Chance me for Harvard RD please?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hey guys. I am applying RD to Harvard this year and it seemed like a nice time to do a chance me thread!
Just got deferred from Princeton, feeling low :confused:

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): Not reporting
ACT (breakdown): 35C (36E 35M 34R 36S) [one sitting]
SAT II: 800 Chemistry; 800 Physics; 800 Mathematics Level II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): N/A [Indian educational system - CBSE - hence percentage: 96.8%: ultra-high for CBSE student]
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/200
AP (place score in parenthesis): None taken. AP courses not offered. Plan to take 4 AP exams next year.
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science (CBSE system - Indian educational system)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Winner of national science competition (30 students out of 50,000); Environmental Agency Energy Challenge (national environmental competition - wastage tracking and analysis using Geographic Information System) winner; Silver Lead School Award by Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi (with cash prize of approx. $8000)-won this prize for my school; community/govt. awards/certificates for academics

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  1. Events Coordinator for Prakriti Environmental Club
    Mentioned in Additional Information section of Common App: I head components of Green Audit – my job involves allocation of resources for the audit, optimization of audit procedures and most importantly, keeping track of trends in resource consumption and designing a plan of action based on the issues discovered through audit data analysis. During the years I have been involved, there has been a significant drop of 5 grams of waste items per capita.I was a designer and analyst for the team that developed the solar films project. Using monetary incentive received by Environmental Agency for pioneering environmental work, the solar films project was implemented indigenously and has reduced electricity consumption by 15% in the school. I have attended one international and many environmental summits. I worked on a project as Lead Student Project Coordinator for the Zayed Future Energy Prize international environmental contest as well.
  2. Robotics: Club member, finalist at World Robot Olympiad UAE
  3. Debate/Speech: President, Moderator for Verbatim Debating Club; In-charge of meetings; recruiting, mentoring members; conducting club competitions; taking care of administrative matters; served as vice president
  4. Karate: Black Belt (Shodan) holder, Oriental Karate Club; Learning Shorin-ryu Seibukan karate for eight years, assisting sensei in teaching children; won medals in inter-club kata contest
  5. Prefect (2016), Spring House Vice Captain (2015): Responsible for maintaining discipline, developing house spirit, selecting students for competitions
  6. Distinguished Speaker, Inner Universe TM Club: Participation in Toastmasters meetings taking up roles of Speaker, Evaluator, Chairperson. 15+ trophies in UAE Division H Conference (DTAC)
  7. Batsman & Wicketkeeper, Zayed Cricket Academy

Job/Work Experience: Internships/jobs not legally allowed for under 18 persons.

Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer for an NGO and in an anti-smoking campaign.

Summer Activities: Visited a nuclear reactor in India and some labs, was a speaker for a youth leadership program for juniors

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App essay: 8/10 - talked about how taking a different perspective in a trivial situation changed me and talked about my intellectual development in high school; it was somewhat unique
Havard Supplement: 9/10 - Love for engineering+what I hope to achieve at Harvard

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 10/10 By CS teacher for 2 years - I’m sure it’s very good.
Teacher Rec #2: 10/10 By English teacher who has known me for 4 years and taught me for 2 years - she considers me her best student so I am sure the rec is excellent.
Counselor Rec: 9/10 Knows me kinda well and feels I am a competitive applicant, so I think she wrote a good recommendation.
Additional Rec: 10/10 By environmental club coordinator - she said she wrote a really good one for me.
Interview: Didn’t have it yet.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Computer Science
State (if domestic applicant): N/A
Country (if international applicant): United Arab Emirates (I am an Indian though)
School Type: Private community high school
Ethnicity: N/A
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $150,000-$160,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): No hook as such… interesting environmental work?

2

I don’t know about your essays but seems like you are a studying machine.
Not Harvard material imo.

3

Hi, apparently, and I’m not sute how true thid is, but if you don’t get an interview, you’re automatically rejected. This is only for India becuase unlike alumnis who conduct interviews in other places, adcoms conduct interviews here. So if you don’t get one, you’re out. I’m Indian as well and I’ve only heard this from people so I don’t know how accurate the information is tbh.

4

Regardless of your ethnicity, for the purposes of Admissions, you are considered a student from the United Arab Emirates.

If you go to the Harvard International Statistics Office (http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics), and select STUDENTS, HARVARD COLLEGE (the undergraduate school) and UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, you’ll see that currently** there are no students from your country attending Harvard. **That means Harvard has not accepted one student from the United Arab Emirates in the past four years. If admitted, you’d be the first student in five years admitted from the United Arab Emirates. None of that bodes well for your chances. My suggestion: By all means apply to Harvard, but you should not expect to be accepted. As such, you should be focusing on other US colleges.