Interview by Jason He
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, The OG, news

Harvard's announcement this week of plans to phase out its early admissions program drew mostly indifferent reactions among students the Gargoyle interviewed. On Wednesday, the Gargoyle asked physics teacher Jim “Ray” Carrubba, a Harvard graduate who also interviews applicants to the college, about his thoughts regarding the school's decision. The interview was conducted via e-mail.

What was your first reaction when you heard about this?

My first reaction was as an interviewer. All Harvard applicants have to be interviewed by an alumnus/alumna. The interviews can be fun but the whole thing is time-consuming. My concern is whether the entire interviewing process will now be compressed into eight weeks of late winter. I think this will stress the system. There is already way too much stress in the system. It is very hard eliminating 90 percent of an exceptionally well-qualified applicant pool.

As a Harvard alum who once went through Harvard's admissions process, do you think this change will be for better or for worse?

I don't know. Harvard is already so overwhelmed by applications — and its stature already so solid— that they can pretty much do what they want. I don't think it will affect Harvard at all. I cannot foresee what effect it will have if other schools follow suit.

A few of us think the entire admissions process is broken, not because of what the colleges do — they just read applications and accept the best students they can — but because of stress put on high school students by parents, counselors, media, and of course themselves. (Massive test score and grade inflation makes this even worse.) I have heard of juniors at Uni who feel like things start too early here: that they are being distracted by application pressure in the midst of their most academically challenging year.

None of this will be eased by Harvard's decision.

What did you think about early admissions when you were applying to colleges?

I didn't think or care about it at all because I was too lazy and disorganized to apply early. I didn't even begin working on my college applications until mid-December of my senior year. As it turns out, that's too late for early decision.