<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.67
Weighted GPA: 4.02
Class Rank: My school doesn't rank</p>
<p>SAT I Math Score: 750
SAT I CriticalReading Score: 720
SAT I Writing Score: 730</p>
<p>2200 in total</p>
<p>SATII MathII: 790
SATII Spanish:750
SATII U.S. History: 670</p>
<p>Activities
Football 4 years
Basketball 4 years
Track 4 years (this is what i'm trying to continue at harvard)
-Conference Champion 300h
-Conference Champion 4x100
-3rd Place 100m
-Team Champions 2004,2005, 2006, 2007
If anyone knows track, my P.R.'s for the 100, 200, and 300h are 11.17, 22.7, 39.81 </p>
<p>School Newspaper Sports Writer 4 years
Student Council 3 years
Youth Advisory Council 3 years
Intercultural Club 2 years
Dallas Area Diversity Youth Association (DADYO) 1 year
Spanish Club 2 years
Admissions Ambassador 2 years</p>
<p>National Merit Commended Scholar
National Achievement Scholar
3 or 4 Journalism Awards for My sports stories
National Spanish Honor Society
National Spanish Exam Silver Medalist</p>
<p>AP classes:
Junior year
AP U.S. History
AP Spanish Language
Senior year
AP Biology
AP English
AP Stat
AP Calc BC
AP Spanish Lit.</p>
<p>You have an excellent chance according to your stats. You should have offers of a recruiting trip by now if you made contact w coaches over the summer, and they verified your test scores. Harvard is need of great male sprinters, last year I don't think they even fielded a 4x100 relay team. Are your recommendations going to be sparkling? That would just about cinch the deal I'd predict. Good luck!</p>
<p>yeah i've been talking with the coach almost daily. he seems really positive about me getting in but of course they can't promise me a spot. they've invited me on an official visit in october.
my recommendations should be great. my english teacher is my advisor and she loves me. she called me one of the best students she's ever had yesterday.
my biggest concern, i guess, is my stats (gpa and SAT scores). i know harvard is the best in the country in that aspect.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn't have a single male sprinter. They had a football player and their high jumper run the 60m and 100m last year and you have doubts that a black male with a 2200 and a 11.2 will have the complete support of their coach.</p>
<p>So it all depends on the coach. Your grades and scores are fine for an athlete (i.e. well within 1 SD of the student body as a whole), so they will be no impediment to admission. On the other hand, in the Harvard pool, they are below the mean of enrolled students. So... without the coach's support, you would be in the mix with many other Harvard applicants, which means you might be in a tough position. Being urm helps, somewhat, but Harvard gets its pick of urm students, and they do not have to adjust academic standards much at all. This may not be true of any other university, but it is for Harvard.</p>
<p>So it depends. As a recruited athlete, your academic background is well above where it would need to be.</p>
<p>If the coach ends up not putting you high on the list, then your odds go down a lot. Still well qualified, but in a pool with lots of other well qualified people.</p>
<p>The good news is that in spite of "no early action", you will find out where you stand soon.</p>
<p>how could the coach lose interest in me? that's the last thing i want.
