Chances at Harvard and SSP Program

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>OK Im going to apply to Harvard College next year as a Senior and I would like to know what my chances would be
Stats:
Race : Hispanic,Male
Miami,Fl
School: I go to the most selective ( Ranked #1) High school in the State of Florida, Design and Architecture Senior High. Our admissions rate is 25% and its an extremely competetive magnet school. We take 8 courses instead of 6 like a traditional high school (will that help)</p>

<p>GPA- 4.8 (as of now but I expect it to be 5.5 at the end of the year)</p>

<p>Rank- Will be Top 10% by graduation out of a class of 120 students
(Remember what i said about the cream of the crop)</p>

<p>AP Courseload</p>

<p>10th Grade- AP Art History (4) They only allowed us to take this AP the rest honors
11th Grade- AP Biology, AP English Comp, AP Drawing Portfolio (they make us) and AP U.S History. My other four classes are all Honors, Algebra II, French III, Architecture Design II, AutoCAD Drafting
Projected 12th grade- AP U.S Gov./H. Econ, AP English Literature, AP Calculus (Im gonna take pre-cal in the beggining og summer before I go to my real summer program), AP World History, AP Art Studio (they make us!). My remaining 3 Honors classes will be Architecture Design III, Furniture Design, and probably French IV. I will also Dual Enroll in Physics at Miami-Dade College.
By the way the extra 2 classes (Archit and stuff) are Dual Enrollment courses and we obtain credits from FIU University. I dont expect the credits to transfer, but I hope it shows that I have been doing college level work since 9th grade.</p>

<p>Now another situation I have is that during the onset of Freshman year and ending in the middle of sophomore year I got very Ill. This caused me to become sick and miss 30 days from both school years (around 50 total). Even through my sickness I remained at the top of my class (15 percent) but some of my grades suffered, especially math and art. In art we had to turn in pieces weekly but I was in the freaking hospital so I could not complete them and the a-hole teacher gave me a C along with the math teacher. That hurt my GPA. I found out that Harvard likes students (expecially minorities) that have been through "hardships" in their lives. This Junior year I am going to get straight As in all my courses posing a radical change. My family is also very poor (less then 30k a year) and ive gone through some things in my life such as being kicked out of an apartment when my mom could not afford to pay the rent. (Seriously Imagine your thing getting thrown out to the street and wondering where you are going to sleep at night when your 5 years old). Also I grew up without a father ( My parents divorced when I was 1 and I have not seen my father since, contacted him or recieved a single dime, for all I know hes dead). I am sayign this because I wanted to know how this could weigh in to my application next school year. Should I write my college essay on how my family (my mom, grandma and I) went to through these things and prevailed etc. There are more tragedies but I wont go into them.
Anyways I am also applying to the SSP this summer at Harvard, hoping it will give me an edge (if I get straight A's too). If I dont get accepted I have Yale as my back up. I got in that program though JSA connections. </p>

<p>Extracuricullars-
Boy Scouts- Eagle- 3 Palms (projected by application time),
JSA- President (next year), etc etc I have the ECs down thats not a problem (After typing half of my life story, I dont feel like typing another long section, but I have the ECs down, anyways I gotta do an English Assignment)</p>

<p>My SATs, which I havent gotten will probably be around 1250, but I will take a classroom course, study etc and get around a 2100 in the new test.</p>

<p>In my AP test I will be expecting 4s and 5s, majorily 5's. In addition I will take the AP Spanish Test, since im a fluent speaker of the Language and can get a 5 guaranteed. </p>

<p>SAT IIs- Projected to take Biology, U.S History, Math IIC, Spanish, and some english one, I expect 750-800 in all of them except maybe math, which I might get from 700-750.</p>

<p>Sports- My school only has Basketball (which I cant play) and Tennis (which I am joining as the season starts). Although im an excellent soccer player, my school destroyed out team in 9th grade. </p>

<p>Thanks for bearing through this enourmous profile. I am a URM, possible sport admission, have gone through "hardships", and I am very poor (seriously). Expect My SATs to be around Harvard Average along with my ECs and community service. Please Let me know. MSN : <a href="mailto:Lynxzed@hotmail.com">Lynxzed@hotmail.com</a></p>

<p>Im Applying to Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Wharton</p>

<p>I also started my own successful business which may provide Semi-Precious rock (lapiz lazuli, jade, tiger's eye) to Svarski Crystal, a prominent art/jewelry company in South Florida.</p>

2

<p>No one on this site can predict your actual chances. If it is your dream to attend Harvard, then go ahead and apply and hope for the best, just like thousands of others who were admitted to Harvard did.</p>

3

<p>What do you want to study at Harvard this summer? There are three courses related to art and architecture history, and lots visual and enviromental studies courses, I will take western art history class and another at GSD.</p>

4

<p>GSD= Graduate School of Design</p>

5

<p>So should I try to show consistency in my classes and ECs? A lot of my classes are art related, so should I stick to that? The problem is that I want to major in Economics so I was hoping to take econ courses this summer or writting courses. I heard taking these writting courses shows them that you want to attend the college by taking some of their core freshman classes. Lets say I were to take art history courses for example in the SSP and they dont apply towards my major, I can still have them count for credits right?</p>

6

<p>You're ECs are very weak so you should definetly improve those, but you know.........you really don't have to try that hard since you're Hispanic. </p>

