Harvard 2012 applicants (class of 2015) Forum

[lawguy2015]

Long time lurker here. I had my JS1 last week, but have yet to receive a decision. It seems some people who did the interview this week on Monday already heard back. Does anyone know if this is a bad sign or has this been happening more or less throughout the last few weeks? Any insight would be helpful for this helpless neurotic

[lessthanjake]

10 minutes exactly. She didn't ask me anything about why Harvard or why the particular type of law, even though that was much of what I prepared. All she asked was:
- What I do at my current job
- Which of my undergrad extracurriculars would I look mostly fondly upon in the future and why?
- Whether I've considered working after undergrad before law school
- Why I'm applying to American schools and if I've thought about where I want to work post-law school (I'm Canadian)
- If I had any questions for her

Hope the above helps future JS1s. To echo the sentiments of other posters on this thread, she is super friendly, casual, and easy to talk to. It's really like a fun job interview with an interviewer only a few years older than you, and it did indeed go by super quick.

That being said, this was totally not what I was looking forward to. The questions she asked weren't conducive to me giving answers that were really representative of why I want to go to Harvard. But I guess we'll see what happens in a few days/weeks.

Best of luck to other JS1s!

Did you do most of the talking or did she? She only had three questions for me, and I feel like in the end she may have talked more than I did, which is probably not a good thing?

Congrats to the JS2s!!! It's only been two days since my JS1 and I already can't take it. Don't know how you lasted a week Byz, but congrats!

I wonder this too. I also was only given three questions, and she might have talked more than I did since I asked her 2 questions which she spent a decent amount of time answering. I am unsure whether it's a good thing or bad thing though to not be given that many questions. If she is unsure about you, but is giving you the JS1 anyways, don't you think she would have a lot of questions to clarify things that made her unsure about you? Conversely, if she IS sure about you, she might just ask a few basic questions just to get a sense of how you interact and make sure you're not completely socially stunted. Similarly, you could say that if she's sure about you, she might spend more time talking and trying to sell Harvard to you a bit than actually asking you stuff.

You could argue the opposite very easily though. I feel like it's probably silly to read too much into stuff like this, but I am curious if people who know more about the process than I do agree that it's silly to read into it

[crystalized]

10 minutes exactly. She didn't ask me anything about why Harvard or why the particular type of law, even though that was much of what I prepared. All she asked was:
- What I do at my current job
- Which of my undergrad extracurriculars would I look mostly fondly upon in the future and why?
- Whether I've considered working after undergrad before law school
- Why I'm applying to American schools and if I've thought about where I want to work post-law school (I'm Canadian)
- If I had any questions for her

Hope the above helps future JS1s. To echo the sentiments of other posters on this thread, she is super friendly, casual, and easy to talk to. It's really like a fun job interview with an interviewer only a few years older than you, and it did indeed go by super quick.

That being said, this was totally not what I was looking forward to. The questions she asked weren't conducive to me giving answers that were really representative of why I want to go to Harvard. But I guess we'll see what happens in a few days/weeks.

Best of luck to other JS1s!

Did you do most of the talking or did she? She only had three questions for me, and I feel like in the end she may have talked more than I did, which is probably not a good thing?

Congrats to the JS2s!!! It's only been two days since my JS1 and I already can't take it. Don't know how you lasted a week Byz, but congrats!

I wonder this too. I also was only given three questions, and she might have talked more than I did since I asked her 2 questions which she spent a decent amount of time answering. I am unsure whether it's a good thing or bad thing though to not be given that many questions. If she is unsure about you, but is giving you the JS1 anyways, don't you think she would have a lot of questions to clarify things that made her unsure about you? Conversely, if she IS sure about you, she might just ask a few basic questions just to get a sense of how you interact and make sure you're not completely socially stunted. Similarly, you could say that if she's sure about you, she might spend more time talking and trying to sell Harvard to you a bit than actually asking you stuff.

You could argue the opposite very easily though. I feel like it's probably silly to read too much into stuff like this, but I am curious if people who know more about the process than I do agree that it's silly to read into it

I think you and I had the same experience, where she ended up spending a decent amount of time answering our questions. I wondered afterward if I should have spent longer answering her questions since I am very succinct, but she was pretty rapid-fire which gave me the slight impression of impatience and that maybe I shouldn't go on and on. We did bond a little bit since I work in consulting and she used to work in consulting, but the chat overall was still a bit more awkward than I would have liked.
If I compare this to a "second round interview" of a consulting job, they usually try to start selling themselves to you at the end of the interview if they like you. She ended the call with a simple, "Our office will be in touch." What does that mean??? Agony.

