<p>Alright I am curious as far as the interview for Harvard goes. You go there and present yourself and pray when you get home XD? After the interview is over, is that it? Is that the last piece of the puzzle? Do you get another interview? Do you stay in contact with the interviewer? Do you bring the interviewer a gift? How did your guy’s go?</p>
<p>I slipped my interviewer a Benjamin …for “christmas”. jk X-)</p>
<p>@mathsciencedude- XD nice. “go harvard!” <em>slip a benjamin</em> “right my man?” <em>wink</em>
you’d totally get in</p>
<p>Yes, it’s over after the interview. You can’t pray for 3 months…just relax and try to enjoy your last semester of high school. </p>
<p>Yes, a thank you note afterward is appropriate.</p>
<p>Yes, if you get in, another notice is appropriate (Guess what, I got in, can’t wait to join your ranks, thank you for your time).</p>
<p>@R124687 oh ok then. Thank you. I just was wondering if you keep in contact with the interviewer or something.</p>
<p>For D, the interview was the last step.</p>
<p>She did send a handwritten thank you note within 24 hours by mail.</p>
<p>She had three total (1 alum January, two Adcom back to back in March).</p>
<p>It was wonderful. The turning point for my daughter. That is when she truly began to like Harvard.</p>
<p>Gift - she baked and delivered cookies on May 30 after she knew it could not be seen as a bribe but also before the decision so that it was clear that the cookies were a thankyou for the interview and not the acceptance/denial.</p>
<p>“Gift - she baked and delivered cookies on May 30 after she knew it could not be seen as a bribe but also before the decision so that it was clear that the cookies were a thankyou for the interview and not the acceptance/denial.”</p>
<p>As an alum interviewer, whether or not the students I’ve interviewed get in, I’m not interested in getting gifts from them. In fact, that would feel a bit creepy. One student dropped off some cookies after his interview, and before decisions came out, and I felt stalked.</p>
<p>It’s nice, though, when students provide an e-mailed or mailed thank-you note after the interview. I’ve noticed that students who do that are rare, and a higher proportion of them get in than do students who don’t bother to do this. I think that’s because students who demonstrate appreciation and take the extra step to be courteous probably take the extra step in other aspects of their lives, including their ECs and academics, and that’s what makes them stand out in admissions.</p>
<p>Northstarmom - Maybe it was not right. The interview had been at the interviewers house and she had specifically asked my daughter to keep in touch with her. Since the interview was at the house, there was no “stalking” involved. There are more details relating to the content of the interview and other developments that made it seem appropriate in this singular case. D was not in contact with any other interviewers beyond thank you notes.</p>
<p>I am glad though that you brought up how inappropriate this normally would be because it would be very disturbing under usual interview circumstances, would be a very bad idea, and I should not have been mentioned to CC students. Thank you for pointing this out and correcting my error.</p>
<p>Smoda…no worries. I think you/your daughter “felt” what was appropriate. Though I also thoroughly understand northstarmom’s position.</p>
<p>I felt it was VERY odd that, when my D was given her contact for (a different college’s) interviewer, they send her e-mail, phone, and home address! I don’t think I’d want that shared with my potential interviewee. But, in YOUR case, where the interviewer invited her into their home (and you say there are other circumstances…you know, they ended up married!..hehehehe)…then I’m sure it was fine.</p>
<p>I am actually very glad that Northstarmom posted her sentiments. Had I really thought about where I was posting this information and how inappropriate similar actions could be, I would not have done so. It was absolutely a unique situation - or so she/we believed. I would not be surprised if my daughter got in touch with her over the holiday break to let her know of her first semester experiences.</p>
<p>@smoda61- Oh ok then, thank you. Its nice to see how things went with another person. And she did keep in contact? Thats so cool</p>
<p>D’s two favorite interviews/interviewers were Harvard and Bowdoin (alumni). Both made significant impressions on her.</p>
<p>That sounds wonderful. How is she doing now? I take it having the time of her life?</p>
<p>Well other than finals (her last one is tomorrow), Harvard has been wonderful for her. Yes, she is very academically challenged. She was valedictorian of her high school but has rapidly found that at Harvard she is now more average. The people she has met and with whom she has been building relationships are people she is really excited to be with. She is in love with her EC’s. I think she would quit her classes to spend more time on them if it made any sense.</p>
