about favorite books. I’m not sure why but everyone got that question. Some had long interviews and some had 30 minute ones. Length says nothing about admissions possibility.

DC’s interview write-up (these are quite lengthy!) spoke about DC’s personality that came across during the interview. Really that was the same as what teachers/counselor had described. I guess they just wanted an alum to verify that before sending to committee.

DC’s big leadership was a self-initiated community service project, but DC also had excellent stats. No research. Interdisciplinary interests.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:Does Harvard really conduct 55,000 interviews each admissions cycle?

My kid goes to Harvard and doesn’t know anyone that didn’t have an interview in high school. But I’m sure there are kids that didn’t interview and were accepted.

Anonymous wrote:So, parent of current Harvard student here.

Contrary to what people have said, not everyone gets an interview. Usually Harvard liked to interview kids they admit. Yale only interviews kids they have questions about — they admire kids without interviewing them.

DC has reviewed admissions file and the interview was the deciding factor. The AOs had a question and if the interviewer addressed that in their answers, DC would move on to Committee. All of DC’s friends have seen their admissions file and have said the interview was extremely important.

Harvard alumni interviewers love to ask about favorite books. I’m not sure why but everyone got that question. Some had long interviews and some had 30 minute ones. Length says nothing about admissions possibility.

DC’s interview write-up (these are quite lengthy!) spoke about DC’s personality that came across during the interview. Really that was the same as what teachers/counselor had described. I guess they just wanted an alum to verify that before sending to committee.

DC’s big leadership was a self-initiated community service project, but DC also had excellent stats. No research. Interdisciplinary interests.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They want to see if the person matches the application. Not a fraud, and can talk about what they claim to be interested in.

No, the practice of asking alumni to volunteer time to run these interviews exists ONLY to keep the alumni engaged so that the alums feel involved in the school and give more money = the largest endowment in America. - Harvard alum.

Anonymous wrote:So, parent of current Harvard student here.

Contrary to what people have said, not everyone gets an interview. Usually Harvard liked to interview kids they admit. Yale only interviews kids they have questions about — they admire kids without interviewing them.

DC has reviewed admissions file and the interview was the deciding factor. The AOs had a question and if the interviewer addressed that in their answers, DC would move on to Committee. All of DC’s friends have seen their admissions file and have said the interview was extremely important.

Harvard alumni interviewers love to ask about favorite books. I’m not sure why but everyone got that question. Some had long interviews and some had 30 minute ones. Length says nothing about admissions possibility.

DC’s interview write-up (these are quite lengthy!) spoke about DC’s personality that came across during the interview. Really that was the same as what teachers/counselor had described. I guess they just wanted an alum to verify that before sending to committee.

DC’s big leadership was a self-initiated community service project, but DC also had excellent stats. No research. Interdisciplinary interests.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:So, parent of current Harvard student here.

Contrary to what people have said, not everyone gets an interview. Usually Harvard liked to interview kids they admit. Yale only interviews kids they have questions about — they admire kids without interviewing them.

DC has reviewed admissions file and the interview was the deciding factor. The AOs had a question and if the interviewer addressed that in their answers, DC would move on to Committee. All of DC’s friends have seen their admissions file and have said the interview was extremely important.

Harvard alumni interviewers love to ask about favorite books. I’m not sure why but everyone got that question. Some had long interviews and some had 30 minute ones. Length says nothing about admissions possibility.

DC’s interview write-up (these are quite lengthy!) spoke about DC’s personality that came across during the interview. Really that was the same as what teachers/counselor had described. I guess they just wanted an alum to verify that before sending to committee.

DC’s big leadership was a self-initiated community service project, but DC also had excellent stats. No research. Interdisciplinary interests.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:They want to see if the person matches the application. Not a fraud, and can talk about what they claim to be interested in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck! Based on who H admitted in our school, H seems really like the ones with big spikes in music. Another type is the biggest leadership. Other kids, even in prestigious math competitions or publishing in top journals, can’t beat. Not sure about other schools.

The big math spike kids are for MIT! HYP like well-rounded kids, which fit their liberal arts education.
https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2009/07/what-does-it-take-to-get-accepted-by-harvard-or-princeton/

Just curious: What are those big music and leadership spikes?

You are quoting a blog from 2009. H has a huge number of STEM majors now and many are cross registered with MIT.

You misunderstood me. HYP still prefer STEM majors who are also good at other stuff. These schools emphasize an interdisciplinary approach. MIT is stricter in scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child got a Harvard interview invite? Does every applicant get it or does it mean child is in the shortlist? What are they looking for in these interviews?

Just about everyone gets it. Forget Harvard, it is declining rapidly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck! Based on who H admitted in our school, H seems really like the ones with big spikes in music. Another type is the biggest leadership. Other kids, even in prestigious math competitions or publishing in top journals, can’t beat. Not sure about other schools.

The big math spike kids are for MIT! HYP like well-rounded kids, which fit their liberal arts education.
https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2009/07/what-does-it-take-to-get-accepted-by-harvard-or-princeton/

Just curious: What are those big music and leadership spikes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every kid that they can schedule one for, they do. It's not evaluative. So tell your kid to practice good interview habits, but also ask real questions they have. it won't hurt them.

Yale is the only interview to get nervous about

These alumni interviews count for big fat "0" in the admission process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good luck! DC just finished theirs last week and it went ok but a bit stilted. Interviewer said he does evaluate on how quickly the student replies to email to schedule. Which I didn’t think was fair. But just don’t drag out the response or scheduling.

Do these interviews usually happen during the weekends? Back in the days, I did my HYPSM interview on a Saturday. I had to travel all the way to his office and we met in the conference room

We aimed for a weekend because DC tried to prioritize meeting in person. And DC offered a weeknight option as well (all according the windows the interviewer offered). But scheduling can quickly get tricky and pushed further out with these seniors having so many important things going on. Practices or other things are skippable, but Senior night at their sport isn't.

I also think meeting in person is better.