(Future) Chances at Harvard?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Dear CollegeConfidential,

This will be my first post ever (yay). I was wondering if Harvard would consider me to be a serious applicant in the future. Even though I am a freshman, I’ve always wanted to go to Harvard. In short, these are my stats:

GPA: 93/100 @ prestigious magnet school, top ranked in state (#2). This will change since I am transferring back to my home district next year, my current GPA will not be included in my transcript, only my final grades for the classes that I have taken. (I will have 1 B, the horror). When I transfer, I predict that my GPA will be around a 4.5-4.6, based on my current grades and the weighting system at the district. This will make me Valedictorian (1/175), but I am not sure. Anyway, this school has no rank.

Predicted Courses: (Most Rigorous Schedule available)

10th Grade:

Honors Chemistry
Honors US History
Honors American Literature
Honors Pre-Calculus or Honors Advanced Algebra 2 and Functions:
(depending on how credits are transferred). Both courses are 1-2 years ahead of the regular math level. Only 5
Sophomores are in Honors Pre-Calculus, so idk.
Honors Spanish IV
Honors Principles of Engineering (Dual Credit) (idk if it will fit into my schedule)
Financial Literacy

11th Grade:

AP Physics I
AP Biology
AP US History
AP English Language
AP Spanish Language
AP Calculus AB/BC or Honors Pre-Calculus (idk)

12th Grade:

AP Calculus BC (either way, I can still be in Calc BC Senior Year)
AP English Literature
AP Psychology
AP Chemistry or AP Physics C
AP Art History (Need 5 Art Credits to Graduate)
Some other electives needed to graduate

Extracurriculars/Awards/Other Stuff:

Piano (Carnegie Hall, MEA Auditions, Golden Key Int’l Competition, Crescendo International Competition) - will be very serious about this next will and will apply to many prestigious piano programs. I genuinely love the piano.
STEM League/Club - Student Tutor Volunteer at local elementary school, teaching kids about STEM.
Technology Student Association (TSA)
Bridge-Building Engineering Club (Team Engineer) (3rd Place in Engineering competition).
Biology Olympiad Club (Founder/President)
Model UN (Delegate)
Relay For Life (Team Captain)
Hospital Volunteering/Animal Shelter Volunteering
I also plan on starting my own charity this summer about a topic I am very passionate about (medicine).
State Government STEM Award (pending)
Summer Leadership STEM Program (paid)
I can speak 4 languages? Kinda. I feel like since I want to go into the medical field this will enable be to become a better doctor in the future.

Advice? Questions?

Thanks.

2

I would suggest that your resume come college admissions will resemble your “average excellent” applicant unless you can do a few things to gain a significant boost:
Attend High School Honors Science Program at Michigan State U
Intern at Stanford Canary Center
Key Club Regional Position
Internship at Google, Intel, or Apple
Present research at Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design
Win Science Olympiad or USABO

3

I am actually planning to do an internship Junior Year at a local lab or university for biomedical research, and I am looking for programs over the summer and science competitions next year. However, my family cannot afford some of these expensive summer programs and internships across the country and other things like that. What should I do in this case?

4

That’s not how it works. When you transfer schools, your 9th grade school will forward your transcript with your courses and grades to your future school – the one where you will complete 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Your future school will list those 9th grade courses on your transcript that is sent to colleges AND the grades you received in 9th grade will be averaged into your overall GPA along with the grades you receive in 10th, 11th and 12th grade.

Without an ACT or SAT score, without SAT Subject Tests, without AP tests your prediction is all based upon wishes, hopes and dreams. Until you have those actual scores in hand, it’s too early for a chance thread.

Why? What does Harvard offer you (besides prestige) that you cannot also find at Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Brown, Georgetown, Williams, Pomona, UPenn, University of Virginia, Amherst, UChicago, Boston College, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell and twenty other top colleges in the United States? When you can answer that question with clarity, then you’re ready to post another chance thread.

Best of luck to you at your new school!

5

Oh ok, I get it. When I recalculated my GPA according to the school that I am transferring to (my current school uses an uw 100 scale, while the one that I am transferring to is using a weighted out of 5), my GPA would be a 4.45, which I think makes me ranked 1-3/175. Is this good enough, considering I will have a 92-93/100 from my previous school according to their scale?

To answer your other question, yes I have always liked Harvard. However, I am ideally aiming for any top 10-20 university. I would be fine going to Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Brown, Caltech, UPenn, UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UCB, etc if I don’t get into Harvard. I realize that this dream is far fetched, yet still achievable. I use Harvard as a proxy when talking about any top 20 school, because it is considered to be “#1” from most people’s point of view. Harvard doesn’t offer anything that those schools don’t besides the fact that Harvard is my dream school.