<p>Sad, but true.</p>

7

<p>I can't comment on your chances to Harvard College, but the SSP program accepts most of its applicants.</p>

8

<p>Art history courses could count for elective credits.</p>

9

<p>you said you are applying to: Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Wharton
you have a chance like anyone else on here, but when applying to those schools you need a backup (safety school).</p>

10

<p>Well thats exactly my strategy. By applying towards these schools they will know that I am commited and not applying to them just to see if I could get in. My #1 choice is Harvard. They know what colleges you apply to, besides asking you, your SAT report includes the other colleges your score is arriving to. You have to show consistency, not diversification, but thanks for you suggestion tho.</p>

11

<p>why would you apply to wharton for artistness?</p>

12

<p>Well i want to study business admin at MIT or Wharton or econ at Harvard or Yale. Does it help if I can speak three languages? Like I am taking the SAT and AP spanish test to prove i can speak the language (you would be surprised how many hispanics cants speak spanish) I dont know if I should use "art" as my hook. ( National Art Honor Society, Inner-City community projetcs relating to art, scholastic gold keys on state level, etc etc)</p>

13

<p>err, lynxzes, does that mean you're not applying to safeties? please, please do. The adcom is not going to scrutinize the SAT reports of 20,000 applicants and see what other schools they're applying to...schools like Harvard and Yale could honestly care less where else you've applied. This could be a huge mistake if you don't apply to at least some safeties and matches...</p>

<p>About your chances though: They look decent, the only problem seems to be your SAT scores and EC's (but since you said you didn't type them all up I'm assuming there are more than what you wrote). Don't just assume that your SAT scores are going to go up the way you hope...working with what you have at this moment, the SAT scores would perhaps be a cause for concern. However, you are a URM. Therefore, your chances seem to be relatively positive, but anything could happen.</p>

<p>And I do think that you should talk about those events in your essay, as long as you don't make it corny or overwrought. I talked about very similiar experiences in mine and it worked for Yale.</p>

14

<p>I agree with the rest.</p>

<p>I'm not sure, but in my opinion I think you're being too over-confident. You can never know, and trust me, you're not a shining star above the other thousands of applicants. </p>

<p>Always ALWAYS have safeties. And you are mistaken about your idea about "Consistency not diversification" is not correct. That is, unless you had an Ivy adcom tell you so.</p>

<p>Your #1 choice is Harvard. Along with the other 22,000 applicants across the nation.</p>

<p>P.S. Also, you can never expect what might happen in the future. Don't bet on your "I probably will score a....or, my GPA will PROBABLY be a... etc. etc."</p>

<p>Also, there is a "My Chances" forum, incase you didn't know.</p>

15

<p>First of all im having my interview at Cambridge, so Im gonna talk to an adcom personally. Also im going EA, so my application will be more scrutinized. So they will know how many and which colleges im applying to (Cornell Grad). I just need to know what my best approach is.</p>

16

<p>well, we're trying to tell you the best approach. We can't help you if you refuse to apply to any safeties or matches. And fyi, if you apply EA, they won't have any idea where else you're applying because you can only apply one school EA. One more time: they will not know nor will they care what other schools you apply to. And your application won't be "more scrutinized" if you apply EA...why the heck would EA or RD determine how much scrutiny your application received?</p>

17

<p>Alright I understand what your saying, you have a point. There is a question I have about EA/ED. Now I heard in an article that this guy applied EA to Harvard and ED to Stanford ( I think it was Standford), and when he got accepted to Standford, he didnt go. Harvard took him, and when Harvard was confronted with this they stated " It is not our concern where our students make their commitments." Basically they said it was not their problem. Now when you apply ED somewhere else ( I.E Princeton) how does it work? Do you sign some contract declaring you will go to the school or is it just your word? Look I am as honest as anyone else, but I want to get ahead, and if that means going ED and EA to all the schools im applying to (I know what your thinking), would that give me a better chance?</p>

18

<p>You won't get any better chance, unless you are a lagency, an athelete or some kind special cases that Haravrd only deal with once a decade.</p>

19

<p>Harvard and Stanford are both single-choice early action (SCEA) now. Check their Web sites carefully for what they say the rules are about applying to other colleges if you apply to Harvard early. (You CAN apply to a safety school early as well as to Harvard early, IF it is the right kind of safety school, and you should apply to a safety FOR SURE in any case, and the earlier the better if it will let you know early whether or not you got in.)</p>

20

<p>I got in to Harvard SSP.... Please do not mis-interpret my tone right now. I am estatic, its 10:53 and I probably wont sleep tonight. I am at the pinnacle of happiness at this moment.... I GOT INTO HARVARD SSP!!!! ok ok now i need u guys' help (please forgive my grammar at this point I dont care!) Please help me pick between these two</p>

<p>Strat 1 Take Expo writing 10 ( English comp and writing I think) and The Essay, play sports, be in the talent show thingy and like make freaking connections.</p>

<p>Strat 2 Take the Economics courses I orginally designated (Principles of Econ) and follow my major. play sports, be in the talent show thingy and like make freaking connections.</p>

<p>The english classes are based on the pre-requisited for Harvard undergrads (1st yr) I am am sure ill get an A ( Ill study 8 hours a day if I need to!). this would show them that I am ready for Harvard Courseload. Please Help! Any people going there this summer? Add me to ur MSN : <a href="mailto:Lynxzed@hotmail.com">Lynxzed@hotmail.com</a></p>