<p>This is my first post. My son applied for regular admission.</p>
<p>SAT ~ 2350
ACT ~ 35
SAT 2 ~ 800 physics, 800 math 2, 750 American History</p>
<p>Class Rank 1/505
GPA unweighted 4.0</p>
<p>Varsity Tennis ~ 3 years
JV Tennis ~ 1 year</p>
<p>100+ hours of community service, but nothing spectactular</p>
<p>No work experience</p>
<p>Coordinates tutoring for NHS at his high school</p>
<p>He has also applied to Cornell, NYU and several other schools. His preference is Cornell or NYU, but if he gets into Harvard it will be a tough decision. </p>
<p>We live in Colorado.</p>
<p>He is a young senior, just turned 17 last November ~ don't know if that matters or not</p>
<p>After looking around this site a little, never mind! I just read Northstarmom’s post on how to figure out your chances. My son would never have asked this stupid question. I would say that his chances are a little more than 7%! </p>
<p>Thanks Northstarmom for putting some reality into the situation.</p>
<p>Of course, I would love him to get in, but it isn’t something important to my son. Not at all. </p>
<p>It is all interesting though. I am University of Florida grad with a Law degree, my husband is from Purdue. We are completely loyal to our schools and wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else. Then we get this kid, who could care less about football.</p>
<p>The chances of him getting in here are slim to none. That is okay.</p>
<p>We know he will do well wherever he ends up.</p>
<p>My dad is an alumni interviewer for Harvard. Your son would probably get a 1 for academics, but probably only a 3 for activities (1 is for nationally ranked activities). </p>
<p>I think you need to have the “whole package” at Harvard…</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ll get in either even though I have the “hook” of being a legacy.</p>
<p>I feel like your son’s lack of extracurriculars will keep him out of harvard. But I would say he has a very good shot at Cornell and NYU based on his impressive test scores and GPA alone. And I would take Nothstarmom’s thread with a grain of salt. it seems like she was just irritated more at the constant “chance me” people, so decided to generalize about those types of people. and @hohoman I think his son would be more like a 4 or 5 in the extracurricular category, though I agree with the 1 in academics. @susanpalmerlake, did your son apply to MIT? I think your son is the type of applicant MIT wants. good luck to him!</p>
<p>I had MUCH lower test scores than your son…but I ended up receiving a likely letter from Harvard (this year). In the end, it’d say it’s pretty much based on that special hook, or something that makes your son totally different from everyone else.</p>
<p>^ It’s a shame you didn’t actually receive one though. And OP, your son’s scores are outstanding, but in compliance with many previous posters, his EC’s are probably going to hurt his chances in such a competitive applicant pool.</p>
<p>Cardsecret: can you enligthen us on the “likely” letter this year? D has applied but no news. </p>
<p>SusanPLake: Legacy, East Coast Century-old private schools and uniqueness counts more than perfect scores for Harvard.Period. Loads of West Coast public school kids had superior academics but end up only knocking. However, if your kid is science-strong, MIT and CalTech look at scores and science awards mainly. Cornell is a reach school ( 24% admit) and has a safe campus. Good luck :)</p>
<p>I believe that there are three distinct categories (in addition to a write-up) on which you are graded during the Harvard interview (1-6 markings).</p>