<p>The interviewers asked about all of your stats because there is a place for it on the interview report. However, you as an interviewee have the right to decline answering any question, and the interviewer ought not follow the issue further nor make judgments on the applicant declining to answer.</p>
<p>cattiee: The due date apparently is the middle of this week. I was just contacted and asked if I could be interviewed today or tomorrow because of the looming deadline.</p>
<p>Due date depends on what part of the country you are in, as the committee takes one region or “docket” at a time.</p>
<p>Just received email to do an interview. At a starbucks in a bookstore. Is it okay if I go in jeans and my math competition shirt (as earlier in the day i have a math comp to go to?)</p>
<p>I don’t think going to an interview (starbucks or otherwise) in jeans is professional enough. Maybe you could change into a pair of khakis/nice polo shirt? I probably wouldn’t wear a suit to a starbucks, but I wouldn’t go in jeans either.</p>
<p>Oh and when does Harvard go into committee? Because even though they say they’ll accept ACT, will it be in on time to review?</p>
<p>I heard around mid-February, because that’s when they finish assembling files?</p>
<p>I wore jeans and a graphic tee to my Starbucks Harvard interview. My interviewer was in sweat pants (she had told me to dress casual). I don’t think it hindered the interview at all.</p>
<p>At the same Starbucks, I also had a Georgetown interview where I wore a full suit. I definitely felt overdressed.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you my admission results, but my general feeling was that dress is not that important. However you dress, it shouldn’t affect your interview much - especially if it is at a Starbucks.</p>
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<p>Doesn’t that kill the mood of the interview? Making the interviewer feel as though they stepped across certain bounds, or implying that the answer to the question is not “ideal”? Such things shouldn’t actually happen, but we are humans after all.</p>
<p>So I sent a thank you note to my interviewer a few day after, and he didn’t respond back. I was surprised because I thought it went well. How should I make of this?</p>
<p>^I really don’t think you should be concerned. Your interviewer is likely a busy person, and unless he has more questions then he doesn’t really have a reason to contact you back right now.</p>
<p>detoldi: I get thank you notes all the time. I rarely, if ever, reply back. You have a mistaken expectation.</p>
<p>@detoldi. T26E4’s right. I actually wouldn’t know what to write. Another meaningless, ‘great to meet you and good luck on all your applications’? Even if I really liked a candidate, I don’t want to inflate expectations with anything out of the ordinary, because I know the chances of his or her acceptance are very small. It’s even more true with candidates whom I don’t think stand a chance. I definitely don’t want to pretend that they have a really good chance, nor do I want to be too direct. So I usually just choose not to reply. If I find out they get in later on, I would be more than happy to get in touch to answer questions. [alas, that has yet to happen in my short interviewing career thus far…]</p>
<p>My interview match up really couldn’t have been much worse. He was entirely pro-government regulation, Democrat, blah blah ******** and I’m a business major!</p>
<p>We had lengthy debates over a ton of stuff. But I held my ground and wasn’t going to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. </p>
<p>Uh, it was over an hour long anddddd it’s going to be very interesting to see what he says about me since he seemed to want to argue with me rather than know me. Hah…</p>
<p>I just realized how crappy my post was in terms of helping other kids out who will be getting an interview…</p>
<p>I hate to say it but it really does depend on who your interviewer is. If you have the kind of guy I had, then there’s literally nothing you can do to prepare. (95% of the questions were on random current events and my position on them)</p>
<p>Well, actually…that’s a lie. Just be confident in who you are and the values you stand for because you definitely don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re talking about or like you don’t inform yourself about the world. </p>
<p>Also, I think it’s crucial to determine what kind of person you’re dealing with ASAP. I quickly realized my interviewer was the kind of guy who wanted to debate and get into intense conversations rather than hear about my ECs and etc. (like my Penn interviewer did) so I tried to cater to what he seemed to want.</p>
<p>Business major? You know there’s no business major at Harvard right?</p>
<p>@Spiffy1994 I had a kind of similar situation, but I actually think it was a good thing. My interviewer spent more than half the interview grilling me on current events/social issues type questions (for example, “what is your analysis of the claims of the Occupy movement?” or “what are the implications of the Second Amendment on gun rights today?”). I got the sense that my interviewer and I didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues, but I think he actually kind of liked the fact that I was willing to challenge him and assert my beliefs. The interviewers want to determine whether or not you are informed and can think critically, not whether or not you agree with them politically.</p>
<p>@Penguinito22. </p>
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<p>That’s the ideal Harvard interviewers should strive for. Though interviewers are human and can occasionally say things and push interviewees towards uncomfortable topics. At least on my part, I try to stay not to be too vocal about my views on any topic, except perhaps when an interviewee asks me about aspects of the college, or Yale. And we all know what we think of Yale. </p>
<p>In any case, I really don’t try to judge an applicant based on his or her political views; and the question of politics doesn’t always come up, and is usually prompted by something the interviewee first initiates or mentions. If a candidate wants to talk about biology, I’m more than game to talk about that in depth.</p>
<p>@WindCloudUltra: Yes, I know that. I guess I should have said I’m a future business man. 8)</p>
<p>@Penguinito: Yes, I kind of realized that afterwards. I know the guy’s smart and he’s not going to write a report to Harvard saying he disliked me because I didn’t agree with his views. Also, I know he had certain intentions behind the questions. I just kind of wish I wouldn’t have been so flustered at first…it took me a bit before I became kind of agitated with his extremely socialistic views about everything and I started to defend myself, which really couldn’t have been any more different. I think what shocked me the most was how different everything was from my Penn interview. Nonetheless, it was quite an interesting debate. </p>
<p>For those of who are interested: It was all about Facebook. He thinks the government should regulate it (and other companies like it) to protect us while I tend to believe that we should protect ourselves and allow companies to use the kind of information that we OURSELVES put online. But then he argued that users don’t know that what they’re putting up is being used and that the government needs to make these kinds of companies more transparent. I said that if it’s in the terms of agreement that all users agree to, then it’s acceptable while he argued that the TOC is not fair. Then I told him that the increased gov. regulation would result in less liberties for us (I used SOPA as an example, which was argued against fervently by tons of people). If the gov. somehow blocks FB from selling our “data” (what our interests are, what music we listen to, where we check in, etc.), FB will lose all incentive to further develop these applications that most people enjoy using. He interrupted me every time I said “the government” because he said “we are the government” which I said was debatable haha. He asked me if I believe companies need to have moral responsibility and I said no and if we can do whatever we want and I said yes (to an obvious extent). It killed him.</p>
<p>He probably hoped to find rationale behind your stances and arguments. I once interviewed a girl with super shallow views on Govt regulation (we were talking about the post 08 mortgage meltdown) and could not say an original thought to save her life. When I offered countering thoughts, she just parroted what she said earlier and couldn’t even conceive of the rationale behind opposing arguments. She needed to stop watching Bill OReilly so much and actually do some thinking to construct some real thoughts and arguments. I was very disappointed.</p>