300 ‘Likely Letters’ Sent to Class of 2015

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>
[quote]
Harvard College will send out approximately 300 “likely letters”—the same number that it offered last year—to applicants by the end of this year’s admissions cycle, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson in an interview last week...
...In past application cycles, the College has mailed about 200 letters to athletes and about 100 letters to other students with outstanding non-athletic attributes. Fitzsimmons said he expects these numbers to remain the same this cycle.

[/quote]

300</a> ?Likely Letters? Sent to Class of 2015 | News | The Harvard Crimson
Build the tension up!</p>

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<p>Hmmmmm…I wonder what they consider “outstanding non-athletic attributes”- quite vague.</p>

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<p>^I suppose a couple each of people with excellent academic abilities (top in the country/world at something they really want) or personal qualities/life stories who they think will be vital to the community.</p>

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<p>IMO kids, MOPers multiple times?, Iphos kids, etc Siemens/Intel winners etc. Especially for math, many IMO kids are directly recruited by top schools to fill their Putnam team</p>

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<p>The super high achieving musicians are probably included in the outstanding non-athletic attributes group.</p>

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<p>Only 1300 spots left!!!</p>

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<p>Do international students get likely letters or just domestic ones?</p>

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<p>They do send out a few likelies to internationals.</p>

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<p>Harvard uses the likely letters as a recruiting tool. The athletes are obvious. For the most part, the likely letters I’m aware of to non-athletes are directed at very high-achieving students who are in demographic groups that Harvard historically has a harder time recruiting, including low SES, URM and under-represented states. The student mentioned at the end of the Crimson story linked above who received a likely letter this year is an African-American student who is valedictorian of his high school class in Atlanta.</p>

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<p>@Polyglot: Are you talking from personal experience? Also do they only send them by snail mail or do they send an e-mail notification also?</p>

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<p>Yes, I personally know two international students who received non-athletic likely letters. The letters were sent by mail last year; no electronic notification was given.</p>

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<p>Likelies get sent through March 15? Pretty close to decision day.</p>

<p>@CoolRunning Actually about 1900, because H accepted 2205 last year.</p>

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<p>Well really more like 1700 because you’ve got about 150-200 from last years application cycle (those who decided to take gap years and then z-listers).</p>

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<p>z-listers? As in irrelevant celebrities?</p>

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<p>z-list = People offered admission, but not for the next September’s entering class, i.e., a mandatory gap year. Harvard is the only college that does this, to my knowledge. Not certain how many people – 50-100/year? Reputed to be for the well-connected who are deemed not ready for prime time yet.</p>

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<p>Has anyone received one yet?</p>

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<p>I know of 1 and he was a very poor URM. I think Harvard only sends likely letters to URM’s to convince them that Harvard is very affordable and to draw them away from other options early on.</p>

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<p>^^^ oh I never knew that Harvard does that.</p>

<p>^ URMs definitely aren’t the only ones to get them.</p>

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<p>^Yeah, a wide range of people receive them.</p>

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<p>One guy here claims to of received a likely letter from yale and harvard </p>

<p>I feel so rejected already that I haven’t received one, despite they only makeup about 15%!</p>