Did anyone receive an email from Harvard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>Could you quote the part of the article that says that? I must be missing it.</p>

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<p>Here’s the direct quote from the article. You need to read between the lines. </p>

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<p>Most of Harvard Admissions’ work is done in sub-committees. Thousands of students never make it past the Regional Admission Director and are NEVER voted upon by the full committee.</p>

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<p>Here is a another article that describes Harvard’s Admissions process in detail: [Stairway</a> to Harvard | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/7/7/stairway-to-harvard-span-stylefont-style-italicthis/]Stairway”>Stairway to Harvard | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the analysis, Gibby.</p>

<p>What I get from this is that it is a frenetic winnowing process, and among a lot of similarly well-qualified applicants, your acceptance or rejection is heavily a manner of luck. Somewhere I read that only 15% of those accepted at Stanford also are accepted at Harvard. That supports that idea that there is an awful lot of randomness in the selection process, and rejection at one school has few implications for acceptance or rejection at another. If you want to go to a “top” school, apply to a lot of them.</p>

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<p>i submitted my application on 12/17 and i haven’t received an interview request yet :frowning:
i’m pretty worried</p>

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<p>Not every student is interviewed; it depends on how many alumni are in your area and how many kids from your area applied. Keep checking your email over the next 6 to 8 weeks, including your spam folder. Yes, your interview could happen at the end of February, the beginning of March, or not at all – there’s really no way to tell. See: <a href=“https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look/interviews[/url]”>https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look/interviews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Gibby- With my readings of the posts around here, I notice your strong knowledge of the ins and outs. Therefore, if you don’t mind me picking at your brain, I have two questions if I may:
1.)Have been deferred. Would like to let my regional admissions director have an update of one of my EC, however, I emailed my GC and he didn’t have that email address. Would you by any chance know who I can contact for that?
2.) Does anybody get wait listed on the early decisions or just in the spring? I take it that it is much better to be wait listed than deferred. If there are indeed wait listed students from early decision, then the deferred ones would really have a slim chance, no?</p>

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<p>There are no wait lists from the SCEA round. Those people are deferred and compared with the RD pool. Wait lists are only compiled after the RD round</p>

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<p>T26E4 is correct. Waitlists only occur in the RD round, never in the SCEA round.</p>

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<p>If your GC does not have your Regional Admissions Director’s email that signifies two things to me: (1) Your school is not in constant-contact with Harvard, and (2) Your GC does not have the cojones to call Harvard and ask for the contact info. Neither of those bode well for your chances. (I’m just being honest.) </p>

<p>My list of Harvard Regional Admissions Director’s is 4 years old, and many of those individuals have retired or moved on, so your best bet is send your updates to: <a href=“mailto:fileroom@fas.harvard.edu”>fileroom@fas.harvard.edu</a> and hope for the best.</p>

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<p>Gibby- I wonder how you got a whole list verses just the one you needed for your region 4 years ago… I was thinking on sending an email as suggested in one of your previous posts. Wonder if you would be willing to private messsage me with the old officers email for my region to see if it is still active and perhaps forwarded to the new director.</p>

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<p>If you call the Admissions office, they will not give out the email address of your regional director, and specifically tell students sending updates do so though the general fileroom email address. If you cannot get the address through your guidance counselor, you should send an update as per Harvard’s instructions.</p>

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<p>FWIW: Four years ago, when my daughter was accepted to Harvard, Admissions gave out a full listing of regional admissions directors, their areas covered, and their email address to all incoming freshman and their parents. If we had any questions, we could email the directors. As I said, some directors have retired (including my daughter’s), others have moved on, while still others have switched regions, so the list is no longer current. The information was for admitted students and their families; I do not feel comfortable sharing that information on CC or in a private message.</p>

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<p>T2GE4 - Thanks for your input I appreciate it. It makes sense now that I think about.</p>

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<p>@gibby, So if my school doesn’t send kids to Ivies often (in past few years, I only know of 2 browns and 1 princeton; the pton was a recruited swimmer; there were none last year, though 2 kids did get rejected from cornell), does this lower my chances as an applicant?</p>

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<p>What it means – at least on the surface – is that your high school is not on Harvard’s radar. At some high schools (both private and public) Admissions Officers are in contact with guidance counselors 2 to 4 times a year, asking which students should I be paying attention to? If your GC and Harvard (or YPSM et al) do not have that kind of relationship, it does lower your chances.</p>

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<p>Ok Gibby, thanks for your honest prompt responses, I appreciate it! I think I will just relay the message to my son to go for it as he has nothing to lose at this point really, and send his updates and the “email” encouraged to write via in a letter format and hope the file person finds it in her/his warm, Harvard Spirit, and dedicated heart, to see that the admissions officer for our region at least sees it. Better yet reads it. Heck, if I’m going to sucessfully encourage my extremely busy son to actually sit and write one, I hope this admisdions reader takes it all the way to that big admitting committee! Better yet, reads it out loud there with as much enthusiasm as I’m sure my son will write in it!
Never give up on your dreams ever ever until you no longer have a speck of control. That’s my motto :slight_smile: LOL</p>

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<p>Didn’t Harvard provide instructions with next steps after deferral? I am under the impression they hand out a generic email address to send updates.</p>

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<p>^^ Yes, the generic email (at least as of 4 years ago) was: <a href=“mailto:fileroom@fas.harvard.edu”>fileroom@fas.harvard.edu</a></p>

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<p>I remember that ID!</p>

<p>It sounded really bad when D received that info 2 years ago but now reading all the articles that discuss how the process works on this thread, fileroom email address makes perfect sense!</p>

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<p>Geez :frowning: We had no idea that the big schools were asking certain HS about their brightest students. I guess that also makes sense for the region officers or whatever they’re called. Sounds like cutting corners from a high volume of apps on their desk. I wonder how you would know such an inside thing like that? Do you work for a school? For Harvard? Does your daughter work in the file room? Or know someone that does? Well if your daughter does or know someone tell her to look for his letter or email or both. :confused:
We will attn: “Gibby’s connection”</p>