<p>
[quote]
The Harvard College Office of Admissions
in conjunction with
The Harvard Club of New York City
Cordially invites you and your parents to an
Open House
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is an email I got from <a href="mailto:college@fas.harvard.edu">college@fas.harvard.edu</a>. I am, of course, leaving the details out of my post. </p>
<p>Is this something I should be taking seriously? Should I attend?</p>
<p>As long as you remember this is a marketing technique, not a suggestion that you are qualified to be admitted to Harvard, sure, go ahead and attend.</p>
<p>Be sure to first review your stats to see if you are in the ballpark for Harvard. (750 range on five tests -SAT CR, M, W, and 2 SAT IIS, with a top 1-10% rank). </p>
<p>If you are an URM, those stats can be a bit more flexible.</p>
<p>Similar to what fauve stated, these emails are commonly distributed and designed to spark interest in the institution, not that one necessarily has a very high likelihood of admittance. If you find Harvard attractive as a college option, then I would certainly recommend that you attend the information session.</p>
<p>URM + 34 ACT + 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Should I consider myself in the “ballpark”?</p>
<p>I think I might go. We’ll see.</p>
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<p>Yes, definitely.</p>
<p>That is an email that is mass sent out. Everyone receives tons of those emails. It indicates nothing special if you receive one. Harvard is just looking to keep its admit rate low and its applicant pool rising.</p>
<p>mifune - you are wrong. He is not definitely in the ballpark. We don’t know if his GPA is weighted or unweighted.</p>
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<p>An underrepresented minority with a 34 ACT and a 4.0 GPA (almost certainly unweighted but s/he can confirm in a follow-up post in order to clarify) is an academically competitive candidate.</p>
<p>OP, it’s nothing but an advertising gimmick that mostly means nothing - I, for one, did not attend any of those silly meetings. Cool your beans.</p>
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<p>Not this nonsense again. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>If you’re genuinely interested in learning more about Harvard as a prospective applicant, then by all means go. Don’t assume that it would give you any advantage in the admissions process and don’t assume that failing to go would be a black mark against your application. Frankly, there’s likely a better rationale for going to the Harvard open house than most college info sessions - you may get quite a different impression about Harvard than you might have developed through stereotypes. I’ve had a significant number of opportunities to attend Harvard events over the past four years - they have never felt stuffy, elitist, or exclusive. In fact, they have just about always been welcoming, encouraging, and fun, and the other people there are without exception interesting and engaging.</p>
<p>Personally, I would recommend learning about all of your institutions in an abstract fashion, lest you grow too attached to any one; it is not a good idea to fall in love with a school before the admissions decisions come out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, everyone. I think I’ll be passing on this one.</p>
<p>P.S. My 4.0 is not weighted.</p>
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<p>The latter portion of post #6 is thereby debunked.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some folks are giving out very bad advice. If you are invited to an open house at Harvard, or any highly competitive college, it’s a no-brainer that you should attend. Of course Harvard invites many students who will not end up getting admitted. But to argue that therefore the invitation is meaningless is faulty logic. </p>
<p>I know five or six kids who were invited to Harvard’s open house last year. Of those, four attended the open house and three applied to Harvard. One of those three, one was accepted. If you are lucky enough to get invited, this is your opportunity to learn more about the school and meet people who work there. The idea that you should avoid contact with the schools you apply to, so that you won’t get your hopes raised unnecessarily, is self-defeating and just wrong. It’s well known that the more contact you have with a school the more chance of getting admitted you have.</p>
<p>Abicas, this discussion had been dormant for two years before today. I don’t think any of the original participants will benefit from your advice.</p>
<p>Also, I hope that back in 2010, HelpWithSchools took gadad’s advice, because he was completely correct.</p>
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<p>This is true only at universities and colleges that consider applicants’ demonstrated interest. Many do. Harvard doesn’t. Harvard can pretty safely assume that most of its 35,000 applicants are pretty darn interested in Harvard, so it does not track, or care about, applicants’ demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>abicas: I’m the sole recruiter for one of the wealthiest counties (and many wealthy school districts) in the USA for one of Harvard’s peer schools. I can tell you that I don’t give one lick who attends, invited or not. I’m out there to disseminate info and answer questions. </p>
<p>It’ll be self selection who eventually applies. Your scenario of accepted kids in your anecdote and is your circumstance but not usual for H or other top schools.</p>
<p>They are set up to introduce the college to families and potential applicants – yes – but we aren’t gathering emails or contact info or cross referencing some sign up sheet. Doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>i got one of these also, not legit?</p>
<p>what is their acceptnace rate?</p>
<p>It’s completely legit: you’re legitimately invited to an event where you can find out more about Harvard. But it implies nothing about your chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>Last year, Harvard admitted under 7% of the people who applied.</p>
<p>^^ Actually, last year Harvard’s acceptance rate was 5.82% — 94 out of every 100 students who applied (and probably received some sort of correspondence from Harvard) were rejected. </p>
<p>As T26E4 said: THIS THREAD IS TWO YEARS OLD. </p>
<p>@abicas and @jrd3542: You should NOT revive old CC threads. If you have a question that is related to you – and not to a student from 2 years ago – you then should post a NEW THREAD. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to comment when the original posters are long gone.</p>