<p>This all connects back to the interview again. My daughter actually disliked Harvard after each of her visits to campus. I guess admissions really does not have to court it’s applicants. November 2008, she was almost done with her applications (9 of them) and we pointed out to her that she really should consider adding one more reach. She only had 2 serious reaches on her list. We rattled off the possibilities and it turns out that after doing 9 other applications, Harvard’s can be very easy. It was her interview, the prepping for it and the time she spent with the alum, that made her excited about Harvard.</p>
<p>D was accepted to 8 schools. Of them, she only considered Bowdoin (that was her love since 8th grade), WPI (it’s Biotech offerings and large merit award), and Harvard.</p>
<p>She is very glad she chose Harvard.</p>
<p>My alumnus interview went quite well. It lasted 50 minutes instead of the assigned 45, and my interviewer was interested in who I am, what I hope to do in the future, and why Harvard is even on my radar…Unless one is completely unable to communicate with an interviewer several years older, there should be no reason for apprehension…I know it’s cliche, but just be yourself. Don’t search for the profound, search for who you are, and what you wish to tell the college about who you truly are…and if answers don’t easily come to these questions, then maybe Harvard isn’t the place for you. Just a thought. You’ll do well.</p>
<p>I have yet to visit Harvard, but I do hope to one day (especially if that day is after I get a letter saying “congradulations on being accepted!”).</p>
<p>I think I will do well with the interview, I don’t ever try to be anything but who I am so its either going to go really well, or really badly. lol</p>
<p>“Northstarmom - Maybe it was not right. The interview had been at the interviewers house and she had specifically asked my daughter to keep in touch with her. Since the interview was at the house, there was no “stalking” involved. There are more details relating to the content of the interview and other developments that made it seem appropriate in this singular case. D was not in contact with any other interviewers beyond thank you notes”</p>
<p>Your D’s interviewer may have responded to getting cookies differently than I did when a student whom I’d interviewed at my house – and also had asked to let me know about the results of his college applications – dropped off some cookies and other goodies a few weeks later when my family and I were out of town. He did this after he was EA deferred back in the days when Harvard had EA.</p>
<p>The student literally was probably the best student whom I’ve ever interviewed, and I genuinely had hoped the student would get into Harvard (which did eventually accept the student), but I was creeped out to return home from vacation and to find that unwanted gift on my doorstep. I feared that if the student was rejected, he might decide to drop by again…</p>
<p>The fact that the student had chosen to drop by like that led me to fear that it hadn’t been an isolated incident when another alumni interviewer in my area had had a rejected student and his mom drop by the interviewer’s house, push their way in, and then berate the interviewer.</p>
<p>To me, “keeping in touch” means sending an e-mail or calling after the student hears their application results. (Harvard tells the head of the regional alum interviewing committees results on all of the students who applied from their areas. However, often the regional committee chairs don’t pass on that info to interviewers). It doesn’t mean stopping by uninvited or giving gifts of any kind.</p>
<p>In general, when I’ve interviewed Harvard applicants, I’ve been impressed with them and have liked them. It has been rare for me to dislike any students whom I’ve interviewed (The exceptions were students whom I caught in lies). I have asked students to let me know where they end up in college, and some of the students – including ones Harvard rejected – have done that. One who was rejected even ended up facilitating a meditation group that I joined, and we later became Facebook friends. She’s in grad school now a few states away, and we’re still in touch. </p>
<p>I also encountered another rejected student when I started going to a new place of workshop. I became friends with her and her family, and even visited her dad in hospice while he was dying. </p>
<p>Incidentally, if anyone is wondering what happens to students whom Harvard rejects, from what i’ve seen go on to either flagship publics or to top 25 schools for undergraduate. I’ve seen some go from flagship publics for undergrad (after turning down for financial reasons top 25 private schools) to schools like HPYS for graduate school. </p>
<p>Even students who are at the bottom of the Harvard application pool when it comes to grades, scores, usually have a lot on the ball. They may have had weak scores or relatively weak grades because of, for instance, being first gen college or going to a weak school. Over the couple of decades that I’ve helped with Harvard admissions as an interviewer, I’ve had the opportunity to track students. This is because I also tend to like to mentor teens. From what I’ve seen, by the time the students apply to graduate school, the students who were rejected by Harvard seem to do as well as do the ones who were Harvard accepted.</p>