<p>On another college forum, several people have said they've been accepted to Harvard and other top schools. Are they full of baloney, or have some students really been admitted this early? And if so, how/why?</p>
<p>I have a friend that’s already been accepted to Stanford for volleyball, so yes some kids are getting acceptance letters but only athletes (to my knowledge).</p>
<p>Athletic recruits and applicants with stunning credentials receive “likely letters” from admissions basically guaranteeing acceptance either at the SCEA or RD notice date. For the class of 2015, for example, Harvard sent out 300 likely letters to students between October 1st and March 15th. See:
[300</a> ?Likely Letters? Sent to Class of 2015 | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/15/admissions-letters-letter-fitzsimmons/]300”>300 ‘Likely Letters’ Sent to Class of 2015 | News | The Harvard Crimson).<br>
There is a great deal of controversy surrounding likely letters:<a href=“http://www.harvardindependent.com/2011/04/two-hundred-too-many/[/url]”>http://www.harvardindependent.com/2011/04/two-hundred-too-many/</a></p>
<p>I’d assume most of them are full of it, but a small number may in fact have received likely letters. Most recipients of likely letters are athletes, but there are exceptions. Considering the early action deadline is still a week or two away, I’m assuming that any one who claims to have been accepted is at best an athlete with a likely.</p>
<p>International students–such as British students who are weighing Oxbridge acceptances do get LLs–the boys in my son’s school who were accepted to Harvard --all but one got a LL before April 1.</p>
<p>These posers appear each and every season. “Harvard and Yale accepted me. Gave me a full scholarship too. But I’m going to turn them down for xxx” These things happen beyond relatively innocent internet forums, too. They get tossed around in real life.</p>
<p>Very very very sad.</p>
<p>I don’t think any academic likely letters are issued this early, but athletic likely letters, sure. This is pretty much the end of the recruiting season, or well past it, for a lot of Division I sports. Any top-quality athlete would probably have had several offers to enter into a National Letter of Intent by now, and would be crazy not to do that unless Harvard assured him or her that acceptance was in the bag.</p>
<p>The other people who have already been accepted at Harvard are people who were “z-listed” last year. They applied for admission this fall, and were admitted but told they had to wait until Fall 2013 to start. And of course people who were admitted for Fall 2012 but chose to defer enrollment.</p>
<p>All in all, there are probably a couple hundred people out there who know they have been accepted to Harvard for next fall.</p>