Is the Harvard interview optional? How to prepare

HHarvard calls its alumni interview optional, and a filing in the SFFA case put it differently: applicants who do not interview are rarely admitted. The interviewer's ratings are among the roughly fourteen scores in every Harvard file. Harvard has also said it cannot interview every applicant and that not being offered one is no mark against you, so check the office's current page for how interviews are arranged in your year.

Many families still take the word optional at face value, or treat the conversation as a pleasant chat with a graduate that needs no thought beforehand. The interview is stranger than that, and more useful, because of one fact about the person across the table that most students never consider.