Harvard Class of 2023 RD

skieurope

@ZacharyGelfond No

bbq5ue

Anyone gotten any updates!

TheGuy1

@bbq5ue Sometimes Ivies send LL's in the last week of the month. So I guess if not now, then there's waiting till then.

putinator

Lmao I worried for decisions

TheGuy1

@putinator A month and 11 days more! Dont stress about it. Have fun.

Avik

Had my Dartmouth interview today. It was pretty urgent considering the interviewer emailed me last night, and I am an international applicant......but no updates yet on the Harvard front. O Stress, thou art a vengeful deity!

TheGuy1

@Avik An interview doesnt convey anything. It is just something that happens if Alums are in your area and/or if you opted for an interview. It is just to augment the personality you have portrayed in your application. A good/bad interview doesnt tip you over either side, but cursing/disrespecting or behavior of that sort would definitely get you tipping to the 'negative end'.

gibby

@TheGuy1 wrote "An interview doesnt convey anything. A good/bad interview doesnt tip you over either side"

I disagree, While a good interview report will NOT send you to the admit pool, a bad/tepid/meh one can sink an application. For example, this from Yale: https://asc.yale.edu/samplereports

JEROD: The fact that he hadn’t understood that pre-professional majors aren’t offered, and that he seemed to steer away from talking about real academic subjects made me wonder about his fit for Yale. And, while I genuinely enjoyed meeting Jerod, it seemed like he was giving me some answers he thought were what colleges would want to hear. He has talents, but perhaps that would be best used at another college?

RICHARD: While I enjoyed my chat with Richard, nothing really spectacular jumped out at me about him. He struck me as a smart, athletic, nice guy. He seems to be a solid candidate, but not a standout.

THERESA: Theresa is also a very pleasant conversationalist. While outwardly a bit quiet, she is fun to speak with nevertheless. In the Yale pool, I think she is solid but not extraordinary.

TheGuy1

@gibby Oh. I thought that it only marginally matters. I mean its obvious regarding swearing/disrespecting and all that, but it seems scary that having an 'okay' interview may play against an applicant. But then the question comes by to: 'What does not having an interview do in this case?'

gibby

'What does not having an interview do in this case?

IMHO the purpose of an interview, and the interview report, is to weed out applicants who are not a good fit for the college.

Not having an interview means an AO is in the dark about an applicant's fit for the school. Sometimes that's actually better than an applicant being interviewed and having them "put their foot in their mouth" or just be "okay."

BKSquared

I don't know gibby. If an interviewer really rips into an interviewee because of an inappropriate remark or the interviewee shows a total lack of interest or understanding of the college, that might send up a red flag. The context of the excerpts were examples for interviewers on how to write reports that are just not conclusory but which have contextual back-up (good and bad examples). If a student's application, especially the LoR's, are particularly strong, I don't thing an "average/ok" interview report will shoot the applicant down. I think the AO is going to give much more weight to an assessment of a teacher(s) who has worked closely with a student over a period of time than an half hour to 1 hour interview with a complete stranger with limited training.

I do agree though that sometimes candidates may be better off not having an interview if they are awkward in personal interactions or are prone to putting their foot in their mouths.

skieurope

For example, this from Yale: https://asc.yale.edu/samplereports

The examples are not glowing, to be sure, but they are hardly disastrous. And to draw conclusions is to assume facts not in evidence. Unless a school is only interviewing the 2000 applicants in whom they are really interested (without reading tea leaves about what the interview priority codes really mean), my opinion is that the example interviewer notes mirror those of the AO group already. I cannot imagine that example #1 had an application that screamed "perfect fit." IMO, unless the interview is soooo bad (like @BKSquared 's examples, any weight of any interview to HY will be a feather at best.

TheGuy1

@skieurope This is what i was trying to convey across regarding the interview itself. Thanks for further clarifying.

HARVARDPENN

Have international (India) interview requests for Harvard gone out yet? I finished my Yale, Princeton, Penn, Duke interviews last month. But still haven't received one for Harvard

TheGuy1

@HARVARDPENN It all depends on Alum availability at that time and place. There is no such date for requests that is sent for all applicants within a country. Maybe there are groups that moderate requests, but it doesnt matter if no alums are present.

gibby

@HARVARDPENN: India is one of the countries that Harvard has labeled as having limited interviews. My take on that: you should NOT expect to receive an interview from Harvard. See: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look/interviews

If you are located in one of these countries, you are in an area where we have a limited number of interviewers. If the Admissions Committee requires more information about you, you will be contacted by the Admissions Office. If you are not interviewed, it will not adversely affect your candidacy:

TheGuy1

@gibby so does that mean theres preselection of apps for interviews in such places for Harvard? For example: apps who the Adcom have narrowed down get one? or Apps in such places requiring more data (about the personality) to form an admissions decision get on? It'll be a great help if someone clarifies this.

TheGuy1

@BKSquared Thats true too.

gibby

@TheGuy1: In 2014, @T26E4, a Yale alumni interviewer and CC member, who is no longer active on CC, sent me this info . . . .

Update on interviewing for Yale. I met w/my area alum coordinator recently. Due to the # of apps, indivdual regional coordinators are submitting a "high priority" list and a "low priority" list to the directors in late January. Obviously, the high priority people are definitely under consideration and Yale would like more info. Don't know if the Low people are definite rejects on early read or not....

Thus the landscape changes due to the overwhelming # of apps vs interviewers.

Five years later, in 2019, with the ever increasing number of RD applicants, Yale (and HPSM) must be preselecting applicants for interviews based on a "high priority" and "low priority" list.

That would mean that if an applicant has not heard anything about an interview by the first of March, Admissions has deemed them a "low priority" candidate and the applicant should prepare themselves for a rejection letter (sorry).

TheGuy1

Alright! @gibby I've had my interviews/have them scheduled for he next few days for all the colleges I've applied to.

But does this mean that even with an interview, an alum (not in the adcom) deems the applicant as High/Low priority? I genuinely dont think so. Since in many cases, alums interview only one applicant in an area, at least quite some that ive sat for have admitted to this, I doubt that they can classify apps this way. It definitely seems like a possibility, but I'd say only for alums interviewing a bunch of apps.

But then this leads me to another set of questions: Since some interviews are informative, surely they shouldnt matter in the application process? And the ones that are evaluative, arent they evaluated by the adcom, and not the alum? (Since the alum just writes a report off the gathered notes/pointers from the conversation).

This seems too complex and scary. Thanks.