I’m very confused.
Does being a Saudi woman put me in disadvantage or advantage in terms of getting into Harvard, or any other Ivy League university for that matter?
The stuff I read seem to significantly contradict each other in that topic.
Being an international applicant from any country will put you at a disadvantage for Harvard or its peers. These colleges have either a hard or soft cap for the percentage of international first-year students - somewhere in the 10% to 12% range, depending on the university. For many colleges at this level, the acceptance rate for international applicants is roughly half the overall rate.
The fact that you are a woman or from Saudi Arabia, will not be enough to overcome that disadvantage. Harvard will not accept an applicant from Saudi Arabia over a more qualified Kuwaiti applicant simply to put another pin on the map.
There is currently one student from Saudi Arabia
http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics
which means that only one student gets accepted every 4 years on average, so the applicant would need to be the top Saudi applicant. Is that you? None of us knows. Good luck
@whitered
I’m unclear as to whether you’re an international applicant or whether you currently reside in the United States. Either way, if your test scores, grades, and extracurricular activities are strong, you’d be a competitive candidate. From everything I’ve seen, top colleges like Harvard actively seek geographic diversity when making admissions decisions. They like to showcase how many countries their applicants come from—they publish this every year after admissions numbers are final. I did a quick search and it looks like there are 56 students from Saudi currently attending Harvard. Regardless of where you live, I recommend highlighting your unique experiences in your essay and show how you will contribute to the vitality and diversity of your class. I copied a link for the Harvard Arab Students Association below. It might be worth reaching out to them with any questions you might have. Good luck!
@skieurope I wanted to point out that you misread the info on the link you attached. There are currently 56 students from Saudi Arabia. The “1” you refer to comes from “number of countries represented” rather than number of students.
There is only 1 student at Harvard college from Saudi Arabia, but 32 students from all Harvard schools and 56 students and scholars at Harvard.
I should have been more specific in my earlier post, @UrbanMum , but I was referencing Harvard College in my earlier post, which I assume the OP is looking at. But the OP seems to have abandoned the thread.
Definitely an advantage. They don’t see many like you at Harvard. It’ll add to campus diversity.