Chance a URM for Harvard please!

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Gender: Female
Location: NV
Ethnicity: Hispanic (Argentina)
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Private
High School Type: Very competitive college prep, usually sends at least one kid to all the major top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes
Legacy: Sort of - my mom went to Harvard Law School</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.86 (but should go up)
GPA - Weighted: 4.36 (but will go up after I get my semester grades b/c I got A's in all 5 of my APs)
Class Rank: school doesn't rank at all, but if I had to guess I'd say top 10%?
Class Size: 65
Senior Year Courses: 5 APs (French IV, English Language, Stats, US Gov, Bio II)</p>

<p>Scores:
SAT I - 800 CR, 800 W, 680 M (2270 total)
SAT IIs - 790 Lit, 750 US History, 720 French w/ Listening
APs - US History (5), European History (4), English Literature (4), will take 5 tests this May</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Leadership:
- Very strong actor (3+ lead roles in 3 years of doing theatre)
- Senior Editor of school's literary magazine, staff member last year (mag's first year)
- Co-founder of microbank that has raised over 25k to give loans to women in South America
- Founder of diversity-related club that organizes the Day of Silence every year, participation among students doubled from the first year to the next, now almost 50% of our school gets involved
- Have been studying Japanese since I was 11, took 4 yrs of HS Japanese in 2 yrs, lived in Japan for the past two summers, one with a host family and the other by myself
- Computer graphics (took classes at UNLV from age 10, some of my work has been on local billboards)</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
- NMSF
- National Hispanic Scholar
- Highest honors at Nevada Thespian Competition
- Academic awards in 5 different subjects (a big deal at my school), including in 3 APs</p>

<p>App:
Essays: I think they're pretty good, one is about overcoming my father's drug addiction, the other about how much I like fountain pens
Teacher Recs: it's not kosher at my school for teachers to show students their recs, so I have no idea, but I'd imagine they're very good
Counselor Rec: ditto, but I think our counselor likes me and gave a good rec</p>

<p>Income: <60k (if I got in it'd be free for my family)
Importance of cost: Extremely important</p>

2

<p>nice! apply :)</p>

3

<p>How the heck do you manage to go to Japan for two summers, take all these university classes, attend a private school, and having a HLS graduate mother and only have a family income of under $60k?? Lol, sorry, things like this just bug me until I know the answer.</p>

4

<p>the ground is yellow.</p>

5

<p>Well, a combination of my mom being a single mom (see essay topic, above), the economy being bad (hence her having been laid off), and finding money through scholarships to attend the school I go to as well as those two trips to Japan. Also, I took the university classes between the ages of 10 and 13, so my mom’s income was higher then.</p>

6

<p>I hate to bump this, but I’m really curious to see if, aside from having the stats that an average Harvard applicant probably has, the URM thing could be the boost toward acceptance. Any feedback?</p>

7

<p>Yes, the URM could be a boost, as would, I imagine, being from NV.</p>

8

<p>u are extremely competitive…u are competing against me, fellow hispanic!</p>

9

<p>haha well I hope both of us get in, then!</p>

10

<p>Go Argentinians wanting to go to Harvard! Hahaha. I am argentine too. :slight_smile: Except, I’ll apply next year.</p>

11

<p>If you want to know my personal opinion, you really don’t need your URM status to give you a great shot at Harvard! You can pull the race card just for a bonus…</p>

<p>Your test scores/E.C.'s are in par or surpass my own, and I’m an Asian, so there’s no reason not to apply. The biggest flaw I see is your GPA, but it shouldn’t be too big a deal. All in all, I’d judge you as a very competitive applicant.</p>

12

<p>you will def get in…jealous as hell</p>

13

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<p>No wonder you got a 680 in math.</p>

<p>Just kidding. :p</p>

<p>You have a pretty good shot, I’d say.</p>

14

<p>^^^^ha that’s pretty funny of you</p>

15

<p>Yes, you should apply to Harvard. I am not sure, however, that being of hispanic origin will be a significant help in your case since your URM status has not presented unusual difficulties for you as most underprivileged URMs do not have a Harvard Law School graduate as a parent. Some colleges & universities will give you a substantial boost in admissions just for being hispanic, while other schools offer considerable admissions consideration only to those URMs that have suffered hardships attributable, in part at least, to their ethnicity or race. I do not know Harvard’s policy on URM admissions.
Regardless of whether Harvard admissions gives you an advantage for being hispanic, you need to apply to other schools since noone has a “great” chance for gaining admission to a university that only admits about 10% of applicants each year. With a demonstrated interest & talent in theatre & acting, consider Northwestern University & Columbia University.</p>

16

<p>I think you will get in. </p>

<p>Please don’t take this the wrong way, I am not trying to be insulting at all (in fact, my parent was laid off and I’m experiencing very similarly difficult circumstances). But since your mom graduated from Harvard Law, it kind of surprises me that you are in a low-income bracket and had difficult experiences with your father.</p>