[Tim3155]

Long time lurker here. I had my JS1 last week, but have yet to receive a decision. It seems some people who did the interview this week on Monday already heard back. Does anyone know if this is a bad sign or has this been happening more or less throughout the last few weeks? Any insight would be helpful for this helpless neurotic

Hello fellow lurker,
I think the JS1-JS2 times have varied quite a bit--some people within a couple days, others a week or more, and of course there's all of us in the JS1-> held-the-next-week pile. If you're not held soon, I'd say that's a good sign.

[Byzantine]

Long time lurker here. I had my JS1 last week, but have yet to receive a decision. It seems some people who did the interview this week on Monday already heard back. Does anyone know if this is a bad sign or has this been happening more or less throughout the last few weeks? Any insight would be helpful for this helpless neurotic

I'm in the same place that you're at. The key thing for us will be to survive the hold wave which is surely coming today or tomorrow.

[Byzantine]

Right on captain!

I asked JS about why they haven't called my good friend Byzantine yet, she said the call is on the way

I know this is a lie but it still makes me feel better.

[captainwasabi09]

Right on captain!

I asked JS about why they haven't called my good friend Byzantine yet, she said the call is on the way

I know this is a lie but it still makes me feel better.

The call. It is coming today. And we will go eat sushi and I will buy you sake in Boston. You better be pumped because I am!

[Byzantine]

Right on captain!

I asked JS about why they haven't called my good friend Byzantine yet, she said the call is on the way

I know this is a lie but it still makes me feel better.

The call. It is coming today. And we will go eat sushi and I will buy you sake in Boston. You better be pumped because I am!

I am so there! Thanks Captain.

[brownpride]

10 minutes exactly. She didn't ask me anything about why Harvard or why the particular type of law, even though that was much of what I prepared. All she asked was:
- What I do at my current job
- Which of my undergrad extracurriculars would I look mostly fondly upon in the future and why?
- Whether I've considered working after undergrad before law school
- Why I'm applying to American schools and if I've thought about where I want to work post-law school (I'm Canadian)
- If I had any questions for her

Hope the above helps future JS1s. To echo the sentiments of other posters on this thread, she is super friendly, casual, and easy to talk to. It's really like a fun job interview with an interviewer only a few years older than you, and it did indeed go by super quick.

That being said, this was totally not what I was looking forward to. The questions she asked weren't conducive to me giving answers that were really representative of why I want to go to Harvard. But I guess we'll see what happens in a few days/weeks.

Best of luck to other JS1s!

Did you do most of the talking or did she? She only had three questions for me, and I feel like in the end she may have talked more than I did, which is probably not a good thing?

Congrats to the JS2s!!! It's only been two days since my JS1 and I already can't take it. Don't know how you lasted a week Byz, but congrats!

I wonder this too. I also was only given three questions, and she might have talked more than I did since I asked her 2 questions which she spent a decent amount of time answering. I am unsure whether it's a good thing or bad thing though to not be given that many questions. If she is unsure about you, but is giving you the JS1 anyways, don't you think she would have a lot of questions to clarify things that made her unsure about you? Conversely, if she IS sure about you, she might just ask a few basic questions just to get a sense of how you interact and make sure you're not completely socially stunted. Similarly, you could say that if she's sure about you, she might spend more time talking and trying to sell Harvard to you a bit than actually asking you stuff.

You could argue the opposite very easily though. I feel like it's probably silly to read too much into stuff like this, but I am curious if people who know more about the process than I do agree that it's silly to read into it

I think you and I had the same experience, where she ended up spending a decent amount of time answering our questions. I wondered afterward if I should have spent longer answering her questions since I am very succinct, but she was pretty rapid-fire which gave me the slight impression of impatience and that maybe I shouldn't go on and on. We did bond a little bit since I work in consulting and she used to work in consulting, but the chat overall was still a bit more awkward than I would have liked.
If I compare this to a "second round interview" of a consulting job, they usually try to start selling themselves to you at the end of the interview if they like you. She ended the call with a simple, "Our office will be in touch." What does that mean??? Agony.

