http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/us/students-gain-access-to-files-on-admission-to-stanford.html
But why? Why would you want to see that once you’ve enrolled? If you’ve been accepted and are attending, go light a candle and thank God! 
Why take the chance that someone wrote something other than a glowing, positive comment? Your validation is your acceptance - why push it? Don’t ask a question you might not like the answer to…
Why do you want to see it at this point? You have so much more to concentrate on like enjoying the rest of senior year and getting prepared for the major life transition you are about to embark upon. Now is your time to breathe. What is on those documents is totally irrelevant at this time.
I don’t know what Harvard is doing about these FERPA requests, but at both Yale and Stanford, the schools deleted past admissions records, after fulfilling their obligations to share records for any outstanding requests . . . so going forward students will not be able to see their records at these schools, as the schools aren’t retaining them after they’ve made admissions decisions.
^^ I’m not sure that’s accurate for Harvard. As of five years ago, Harvard Admissions still sent all matriculated student files to the Freshman Dean’s Office, which then holds them for the year, until the files are individually forwarded to the Master of each residual house. Upon graduation, every student file is archived. Maybe everything has gone electronic these days and paper files are no longer being kept.
@gibby, you’re correct. Here’s a recent Crimson article on the topic:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/1/27/admissions-records-ferpa-stanford/
From the article:
“Burke said that Harvard now maintains its applicant files for four years after they are processed.”
@gibby So if I enroll at Harvard and attend in the fall, my residential house master will know about what I did in high school, what I wrote in my supplemental and Common Application essays, etc? That sounds both very cool and a bit overwhelming!
@alliekinz: Yes. I doubt house masters’s stay up all night reading student files, but I imagine house master’s add Harvard transcript grades to student files and are required to write up infractions given to students and add those items to a file. In extreme cases, when a student must go before the Ad Board for disciplinary measures, I’m sure the house master is required to present a student’s file.
As Harvard has the below notation on their website for Admissions, student files are archived for posterity and just in case another “Adam Wheeler” comes along