and about how many of the kids that they put on their 'high list' actually get in?</p>
<p>You don't have anything to worry about! While nothing is 100% positive, I'd bet your chances are 99.9%! Your GPA and scores are fine-- they reflect that you can do the work, and that you took a challenging curriculum. They don't require perfect scores, and the combination of being a URM and a star sprinter are icing on the cake. There seems to be a real commitment to building the track team, the freshman class this year has over 40 T&F members. (But they still need male sprinters.) I know it is hard to not be stressed out about the process, it is shrouded in mystery and lack of hard information. One thing you might want to do, after your recruiting trip, is to request a "likely letter". Harvard does this in rare cases where its top recruits have offers (usually $ offers, non-Ivy) elsewhere. The letter indicates whether it is likely you will be admitted in the spring (assuming you keep up the grades, etc,) Though they might not do it, it does'nt hurt to suggest it.</p>
<p>thanks! i'll definitely ask. they said i'd have a short informal meeting with admissions while i'm there. would that be a good time to ask or would that be too early?</p>
<p>Fine to ask admissions, but organizing this is up to the coach. This is an athletic recruitment, Ivy-style. So, although the coach cannot simply offer you a spot, and a scholarship, as at other D1 universities, he is responsible for managing your presentation to the admissions office. If you are a serious recruit to Harvard, it is perfectly reasonable to expect a likely letter. In fact, the coach will be at the admissions office demanding it.</p>
<p>Coach could lose interest if, hypothetically, your speed dropped, you got a lasting injury, your grades plummeted, you got arrested... or if suddenly half a dozen other sprinters with Harvard type academics and better times appeared on his doorstep. Assuming none of these are likely- I would not worry about them.</p>
<p>You should ask these questions of the coach. Since he is recruiting you, he is your advocate. The Ivy and Harvard rules prohibit him from assuring you that you will be admitted, so he has to be careful about what he says on that score. He can encourage you, but he cannot tell you that you are in. On the other hand, he can tell you everything about process and timing. </p>
<p>At this point he has almost certainly been in contact with your current coach (to find out more about you as a person, your work ethic, are you coachable, etc, and most importantly what are you thinking about where you want to go), and with your guidance office (to make sure there will be no deal breaker negatives in your transcript or recommendations). So your local people should also be able to give you some information.</p>
<p>For your peace of mind, are there other places you would like to attend that are also interested?</p>
<p>no other places have been talking to me nearly as much as harvard has. one weekend i just went out and tried to contact all the coaches of the schools i was even interested in. harvard's the only one that's sent back more than just a 'thank you for your interest' email. i assume it's because they need sprinters more. i'd love to go to penn, but i doubt i could run there. some DIII schools (emory and washu) have shown some interest but they're not exactly on the top of my list.</p>
<p>Harvard and MIT have policies of being very nice and open with anyone who expresses interest in their teams. You will received hand-written notes and viewbooks (sport specific) from Harvard even if they have no interest in you. It is partially bc they want ppl to apply, partially bc they like their reputation, but mostly bc if a kid does get accepted who is not recruited they want to encourage him to come out for the sport anyways since they only get 5 or 6 actual recruits per year and it obviously takes more than this for a complete track team. I'm not being cynical, although I agree you would have a fine chance if not for Harvards completely disinterest in sprinting (they have been historically bad at it) yet awesome at mid-long distance. I just advise you to be skeptical.</p>
<p>After your visit, when you have returned home, would be a good time to bring up the idea of a likely letter with the coach (not admissions). Now that Early Action is gone, they might have to send out a few more of these letters to keep athletes interested.</p>
<p>Although I agree with red remote that Harvard's been bad at sprints, I still say, don't be skeptical, I bet they would still love to have you, even without the running!! Also, you can check the roster at GoCrimson.com and see how many sprinters they may have now.</p>
<p>to red remote, historically you're correct. harvard hasn't given a damn about their sprinters. they just got a new coach, however, who's trying to rebuild the team from the ground up. he's recruiting a lot more sprinters and jumpers. according to the hurdle coach that i've been talking to, he's also talking to a kid in california that runs a 10.9 and another kid from texas that runs 14.3 in the 110's. but yeah i've gotten written notes and viewbooks already. even if the coach loses interest, i'll still apply and hope i get accepted. i'd still love to go there.</p>
<p>to fauve, i've already done that. last year, the fastest time anyone on the team ran in the 100 was like a 11.34 (i could do that in my sleep now probably). i'm really gonna be competiting with the new people that they're bringing in though.
i'll ask the coach for a "likely letter" after i get back. i'm pretty much done w/ my app except i need to get my essays revised, revised, revised. thanks for all your support.</p>
<p>the 11.3 was by a fball player who ran it once at the start of the season, I believe his name was Graham Inflinger. The new coach arrived last year but if you look at his recruiting, he didn't take a single sprinter last year (check dyestat) when they were available. That is concerning. I'd advise you to try yale or princeton where they actually care; although it is much more difficult. Penn is out of the question bc they really let academics slide on some of their sprinters, but what are you going to do? Oh well, that's just how it is.</p>
<p>to the OP ... track & field is a sport that not many schools have big recruiting budgets ... but as someone mentioned earlier many schools will kick their interest if you first contact them. Given your stats (school and track) I would think the response you receive from lower DI schools, DII, and DIII schools would be quite favorable. Most team's web-sites have a place to contact the coach ... take 5 minutes and send an email to the schools in which you have an interest (include your track times, GPA, and SATs). You have nothing to lose (OK 5 minutes) and you may well greatly expand your school possibilities.</p>