With me, I did most of the talking because I wanted to elaborate a little. But she asked very little. At first I was worried, but now upon thought I feel like it's not a bad thing. My application made it quite clear what sort of background I had, what field of law I was interested in, etc. and showed consistency. I feel she didn't ask much because most stuff about me was evident from the app as it is. She might have asked some of the others more questions because she was less certain of what they wanted to do and why. Don't fret over it.

[Onthebrink]

JS2 in at HARVARD! Got the call at close to 7.
Hell YES!

JS1/JS2 twins!

Haha destiny buddy!

Withdrawing all other apps and going?

Definitely.

[brownpride]

Congrats to you too Onthebrink!

[lsatTakerguy]

"missing application fee"

just came up yesterday even though I submitted a fee waiver, which their office confirmed receipt of but has not processed.

y they gotta make a po' man wait?

[StrictlyBusiness]

Well this is weird. I just got an "Application Complete" email this morning saying they had all my stuff and all. What's weird is that I've been "File Under Review" on my status checker since 2/22, and they haven't updated anything with that email aside from the mailings section.

Anyone else had it happen in a weird order like that?

[jd5]

Same thing happened with me. I don't think it's out of the ordinary.

[brownpride]

Same thing happened with me. I don't think it's out of the ordinary.

Me too. Don't worry about it, doesn't really mean anything.

[jetissent]

Yeah that's how it has been for everyone--they send the complete email about a week after your status checker changes. Not really sure why. Good luck!

[Nulli Secundus]

Well at least now that it is 1 month after the application deadline, we can expect a decrease in the amount of "I went complete after being under a review, does this mean anything?" posts.

[StrictlyBusiness]

Well at least now that it is 1 month after the application deadline, we can expect a decrease in the amount of "I went complete after being under a review, does this mean anything?" posts.

Hah sorry, I've been following this thread intermittently at best. I went back a dozen or so pages and couldn't find anything on it so I naturally figured Harvard was so blown away by my application that they just forgot to send the email on time.

[Nulli Secundus]

Well at least now that it is 1 month after the application deadline, we can expect a decrease in the amount of "I went complete after being under a review, does this mean anything?" posts.

Hah sorry, I've been following this thread intermittently at best. I went back a dozen or so pages and couldn't find anything on it so I naturally figured Harvard was so blown away by my application that they just forgot to send the email on time.

Np, its just that I have been through 2 H application cycles with things happening around same times, around same amount of time, so it got kinda old. Its only normal to try to look for the tiniest bit of information regarding something as important as an application to H.

[Byzantine]

It's quiet today. Too quiet.

[Syme]

Time for some mindless prognostication!

http://www.top-law-schools.com/images/d ... arvard.jpg

Where do you think this cycle is relative to the one linked above? Lagging behind (more offers to be made) or running ahead (fewer offers to be made)?

Someone predicted earlier in this thread that H is holding URM apps for mutual consideration later in the process. Do you buy that?

[boosk]

Time for some mindless prognostication!

http://www.top-law-schools.com/images/d ... arvard.jpg

Where do you think this cycle is relative to the one linked above? Lagging behind (more offers to be made) or running ahead (fewer offers to be made)?

Someone predicted earlier in this thread that H is holding URM apps for mutual consideration later in the process. Do you buy that?

On LSN there are only 7 URM acceptances so far - 1 or 2 of which are blatantly fake, and another that is questionable. They've definitely got room for more URM's... thats my take on it anyways

[Byzantine]

Time for some mindless prognostication!

http://www.top-law-schools.com/images/d ... arvard.jpg

Where do you think this cycle is relative to the one linked above? Lagging behind (more offers to be made) or running ahead (fewer offers to be made)?

Someone predicted earlier in this thread that H is holding URM apps for mutual consideration later in the process. Do you buy that?

It's gotta be "behind" given the turnover in admissions staff. I think we still got that mini-admit spike coming in the next week or so. Still, that graph paints a grim picture.

[Syme]

... that graph paints a grim picture.

I'LL SAY.

[Byzantine]

... that graph paints a grim picture.

I'LL SAY.

If you want to see some really rough reading, go look at the holds thread from last year. It rivals a couple of Cormac McCarthy books.