Why has the interview become an important part of Harvards admissions decision?
We care so much about trying to assess someone’s ability to lead and run a business that we feel as though just relying on the paper application would be foolish, especially when people are clamoring to be interviewed and share a fuller picture of themselves. To bring more data to bear on a difficult decision is a good idea. If an applicant is invited to do an interview with admissions, is that a plus or minus? Could an interview indicate that your odds of acceptance are greater than someone else’s? If you get an invite for an interview, it’s a positive sign. After all, it means you are still in the running, and last year, just over 50% of applicants interviewed were offered admissions. Last year we interviewed over 1,100 applicants. Of course, we are not able to interview everyone. In the past few years, we have ramped up interviewing capacity so that we can continue to interview a large majority of the applicants eventually admitted. This year, like last year, we expect that number i
