<p>I heard that having a sibling who attends Harvard give you even more of a chance than having say an uncle of aunt who graduated from Harvard already. Is that true, because my sister is a current freshman at Harvard and I was wondering whether that would help at all??</p>
<p>Many people state that having a sibling will have admissions officers look at your application a second time (which helps, since an extra look might actually give you a higher chance). As a younger brother of also a Harvard attendee, I noticed that there’s a lot of younger sibling / older sibling that happens. People may state that it won’t help, but I think it does.</p>
<p>[Who</a> Are You, Anyway? | Harvard Magazine Jul-Aug 2001](<a href=“http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/07/who-are-you-anyway.html]Who”>http://harvardmagazine.com/2001/07/who-are-you-anyway.html)</p>
<p>(It is a decade old, but I think one of the clearest, and one of very few semi-official, comments on the subject.) If you skim, you may think it says simply that it increases your chances. Instead, mostly it says that it lets them figure out more about who you are, which is mostly neutral/slightly good, I think. But it also does have this caveat:
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<p>Speaker- if you are as qualified (or more) than your freshman sister, I’d say it is an advantage having the H sibling. If your application is noticeably weaker, the adcoms may wonder why you did not excel given the same opportunities.</p>
<p>Having a sibling at Harvard may be an advantage, but I think much depends on how many other siblings are also applying in any given year. Last year, for example, Harvard must have had a lot of siblings apply, as I know of three super-qualified siblings who were passed over:</p>
<p>Student #1: Sister a sophomore at Harvard. Sibling applicant had a 97 unweighted GPA with a 36 ACT. Sibling rejected by Harvard; he is now attending Yale.</p>
<p>Student #2: Brother a senior at Harvard. Sibling applicant had 95 unweighted GPA, 2270 SAT. Sibling rejected by Harvard; he is now attending Cornell.</p>
<p>Student #3: Sister a senior at Harvard. Both other siblings attended Harvard AND both parents attended Harvard. Sibling applicant had a 96 unweighted GPA, 2240 SAT. Sibling rejected by Harvard; she is now attending Georgetown.</p>
<p>Wow ^^ those rejected siblings certainly were well-qualified .</p>
<p>^^ Yup – can’t quite make sense out of it. BTW: Student #1 and #2 were applying for financial aid. Student #3 didn’t need aid. So, FA didn’t seem to factor into the decision either.</p>
<p>Yeah Fauve, that is what worries me. I don’t think I am as qualified as my sister. We have similar activities that we did in high school but my scores were probably slightly higher than hers and my GPA…not so much. Do you think the admissions officers would take the time to compare my application with hers from a year ago??? How about all the other colleges she applied to like Yale and Columbia? Don’t they keep copies of past applications?</p>
<p>If an older sibling isn’t making the most of their Harvard experience, I imagine it could work against the younger sibling. And Gibby, need is not a factor in Harvard admittance.</p>
<p>^^ Correct, but when you have a sibling attending the school, your family’s need is already known by the Admissions Office – it is on file, so to speak.</p>
<p>Well, I cannot say too much about Case #1 but SAT scores for Cases #2 and #3 seem low (probably a lot lower than their siglings attending H) in the candidate pool. Case #1 did get into Y, so obviously he is well qualified. Without other info, I’d speculate that H (or any other highly selective school) may not feel the need to have two admits with so much similar… of almost everything. Just a speculation, though.</p>
<p>^^ Case #1 is actually my son, who was accepted to Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Boston College, Middlebury, Williams, Pomona, Vanderbilt, and Binghamton. The only college that rejected him was Harvard – the school where his sister currently attends. Go figure!</p>
<p>Gibby: Oh wow…you have amazing children! But I guess that just goes to show that we can never tell exactly what colleges like Harvard are going to do…which can be frustrating at times. </p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone!!!</p>
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This one’s a bit surprising, since it could result in Harvard losing future donations from five different alumni! But it’s true that that isn’t a killer SAT for Harvard.</p>
<p>Siblings are considered legacies at many schools, but not at Harvard. This won’t change your odds in any meaningful way.</p>