Does Harvard (or any other selective schools for that matter) send any communication between now and decision date or is it just absolute silence?
Ninety-nine percent of applicants will hear radio-silence until the decision date. That’s true for Harvard and other selective colleges. However, a few students might get an email from their Regional Admissions Director asking for more documentation about a math project, research paper, etc. FWIW: Several years back, I knew two students who received such emails – one was accepted and one was ultimately rejected. So if you hear from an AD, you should not assume that your chances have increased. Yes, it would be a positive sign of interest, but not necessarily a sign you will receive a fat envelope on decision day.
A very, very few applicants may receive a “likely letter” – maybe 100 or so non-athletes – but it’s not worth haunting your mail box or worrying about it, since they will be sent out in waves from about now until shortly before the date when everyone hears.
@AboutTheSame – Did not realize a few of those were sent to non-athletes. Are they usually to legacy (or otherwise hooked) applicants?
I don’t think non-athlete “likely letters” go out before the EA decisions. They tend to get mailed in February. And the likely letters for athletes have pretty much been issued already. The point of them is to assure recruits that they don’t have to sign a National Letter of Intent with another university, or apply Early Decision elsewhere (colleges with ED often pressure athletic recruits to apply ED.
There’s really no need to send likely letters to SCEA applicants. They have all more or less indicated that Harvard is their first choice, and they haven’t applied to any serious competitor’s early admissions program. Harvard’s yield on SCEA admittees has to be well north of 90%, and it has ample opportunities to court any candidate it worries might go elsewhere without starting now.
@DMV301 : I’m not sure legacies need the likely letter. D certainly had no hooks at all, but the likely letter from Dartmouth put that school ahead in her thinking about where to go. Being affirmatively wanted versus just accepted made a big difference – and it showed in the different treatment she received during post-admission visits.
@JHS : February sounds about right for the date. And, yes, likely letters are probably relevant mainly/only to RD applicants. So?
So . . . @MedSciBud applied to Harvard in the SCEA round. (Yes I know s/he didn’t post that fact in this thread, but the timing of this thread so close to the SCEA deadline was a clue, as was their past posting history: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1933294-waiting-on-scea-what-other-colleges-are-you-all-applying-to.html#latest).
Yes - I applied SCEA. So I guess I am in the absolute silence time for the next 4 to 5 weeks.
Silly me. I thought kids who were not applying specifically to Harvard and who had not followed or discovered the many earlier threads on this subject might be interested.
Last year, my DD (ORM, no hooks, non-athlete) submitted every application at the last day. She received a request from AO for a full research report before the end of second week and was eventually accepted. For RD, she received a likely letter at another ivy by the end of third week. Our feeling is that they finish the first read at the second and third weeks, but we could be wrong.
@WarriorJ - interesting info. Two questions. 1. Was the first request for SCEA? 2. Was the research a published / nationally acclaimed research?
Apart from notifications for interviews - it’s mostly silence for the vast majority of people, so if you don’t hear anything don’t be worried. Ivies do send out likely letters, but primarily for athletes and a small fraction of other people in the RD round.
From anecdotal experience, Yale invites about 100 top RD applicants with interest in science for their Science & Engineering Weekend, while Columbia also sends out likely letters to a few top admits.The vast majority of admits however, receive no communication
@MedSciBud Yes and No.
She did meet the AO at Visitas and learned that her research was not what got her in.