ATTX, thank you so much for your advise. Will do!
@ATTX we are in Dallas area and my daughter has not received interview invite emails. She did SlideRoom art portfolio. Do those with SlideRoom don’t get interviews or should my daughter contact admissions?
@mavian. It’s best to contact the admissions directly. Sorry I can’t help.
Slideroom is not connected with who does or does not get an interview
Should we be worried since we have yet to hear from anyone about an interview?
This is what said on Harvard site “If an interview cannot be arranged, you will not be at a disadvantage during the application process.” I recall someone mentioned that Harvard, like most other colleges, the interviews depend on the availability.
My interviewer told me that they try to interview every applicant
I called the admissions.
- The interview depends on the alumni availability and number of applicants.
- The interview assignment is automatic (i guess depending on the area you are). You cannot reach out to anyone.
- Not getting an interview does not mean you're not considered (again, it's automatic...?)
A 2023 document from the Asian lawsuit shows Harvard prioritizes interviews. No interview means no acceptance. They “considered” you and decided not to interview and not to accept.
Hi guys, I’m an international applicant from a somewhat underrepresented country. I’ve been recently interviewed by a harvard admissions officer. My interview only lasted 35 minutes. Is that normal? Also, is getting interviewed a sign of being a strong candidate?
@HYPSM2024. A typical interview usually is 30-60 minutes long. My kids had a few interviews went over an hour, but I believe that is not the norm.
@PuppyM. I’d expect after the lawsuit, Harvard would have changed its practice and not to prioritize interviews. But who knows?
@ATTX Harvard was not sued for prioritizing interviews - that came out in a document produced in the lawsuit - it was sued for supposed discrimination against Asians. With 43,330 applications and only 1,950 acceptances, Harvard has to somehow eliminate from the interview process those who have no chance of acceptance. If Harvard truly interviewed randomly, many unworthy applicants would be interviewed and many worthy applicants would be overlooked and denied admission (because at Harvard no interview means no admission).
I’ve applied as an international, just before the regular decision deadline, and have not received any interview invite etc. Quite worried now :\
@ATTX my kid had an interview in downtown Dallas and he did not have a good experience. The interviewer appeared bored, looked at his watch and lasted only 30 minutes. I looked up the interviewerband appears he’s the son of CEO who graduated from Harvard, and his two other siblings were currently in Harvard. How does that reflect on Harvard when you have beneficiaries of ‘legacy’ families interviewing applicants from disadvantaged communities? Who did you call to obtain a second interview?
I emailed admission directly and it took about 2-3 days for the admissions officer responsible for Dallas area to reply. However, it took about 6 weeks to get the second interview – probably because it’s during Christmas season. If you know the interviewer’s name, you may want to provide it in the email so hopefully they won’t use him again in the future if Harvard gets enough complaints.
It’s very unfortunate that kids work so hard and with so much hope to attend the interview gets an interviewer who couldn’t care less – if that’s the case, why do they even volunteer?
This type of comment keeps coming up. It’s incorrect and potentially hurtful to applicants who are under serious consideration.
I have worked as a Harvard College interview chair in more than one city, I have talked to many chairs at the annual chairs’ meeting hosting by the admissions office, and I am a current interviewer. In the U.S., some committee chairs prioritize interviews, but most do not choose to assign interviews based on priority. Priority doesn’t get assigned until mid January, and if the committee chair waits until then to assign students to interviewers, it will be difficult to get all of the reports submitted on time. Remember, after the chair assigns an interview, the interviewer has to reach out to the student, find a mutually agreeable time, conduct the interview, and submit the report. Each interviewer typically has a few students, so it is a complex process. If a chair waits until mid January, it delays everything. Once priority ratings are assigned, a chair can follow up with interviewers and ask them to prioritize the submission of reports for certain applicants.
In some places in the U.S. especially rural areas and small towns outside the Northeast, there aren’t enough interviewers, and chairs might prioritize interviews. But this situation applies only to a minority of U.S. applicants.
For international applicants, only a few interviews are available, and the AO will typically decide who gets an interview. Those who don’t get an interview are unlikely to be admitted. (I don’t know if Canada uses the U.S. model or the international model.)
I applied last minute. I am an international student from China who is currently studying in US. I have not heard of anything about interview request yet. I guess I am just rejected already. ?
@jazzing so, what I believe you’re saying is that if you don’t get an interview, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of the running? But once you get an interview, how is priority ranked? And how do they take into consideration the different interviewees, which can bring different personalities, experiences, compassion( or lack of)? Does the Harvard admissions councill offer Skype, video chat interviewsor even in person interviews?
Btw, thank you for your reply @ATTX
@gawaingalahad
Applicants are not completely out of the running without an interview, but only a tiny percentage of students are admitted with no interview. These are primarily domestic students from small towns and rural areas that have few alumni interviewers.
In Dallas and other large cities, virtually all students under serious consideration will have an interview. If the interview report is not submitted by the subcommittee’s meeting and the applicant is under serious consideration, the AO will reach out to the chair and ask for a report, which would ideally be submitted by the full committee meeting. This year, the full committee meets from Feb. 24 to March 6. Each geographic docket is discussed over the course of a couple of days. In unusual situations, a report will not be available when an applicant is discussed in the full committee meeting, and the AO might try to get an interview report after that. But that’s rare.
So applicants without interviews are still in the running, but less and less likely by late February.
The interviewer submits a report that includes a narrative, a few check boxes, and numerical ratings for personal, extracurricular, academic, and overall categories. If the admissions committee is not seriously considering a student, the interview will carry no weight. If the committee is seriously considering an applicant, the report is treated as one piece of the application and will carry some weight.
The interviewers vary, and interviews can’t be standardized. If there is a question, the AO might reach out to the interview committee chair to find out if the interviewer’s assessment is reliable. For a few applicants every year, the AO asks for a second interview. This usually happens when the admissions committee wants to accept an applicant but the interview report is not positive. They are loathe to accept students with a weak interview, but they will give the applicant a second chance with another interviewer. If the second interviewer is also not positive, the applicant will probably be rejected.
Admissions officers conduct in-person interviews, but these occur over the summer and in the fall and are usually (but not exclusively) with recruited athletes. They might conduct video interviews with international applicants, and, rarely, domestic applicants. But applicants shouldn’t request these interviews, especially at this point in the cycle, when the admissions office is extremely busy. They will reach out to an applicant if they want to talk.