So I applied to Harvard REA last october and was deffered on the 12th of december. On 16th, I was contacted by the dean of international admissions and the director of the international admissions at Harvard for a skype call. During the call they told me that I’m an excellent applicant and they deferred me because of my age (16) and were also worried how I’d transition from Afghanistan to the US. They told me that if I agree they’ll send my Harvard application to Philips Andover Academy for a PG year and that I don’t have to apply directly to which I agreed of course. I wanted to know how common this is ( the only other person I could find was @sungirl who’s been inactive for quite a while) and what my chances of getting into PA are ?
Also I wanted to have @skieurope since he went PA too.
I have heard of a case where Yale had a girl from Uganda do a PG year at Hotchkiss for the same reason (that is, concern that she wasn’t quite ready for Yale, but was an amazing candidate).
If Harvard asks Andover to take you a) the chances that you’ll be admitted to Andover are extremely high and b) the chances that you’ll be admitted to Harvard the next year are also extremely high.
@cinnamon1212 thank you so much for the kind words and advice. Also wanted to know if the girl ended up at yale next year or not and wanted to mention that a similar case happened to another afghan too
My dad’s best friend had this happen to him. The guy graduated from a public high school in the backwaters of Maine and had high potential but limited preparation for Harvard. Did a PG year at Andover and then went to Harvard, where he was my dad’s roommate. Back in the '60’s neither Andover nor Harvard were remotely as competitive as they are today but I would imagine that Harvard has a fair amount of pull with the Andover AdComm in cases like this.
A close family member was admitted outright from a public high school to Harvard in the 80s at the age of 16. It was promptly “arranged” — Harvard was not involved — for a full scholarship PG year at PEA to be offered, with the idea that the family member would defer Harvard admission for a year. Family member said no, i.e., “why go to high school another year when I can go right to Harvard?”
These days, even apart from the international adjustment issues, I have to assume that the average entry age has increased for domestic students considerably — not only from “repeaters” and PGs, but from upper middle class parents “redshirting” their kids and thereby delaying kindergarten or 1st grade for a year. On top of that, a Dec. 31st cutoff to begin school was much more common a generation or two ago in the United States; August 1st/September 1st is now the norm, so nearly 1/3 of kids are starting school one year later anyhow.
So from what you guys have kindly shared it seems like harvard sends applications to andover academy of those students who they think have a lot of potential and are a good fit for Harvard but are either too young or not fully prepared.
@Muko1212 an ivy league college sending an application to a prep school, saying “We really want to admit this candidate, but are concerned they are not quite ready” is very rare, but it does happen. I suspect you, too, have an amazing story. If you go to Andover, continue to work hard! (I know you will).
I am American, but my father emigrated from Iran. If there is anything I can do to help please PM me.
Happens to athletes also, we have one Harvard-bound football player at our BS this year, instead of redshirting him while there they sent him to BS for a year (presumably to beef up his academics also?). Several other PGs are in similar situation for different schools, already accepted but parked at a BS for a year.
Are you sure that in the athletes’ cases the college sent the application to the prep school? I believe in those cases the college tells the athlete “we will make you an offer, but we want you to do a PG year first” and then the athlete/student makes the PG year happen, not the college. Of course these high level athletic recruits are very attractive candidates, so don’t have much trouble finding a PG slot. But, those situations are different to the OP’s.
@cinnamon1212 It is probably a little bit of both: the application deadlines will have passed, so regardless of whether they simply forward the athlete’s application or, more likely, the student applies (late), I doubt that the student will be left to contact the PG schools cold. Far more likely, college contacts will at the very least be made with school(s) contacts, and it will go from there. This is a more iterative process than the op’s, but more alike than different in terms of the outcome: admission to boarding school under non-traditional circumstances.
@pincite, do you have experience with athletic recruiting? Because that’s not generally how I understand PG years happen. However, this is straying off topic.
