<p>I remember that around this time last year, I was scrambling for information about Harvard after I found out that I got in. I have gotten a bunch of private messages over the past few months and I have tried to help out applicants as much as possible, but I am definitely here to help!</p>
<p>I am open to answer any questions that you guys may have about student life, academics, athletics, extracurriculars, Cambridge/Boston, or whatever. I can even answer questions about admissions - I am a student employee at the admissions office (though I have NO direct influence on applications and I am NOT an Admissions Officer).</p>
<p>I love Harvard, and if I can answer ANY questions I would love to! I am on Winter Break but homebound for medical reasons, so I don't have much to do right now. So, feel free to ask me anything!</p>
<p>Oh, and if it matters to anyone, here is a little about me:
-I came here thinking I wanted to concentrate in Social Studies or Economics, but I think I am actually going to concentrate in Computer Science with a secondary in Economics
-I want to pursue language citation in Spanish and plan on studying abroad in Spain in a future summer
-I am a Division 1 Varsity athlete here, though I wasn’t recruited and didn’t decide to walk on until the beginning of this year
-I do conference planning with 2 model UN groups on campus
-I do Army ROTC as a non scholarship cadet, so it is mostly just for fun (I wanted to try it out)
-As I mentioned in the first post, my paid job on campus is at the admissions office
-I also stay active with LGBTQ issues on campus, both from a social perspective and with planning local service projects</p>
<p>Hopefully I’ll be able to complete my SCEA for class 2019 on time. I’m working on my SAT’s right now, and March SAT will be my 1st sitting. I did 2 Subject Tests(Math 1 & Lit), but chances are I’ll need to retake more SAT II’s for better scores if I don’t perform 700+. I wanted to ask whether you could please PM me your personal essays? I would really appreciate it…I want to set a decent benchmark for my essays</p>
<p>What is the CS program like at Harvard? I applied (and was accepted) as a chemistry concentrator, but I’ve become more and more interested in CS lately.</p>
<p>First off, do not feel like you <em>have</em> to get over a 700 on the SAT II subject tests. I know MANY people who didn’t get a 700 on one or both. Personally, I took 3 and got a 690, 710, and 720. If you ABSOLUTELY think you can do better, then retake, but if you are pretty CLOSE to a 700 I really wouldn’t fret. Harvard is holistic review, and while testing is important, they are MUCH more interested in seeing that you have demonstrated sincere passion during high school with your activities. I am not really comfortable messaging you my essays (plagiarism concerns, and the admissions office HIGHLY discourages this because NO essays are the same). However, I can tell you that one of my essays started off with a funny story that happened while I was lobbying, then recounted some of my significant advocacy experiences and honors. My optional (and it truly is optional!) essay was about being on the trading floor of a stock exchange building and realizing that I loved intense, high stress situations, even though it made me realize that I did NOT want to go into finance/consulting as I always thought I would.</p>
<p>The Computer Science program here is incredible. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND to ANYONE to take Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science I (or CS50 for short) during freshman fall. While it is very difficult, it gives you an incredible overview of CS at Harvard. It is actually the second largest course here overall, after only Economics 10a: Introduction to Microeconomics (Ec10a for short). The difficulty is definitly balanced with fun, though. Office hours are in Annenberg Dining hall the night before problem sets are due, so you get to interact with HUGE groups of peers and help each other. The lectures are interesting and engaging. There is a hackathon near the end of the semester where you stay up all night finishing up your final project, and they literally buy you endless dinner, breakfast at IHOP, and thousands of dollars of candy. The end of the class includes a final project fair where you show off your work, get tons of free things, and interact with prospective employers. It was awesome!</p>
<p>While joint concentration isn’t really encouraged within CS, you could always consider concentrating in Computer Science and getting a secondary in Chemistry, and then applying your programming skills to chemistry related problems. CS50 reinforces the idea that CS is not JUST about programming, but also about problem solving, so the opportunities to apply programming to an area of interest are endless. And programming skills are something that employers DEFINITLY look for nowadays. The other day, I want to the Harvard Office of Career Services Summer Opportunities Fair. The LARGEST group of employers were tech-related, and for the most part, these were the ONLY employers that had regular internship opportunities for Freshmen/Sophomores. </p>
<p>My suggestion to you, though you have a lot of time to think about it, would be to try BOTH things during Freshman year. Take Life Science 1a (LS1a) AND CS50 during freshman fall, along with whatever other 2 courses you may need to take (most likely, Expository Writing 20 and a language course, unless you test out). That way, you can gain exposure to both areas and possibly see crossover opportunities if you remain interested in both.</p>
<p>I came in as an Economics concentrator DEAD SET on social science, but completely changed my mind after taking CS50. I had NO prior programming experience. Though I may still be interested in quantitative economics or economic applications in computer science, I have realized how invaluable programming skills are and I plan on declaring CS as my concentration during Sophomore fall.</p>
<p>“First off, do not feel like you <em>have</em> to get over a 700 on the SAT II subject tests. I know MANY people who didn’t get a 700 on one or both”</p>
<p>Harvard does not provide the SAT II data but you can assume it is not that much different from Princeton. Furthermore, since Harvard DOES say about their admitted class of 2017 that athletes scored an average of 173 points below the class average of 2237 on the SAT I, one can infer that of the 25% or so of admitted students who scored below 740 on subject tests, a fair amount were student athletes (as well as other “hooked” students who add diversity to the class -URM, underprivileged, etc.). </p>
<p>Bottom line: It is best to shoot for scores of 740 or above on the subject tests. It also varies by test. A 740 on a Math 2 exam is not that impressive as a 740 on Lit. Of course, there are always exceptions like the OP and his/her friends…or maybe the people he/she knows fit into the categories I mentioned above.</p>
