It’s an utter waste of time because Harvard doesn’t give merit scholarships.
But, doesn’t every admitted student get their need met?
A major incentive is financial aid (yes, no merit aid). Again, families making $150K pay $15k. Families under $65k pay zero. Powerful reason to apply. There are some surprising admits that make sense if you look past stats. I think it is good for people to know it is more complicated than stats, but you do have to be “good enough” with some other compelling reason. Also, be smart about the application: I know a wonderful kid who should have gotten in. I don’t know him well. But he ran a children’s theater program and was remarkable,and then had the grades and scores. But he didn’t say much about the theater thing on his application. If he had done a video and had recommendation letters and put them in an arts supplement, he might have had a better chance. But he didn’t know how to play the game.