<p>Remember, though, Harvard rarely rarely sends out likely letters to non-athletic applicants. The ones that do receive likely letters and are non-athletes are students that have clearly stood out in the applicant pool and have the assurance that when all is said and done, members of the admissions committee would still vote to admit. It is very rare that this happens, since as Dean Fitzsimmons says, "everyone is in play" until the decision letters go out -- who knows what might happen?</p>
<p>Therefore, red remote, though I do understand your reasoning, Harvard is just very stingy with non-athletic likely letters.</p>
<p>My reasoning is simply that there are so many amazing kids on CC and only one likely. I didn't realize how rare these were. alchemy's daughter must be fantastic. It makes sense though, because Harvard doesn't need any help from "gimmicks" considering their matriculation rate of about 80%.</p>
<p>the girl was an amazing musician according to an article on the crimson about Harvard sending out 10 non-athletic likely letters and posed to possibly send out more before the March 31st Deadline with competition much more fierce this year. Just out of curiosity, does sending a likely letter on March 25th really relieve a student's anxiety? :p</p>
<p>I don't think it is to relieve the student's anxiety.....the purpose of the likely letter is to make the school stand out in the kid's mind..... to hear even 1 day before everyone else makes the applicant know they are wanted... that they are "special" and that is why they do it.....it is their only way, short of the original early decision, to differentiate themselves vs a kid getting 3 letters of acceptance on the same day.</p>
<p>Well... my bro got one from Harvard another from Princeton last year when he applied, and he wasn't an athlete. According to a recent article in The Crimson, Harvard only send out non-athletic likely letters to applicants who might otherwise not even consider matriculating (i.e. applicants below poverty line, home-schooled).</p>
<p>lol srsly?... then either 1) my bro is secretly a recruited athlete (so secret that even his sister doesn't know about it) or 2) Princeton made a mistake in the mailing process. Either way, he was eventually accepted.</p>
<p>"Only one non-athletic likely on CC?
I think this needs to be looked at with necessary skepticism when you consider the amount of talent on this site with only 1 non-athletic likely. Considering that there have been about 20 of the 100 Yale likely's on CC alone."</p>
<p>there is one other who received a non-athletic likely (topic in the Harvard 2012 forum), which makes it 2/10 on CC. this is the same ratio as yale that you cited.</p>
<p>Yale only sent 20 non-athletic likely letters (a student from the URC told me after i got mine) so that means that all have been accounted for in the Yale thread.</p>