What percentage of candidates convert a Google onsite interview into an offer?
I can not speak authoritatively, nor with any currency, but here are some numbers that we can use to bound the answer:When I was at Google I was told informally that Google received about a million resumes each year.At that time, as I recall, Google had about 20,000 employees and was growing at a 10% to 20% annual rate.Let's say that they were hiring between 2,000 and 4,000 people each year.So the raw success rate might have been 0.2% to 0.4%.Pretty dismal.Against this area couple of mitigating factors. Some substantial percentage of applicants were completely unqualified and were throwing their resumes in in some sort of effort to win the lottery.Another set of applicants (one of them was a social acquaintance) applied for dozens of positions. I suppose it was another variant of the lottery approach.So, the number of qualified applicants may have been as low as 5% or less of the total flow.This suggests that the actual odds for qualified applicants may have been 20x to 100x higher, making it say 4% to 40%.I sort of believe that range.
What is the accept rate of Harvard interviewed applicants?
Harvard interviews the vast majority of applicants. They have 15,000 alumni volunteers in all parts of the world to cover the 40,000 applications.The goal of the program is not for applicants, it is for alumni - to keep them engaged and active.The Admissions staff knows that some alumni are naturally upbeat or cranky and the results vary widely. so they do not give the alumni comments much weight unless there is some revelation that is absolutely surprising. So very seldom would an interview actually change an admissions decision in either direction.What the interview does positively for applicants is to put a human face on the institution and offer a chance to ask questions.So relax, this doesn’t mean much - just go meet a new person and hopefully you will enjoy the discussion.
What is the success percentage of applicants to Cambridge or Oxford who took the Oxford Applications preparation course?
(Disclaimer: I have worked for Oxbridge Applications and own a tutoring company for international students, Oxbridge Bewerbung)Oxbridge Applications has about a 50% success rate, compared to 22% average for UK students (Oxford 2013).That said, non-UK students only have an about 10% chance of getting in (Oxford 2013). The difference in entry chances are heavily attributable to the level of support students receive, as UK students who do not use paid tutoring often still receive significant support from their teachers and schools. Schools and teachers in UK pride themselves on the success rates of their pupils at Oxford and Cambridge University and in consequence coach students heavily during their final years of school. This experienced support helps heavily account for the much higher chance of admission for UK domiciled students at Oxford or Cambridge University.By contrast, teachers at many European schools or other schools internationally sometimes do not even know what UCAS (the UK universities admissions system) is, never mind what Oxbridge tutors in particular expect in a personal statement or interviews. Students from outside the UK often have little to no support through knowledgeable tutors with experience of successfully accompanying pupils through the Oxford and Cambridge admissions process, and in consequence are much more often ill-prepared for interviews or fail to address the most important questions in their personal statements. Explanations for the differences in success rates other than the level of support/coaching students receive tend to be weak, e.g. language ability (US applicants only have a ca 8% success rate).Data source: Oxford undergraduate admissions statistics 2013 by Nationality and domicile / http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-...
Do universities like Oxford or Cambridge look at your High school grades?
The answer is likely to depend upon the course you wish to study.UndergraduateBritish students usually take A-Level exams near the end of secondary school*. Some will take an International Baccalaureate instead. The entry criteria are primarily based on these. If you are applying from outside the UK then you would need to convince the university that you have achieved an equivalent level which might require a more detailed explanation of your high school results and other interests.You might expect to be asked about grades in subjects relevant to your field of study but I wouldn't worry about a low grade in an irrelevant subject. e.g. If you want to study a science or maths then a poor grade in an arts subject probably won’t matter.For scientific subjects, Cambridge currently asks applicants to take a STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper) exam in mathematics, although I understand that this may change to a more comprehensive entrance exam. I believe that Oxford also requires entrance exams, but I have no experience of these.PostgraduateCambridge University invited me to apply to the Computer Laboratory to study for my PhD. I wasn’t asked my secondary school grades and assume that they already knew the grade of my first degree. I was interviewed by the head of the department.After completing my PhD I have interviewed subsequent candidates. Similarly, I didn’t see their secondary/high school grades but was told the grades from a first degree. I made a point of checking their mathematical ability during the interview since that is particularly relevant to computer science.College ApplicationsBoth Oxford and Cambridge are divided into colleges. One consequence of this is that applicants in effect apply twice - to a faculty and to a college. The faculty is likely to be most interested in the subject you are proposing to study but a college may have a wider interest. You need to be accepted by both a faculty and a college so prepare to convince both.* British equivalent to high school
Does every domestic applicant who applies to Harvard automatically get an interview? If not, what percentage of these applicants secure an interview?
Here is what Harvard says on their admission webpage about domestic interviews:“More than 15,000 alumni/ae help us recruit students from all 50 states and from around the world. In the United States, typically you will have the opportunity to have an in-person interview with a regional Harvard representative in or near your local community.” I know a number of Harvard alums that conduct interviews and some live in relatively small cities (there are plenty of alums in all major cities) . These people are very smart and kind and would be wonderful people to talk to under virtually any circumstances. Given this, I think it is worthwhile for you to try to set up an interview if it is not a long journey and will not cost much money. If nothing else, getting the chance to practice your interview skills might be worth the investment of time. And it may be you might get some advice or make a contact that could help you in a way that while not directly tied to admission, could still prove useful.