Also, I have taken the ACT Aspire. While I realize that it is not the ACT, I did get a predicted score of 33 Composite.

Any other advice? Thanks for answering!

6

If you are not poor enough to be hooked with first gen, then maybe you’re a donut hole applicant who may not be a good fit for highly ranked schools. What is your EFC? It appears that you live a comfortably upper middle class lifestyle based on your ECs. Before applying to H, please consider whether you can really afford it. H only wants the very disadvantaged and the very wealthy.

7

In fact, I am first gen and my family makes under $50,000 per year (around there, might be higher/lower). Also, my “piano” at home is an electronic keyboard, and my family can barely afford lessons. I am trying to get into a very prestigious pre-college piano program, and if I get in, there is the possibility of a full scholarship to attend. I don’t know if my financial situation would either help me or hurt me.

8

Oh and the Summer Leadership STEM Program is volunteering that is free to attend and is a paid job.

9

Predicted scores are just that – they are not real tests, taken under real conditions. As such, predicted scores are often NOT accurate. Some students do worse than predicted, others do better. My suggestion: post a chance thread only when you have actual test results. Until then, it’s all supposition.

Again, that’s a prediction, which may or may not be the reality in two years when you apply to college. I would think you would need to attend your new school for a solid year before attempting to make a guess as to your ranking (which BTW Harvard doesn’t even consider).

You seem like a wonderful applicant, as are most students who will ultimately be rejected. As Harvard receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), Essays and Interview Report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of “good character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. And none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.

Let’s do some math, as I think this will help you concretely understand the reality of selective college admissions. Harvard Admissions is on record as saying that 80% of applicants can do the work on their campus, and fully 40% of them are top students with exemplarily credentials.

Now, last year almost 40,000 students applied to Harvard. If 40% of them are tippy-top students, that means 16,000 students are the best-of-the-best from across the country and around the world – truly stellar students with top grades, test scores, recommendations and essays. However, Harvard only has room for 1,660 students in their freshman class, which means over 14,000 terrifically qualified students who were “good enough” are rejected every year – and everyone one of those students had a chance. So, might you have a chance? Sure! But are the odds in your favor? No! Are the odds in anyone’s favor? No!

I would suggest you stop obsessing over whether you have a chance at Harvard or are “good enough” and just do the best you can for the next three years in high school.

10

@Studious99

This is incorrect info. Harvard is free for families less that approx. $65,000 (students have a work expiation). Families earning from $65,000-150,000 will pay 1-10% of income. Above $150,000 there is still generous aid but the expected family contribution grows more rapidly above $150,000. I think the cutoff for no aid is north of $180,000

Your comment applies to many privates but not HPY. Numbers are based on Harvard’s statements.

11

Thanks for your reply!

Question. Would 2 B’s Freshman year disqualify me or put me at a significant disadvantage? These B’s were teachers who were unfair. They would give me bad grades (for no reason!), and I reported them to the Board of Education. What should I do in this case? Should I tell colleges about my unique situation or just ignore the two B’s and “go with the flow”?

12

Two B’s would not disqualify you or put you at a serious disadvantage but going to the board of education because you feel your teachers were unfair shows a serious lack of maturity, Take responsibility for your grades and don’t blame others. Trying to explain that to any top school would not reflect very highly on your character.

All this is too early to predict your chances based on what you think your scores, grades and rankings might be.

13

I mean yes, it might be wise to take responsibility for my 2 B’s, but when I actually have proof of discrimination, that’s a whole different story. That’s the whole reason I reported one of my teachers - for academic discrimination.

14

^^ You don’t get it. Unless the Board of Education moves to sanction the teachers for their alleged discrimination, it’s your word against theirs – and any college is going to take a teacher’s word over a student. That’s just the reality. So, suck it up . . . unless you can get the Board of Education to agree with you, it’s a dead issue. Why would an Admissions Officer believe a student if the Board of Education did not rule in the student’s favor? If you bring it up in your application, I would think it would result in the Admissions Officer’s proclaiming “Geez, I can’t imagine what this student would be like with the competition for grades at our school. Best to reject him now before he causes our professors the same grief.” As 123Mom456 said you are demonstrating a lack of maturity on the subject.

15

Best of luck with that proof.

Do notice that all of these classes you will be taking you are planning to take will be relatively hard for some, and most people can achieve all A’s in 9th grade classes anyways, so your track record does not have enough yet to suggest anything yet (not talking about the ACT/GPA estimates others have already scrutinized). Most of my senior-year honors classmates had A’s all throughout most of high-school, but staggered off with C’s in several of their final classes with relief. Try to do the best that you can, try for that perfect 4.0 (or 3.9, if you can’t get those reversals), but remember that you will not know much until later. Until then, keep working on it.