<p>^^ Just for the heck of it, I calculated from the above data that the average SAT I scored for non-athletes is 2273. I would imagine that further removing other hooked candidates from the equation would produce an average of over 2300.</p>
<p>Thanks @Falcon1 & rsivyhopeful! I’ll work towards above average standards. If all fails, I’ll work on my hooks(et al, including typing with my pinky…jk:)</p>
<p>An average of 2300 may not seem like anything on the surface, but what it says is that for an unhooked applicant with a 2100 SAT I to be accepted, it would take just over two “perfect” 2400 unhooked scorers to be accepted to offset the 2100. </p>
<p>If this analysis is correct, because of the 2400 ceiling it means that there has to be a lot more 2300+ scorers accepted to offset the 2100-2250 kids who come in to keep the average above 2300. This puts to bed the argument that once you get above a certain number like 2150 “scores don’t matter” that many have put forth. The numbers are pretty clear that for unhooked applicants, acceptances of 2300+ scores are more abundant and perhaps more necessary than previously argued.</p>
<p>@Falcon1, I will have to respectfully disagree. As a student employee at the admissions office, I have worked directly with officers and other employees. A 700+ is absolutley not required - regardless of athlete status. While the “hook” for some applicants IS their academic excellence, MANY applicants display excellence in other areas. Perfect test scores (or 740+) are not necessary. In fact, I recall that a few years ago, a student was making a “Return to High School” admissions presentation (where current students go to their old high school to talk about Harvard) and had put in something along the lines of, “you should get a 700+ on all sections of the SAT I and both sections of the SAT II to be considered”, and all of the admissions officers present were either laughing or skeptical, haha.</p>
<p>Not to say that test scores aren’t important. They are - and you are competing with people from across the world with INCREDIBLE scores. But, within reason, there is no benchmark score. Just do well in the context of your school/peers and display excellence in something (or a few things). They want to see the passion in your application, not cookie cutter test scores.</p>
<p>@rsivyhopeful I think you are missing the point. But first, what is said by admissions officers on roadshows and what happens in practice are often two different things. For instance, they always publicly say there are no ethnic quotas but the percentages for all the Ivies for the different ethnicities remain remarkably static unless there is a conscious decision to change the percentages and then they remain fixed on the new levels for quite some time but that is another story. This is easy to check for yourself.</p>
<p>Getting back to the SAT II’s, the numbers are the numbers and they don’t lie. I presented the data for Princeton. It is a FACT that 75% of the admitted students have TWO scores above 740. That does mean that there are students (25% of them) who have scores below that, so of course you can get in with sub 740 scores!</p>
<p>And yes, probably, 10-15% have scores below 700, so yes again, you can get in with a 600+ score. My point is that the bottom 25% is heavily comprised of “hooked” candidates (in the traditional sense) which doesn’t leave much for the rest who obviously have something very special to offer as you point out. if you have sub 700 scores and you hope to be in the 10-15% who are admitted and you are unhooked you are facing quite an uphill battle. The numbers are the numbers.</p>
<p>Also @rsivyhopeful I admire that as a new member of the Harvard community and someone with a new job in the admissions office you are willing to share your experiences and knowledge about the school. Keep up the good work. i caution you, however, from making judgements about whether applicants who ask you questions are fine or not with things they are doing (i.e. saying their test scores or academics are fine). They might falsely assume you are speaking from an admissions perspective and not your own personal viewpoint.</p>
<p>I was an Ivy league faculty brat and have been connected with several of them ever since in a variety of capacities (student, professor, fundraiser, donor etc…). I have known and know quite a few admissions officers along the way and I wouldn’t presume to dispense advice to kids asking about their chances or scores because what goes on behind closed doors is not clear cut from year to year. There are institutional priorities which may change by a lot each year which could mean that someone who had no chance last year is attractive this one. You are not privy to this kind of information (nor am i :)). Good luck. Hope you feel better - great advice about CS 50, btw.</p>
<p>You can’t add percentile scores across SAT sections. So if the 25% scores are M:750, CR:730, and W:720, you can’t say that 25% of students got 2200 or lower. Lots of people are lopsided and there’s nothing wrong with that. 700+ is great, but if you’re 690 it’s not really worth it to retake.</p>
<p>@CPU Nobody did anything like what you just said. I was talking about SAT II scores with respect to the percentiles. The other posts about SAT I scores were to show that the average non-hooked kid’s score was 2300 of the incoming class. Apparently, you didn’t read my posts carefully or you wouldn’t say 690 is fine - you can get certainly get in with 690’s it but all I can say is “may the odds be ever in your favor”.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t mean to hijack the OP’s thread.</p>
<p>@RSI and @CPU since you are giving advice that high 600’s are okay on the SAT II and SAT I, respectively, perhaps you can also suggest when the applicant should apply? Should he/she apply early with those scores against a pool that includes recruited athletes, other hooked kids, and tons of academic superstars - or should they apply RD where the acceptance rate will be a tiny 3%. Oh and by the way, the RD pool will contain many of the academic superstars that were deferred, rejected and even accepted to schools such Y,P,S,M, C, etc… as well as the Harvard deferrals. </p>
<p>If you tell them to apply early, are they potentially squandering their EA opportunity at a school they are better matched for? </p>
<p>I’ll be the first to agree that scores are only a small part of the equation, but unless you are recruited, overcame tremendous personal adversity, add diversity or some other institutional imperative, your GPA, recs, EC’s, scores, and essays should all be impeccable. @CPU - being “well-lopsided” can, but in most cases, won’t give you a free pass on some of these things.</p>