<p>Please give your honest opinion on this applicants chance of not being accepted by Harvard SCEA, or chance to be differed. </p>
<p>Asian female
Large public school in the South
GPA: 4/4.5
Valedictorian (1 of 430)
SAT I: 2400 (took only once)
SAT II: 800 on US History; 800 on Math II; 800 on literature;
AP Scores: 5 on US History; 5 on Economics; 5 on French; 5 on World History;
5 on European History
IB scores: only one test took with 7, rest will be on spring semester</p>
<p>College major interested: history/Literature</p>
<p>Major Extracurricular:</p>
<p>Piano: 12 years. Won numerous awards in local, state and national level competitions and played live on TV with a major State channel. Went to several summer music camps
Orchestra: 6 years. Played first chair in the school orchestra and work as
the treasurer
French club: 3 years, President
Academic Bowl: 3 years, Captain
Math Team: 3 years, Captain
Leading members of a bunch of other clubs and interest groups</p>
<p>Community Service: over 300 hours, including volunteer work for 3 years in a
local church.</p>
<p>Recommendation: should be very good.
School support: very strong
Essay: most readers like them very much</p>
<p>Well, considering you're a valedictorian with just about perfect stats, it's obviously a very good chance. The only thing that would seem to matter is the schools history- how many students got into Harvard in past years, on average?</p>
<p>wow, it still amazes me to this day that people can have such flawless stats. You are an amazing candidate for Harvard. You just need to make sure that your personality and your goals for Harvard shine through in your application and you should be more than fine.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for all your nice comments. However, I guess nobody noticed I was asking "chance of not being accepted. I certainly realized she is a strong candidate for Harvard. But being an Asian and happens to fall into the typical description of nice stats + music instruments, she is little concerned about such the stereotype and prejudice that may work against again her. </p>
<p>Admiral is right; I am a he. But the applicant is related to me.</p>
<p>Backfire- it's definitely higher than that. People get a warped and unrealistic view of admissions chances to Harvard, but the truth is that for an applicant with such strong scores and grades, chances certainly fall around 80%, if not higher.</p>
<p>I know a number of people at Harvard that are similar to the applicant (and of course many who aren't nearly as impressive statistically)- it's not a school full of superheroes with impossible stats who are president of everything.</p>
<p>I think she's in. Very well rounded...I don't see any flaws. Stats, EC, leadership, service, essays, recs...I don't think there are more than a handful of people like her in the nation.</p>
<p>Barely 50% chances? Sounds very discouraging for someone like her. It's like tossing a coin in the air. But I believe you have reasons to make that estimate. So I honestly want to hear your reasoning behind it. Can you please explain why? Or if you dont like to explain, lets just say everything is changeable. What could she have done to improve her chance to around 80%-90%? I know one thing for sure: she got adopted by a URM parent so she could claim an URM family background. Anything else?</p>
<p>i think the 50% estimate can be considered because of the fact that 50% of all applicants with perfect SAT scores get rejected at harvard. what she has to do now is show who she really is in her essay etc.</p>
<p>well, i think i read it somewhere on princetonreview discussion forum. but here's the statistic on Upenn to give you an idea:</p>
<p>"At Penn, 70 percent of students with near-perfect scores on the math and reading portions of the SAT college entrance exam did not get in, school officials said. Nor did 394 of the more than 1,000 valedictorians that sent applications."</p>
<p>the statistics, regardless of their negative attributes, actually hint encouragement. 70% rejection of perfect scores means 30% acceptance of perfect scores...so your chance automatically increases by 20% from perfect scores alone (statistically speaking). </p>
<p>if the harvard statistic is true, then your the chance of admission would rise by 40%. </p>
<p>so if you think about it, perfect scores do increase your chances statistically.</p>
<p>Sr_oradba, I can feel your sarcasm about being adopted by a URM parent. But unfortunately I have to agree to the point you are making: With the credentials you (or whoever) have, if you were a black, Hispanic or Native American, you would get 100% of chance; if you were a Caucasian, you got around 90% chance; but being an Asian, (especially Chinese, and somewhat Koreans or Indians), your chance is about 50%-60% at the best. Thats just the reality. Harvard is flooded with Asian applicants who have similar credentials. They have to balance it up. Its called diversity.</p>
<p>At Harvard, there are nearly two valedictorians applying for every seat in the class, and there are also twice as many applicants with perfect Math or Verbal SAT scores, or both, as there areeats in the class. Since all matriculants are not valedictorians, and not every matriculant is an 800-scorer, there are obviously many other facors taken into account, such as ethnic, geographic, economic diversity, extra-curricular strengths, and areas of academic interest.</p>
<p>That said, it is doubtless true that the higher your SAT score, the higher your <em>statistical</em> chances of admission. The alumni interview can make the difference in some cases, as they prefer candidates who they think have outstanding person qualities who will thrive in the rarified Harvard setting.</p>