<p>What are the odds of two students from the same school getting into Harvard in the same application timeline?
My friend and I are both applying Early Action for Harvard this year and I was wondering what the odds are of two people being admitted into the same Ivy League school. I guess it's selfish in a way - he's definitely more qualified than I am. </p>
<p>Here's a quick breakdown:
SAT I's: 2240 (me) 2270 (him)
SAT II's: 800 Chemistry/Math II (Both) 740 Physics (me) 780 Physics (him)</p>
<p>GPA: No idea how this is calculated... I have a ~92% average, he has a ~95%</p>
<p>Courses: We have about the same number of credits - I'm just taking one more course than he is this year.</p>
<p>Major activities
Me: National finalist - International Chemistry Olympiad, Community Service Committee (give awards, run events etc), Student Ambassador (organize some school events), Taekwondo (Green belt), 14th place in Chem 13, Science Club Executive, and I run a few other clubs.
Him: Provincial finalist - International Chemistry Olympiad, Student Outreach Coordinatior (run school events), Fencing Club Executive, various awards from Classics, school Chemistry award, 1st place in Chem 13.</p>
<p>Thank you very much!! </p>
<p>Sorry for being so paranoid and anxious - I go to the sort of school where everybody places in the 90th percentile (or higher) of every single contest they enter. It's really kind of depressing -some of the seniors have used Harvard and Princeton as their safeties... One of the people in my grade graduated a few years early after writing a perfect Math Olympiad paper or something (Jacob Tsimmerman). Oh and a 9-year old just entered... Crazy, crazy people :(</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. There are many schools from which two or more applicants are admitted. Often they may represent equally attractive "packages". Relative SAT scores and/or GPAs do not determine everything.</p>
<p>hhm... my friend and i were gonna do that, but he took yale and i applied to harvard ea. it's pretty slim i think, especially when you live in a major city such as miami.</p>
<p>He won Bronze medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Junior year, placed in the 100th percentile of nearly every single contest he wrote, had perfect SAT's, perfect SAT II's, a near-perfect average (97 or 98, he took a big range of hard courses too - Sciences and humanities), went to a National Selection Camp for the Math Olympiad, did research work at a hospital and probably did a lot of other things I haven't heard of yet. Pretty amazing person, overall.</p>
<p>It's really sad going to a school with people like these =(</p>
<p>Thanks for the comforting words Byerly! It's just... well, my school does send (an average of) 1.74 people to Harvard every year or something like that. But that's because about 50 people apply every year, and just about all of them get into an Ivy... Do Universities really bank on comparing people to others in their own school? There have been some frighteningly good people in my grade, and I really don't think I can compare to them at all. Fortunately they're not all applying Early, but I don't know...</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? That's so much better than being depressed because you'll never compare to these people that go on to win Nobel Prizes and Rhodes Scholarships and all sorts of other prizes.</p>
<p>AHAH mine averages 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 Ivy students per year...beat that Maguo :p</p>
<p>My high school had never had anyone admitted to Harvard in its 60+ years of existence, then my year 3 people were admitted. I was the only one who came though :-(</p>
<p>Actually, I checked the history of our county. Three people have been admitted to Ivies in the past decade. One got into Brown on soccer recruitment, one got into Yale because he was good and one got into Cornell because her entire family is on the Cornell faculty (her grandpa was a former dean). If we count Duke, then there are a total of 5 kids.</p>
<p>hey if there are no kids coming from you school, you can make it an advantage. harvard likes people that succeed when coming out of the boonies. basically, i think that, because of the way admissions are structured now, if a person coming from the boonies and a person coming from a prep school that sends half its students to ivies, are equal in many respects, harvard will want the student from the no name school.</p>
<p>mention how all odds were against you, and how you succeeded when no one thought you could etc. sure it sounds like a bad melodramatic movie, but thats what i think would help you. write about it in your essay harvard says they like to see people who make the best of what they have, and you should emphasize how little was availible to you. dont lie, but make it seem like it was extremely difficult to get to where you are.</p>