<p>Or do they dispose of it? Like would Harvard still have Mark Zuckerberg's application from when he applied in 2002?</p>
<p>Are you planning on lying or something?</p>
<p>Woah there. I was just curious. Like wouldn’t it be cool to see what Mark put on his app to get in?</p>
<p>I would say yes. I remember reading a news story about some guy that got caught for lies on his app several years into college, though I can’t dig it up now.</p>
<p>Basically, don’t lie, ok?</p>
<p>"Like wouldn’t it be cool to see what Mark put on his app to get in? "</p>
<p>As if they could release this for anyone to read… yeah right. Even he has no rights to his file. Something called privacy.</p>
<p>I don’t plan on lying.</p>
<p>I’m sure they keep a record somewhere, especially now that almost everything is electronic…</p>
<p>For persons who are admitted and enroll at a college, the college does keep most if not all of the application file indefinitely. Today what would be kept is whatever is put into the computer file which is almost everything submitted (likely not put into the computer file are materials sent by the applicant that were not required for admission; for example, colleges that do not want rec letters will not put those into the computer application file that is reviewed for admission). For persons rejected or who do not enroll, the college is likely to dispose of most of the file after a period of time, likely more than a couple years after the rejection or failure to enroll, but keep in a computer enough identifying info to show the person had applied and been rejected or not enrolled.</p>
<p>No idea what the current prevailing practice is, but I don’t know why any school would want to discard the application files of students, admitted or not. Electronic storage is so cheap now. Such material can be very valuable for all kinds of research, many generations into the future. And yes, some future historians would be interested in looking into Mark Z’s Harvard files; also Bill Gates’s. Hopefully, Harvard has also kept Warren Buffett’s unsuccessful application to the business school.</p>
<p>One admission counselor at MIT told me that they retained all of the applications no matter whether the applicant was admitted or not.</p>
@powersoftware http://greenwichroundup.blogspot.com/2010/06/060310-this-is-what-facebook-does-to.html
I think they keep the record for a certain number of years but not forever.
They keep a record just in case you decide to apply again. Also, perhaps they keep it one day in case it is revealed that somehow you lied on your application and the college can use that application as proof to rescind your degree.
deleted. this is an old thread.