Giving this Harvard Chance Thing a Try

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hey, I am writing this because I am in a bit of a pickle. I had no real interest in Harvard, but then I began receiving some of their packages, and my interest was quirked. Before I commit to putting down a huge amount of time preparing for and taking the SAT Subject Tests and writing out their application, I was wondering if any of you fine folks would be willing to chance me? I know it is just guessing, but I cannot deduce any rhyme or reason from the Harvard Admissions Results Thread. Is it worth applying? Any advice is really appreciated!</p>

<p>State of Residence: Indiana
Race: Caucasian
Sex:Male</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1/570
GPA: (4.0)
AP Courses: World History(5), Art History (5), Biology (5), Spanish(4), US History(5), Psychology(5), Calc Bc(5), Calc AB Subscore (5), Government(5), Human Geography (Ind. Study)(5), European History (Ind. Study)(5), English Lit(5), English Lang(5), Macro Economics(5), Statistics(5), Environmental Science(5)</p>

<p>SAT: 2190 (CR 760, W 740 , M 690)
SAT Subject Tests: (?)
ACT: 33 (Eng 34, Math 28, Reading 36, Science 34)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (Leadership and total time involved in parenthesis):</p>

<p>National Honors Society (President)
History Club (FOUNDING President)
History Academic Superbowl (4 years, Captain (Two years state finalists))
Math Academic Superbowl (2 years)
Interdisciplinary Academic Superbowl (3 years Captain)
Quiz Bowl (4 years in total, 2 years Varsity Captain)
High School Swimming (3 years, varsity for two)
Rec+ Soccer Club (5 years, 2 year captain)
Orchestra (3 years, Bass Section Leader)
Studied in Spain all summer through Indiana University's Honors Program
Interact Service Club (2 years, sergeant at arms for one year)
Key Club (1 year)
Student Government (1 year Representative)
Church Acolyte (3 years, 1 year as Head Acolyte)</p>

<p>Intended Major:Business (With a Spanish and History Minor)</p>

<p>I have no idea if I have a decent shot. If you have any experience with how they sift through their applicants, I would really appreciate any input you could give me! Thank you so much for your time.</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if you were accepted. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were rejected.</p>

3

<p>^very good point about all “qualified” candidates :P</p>

4

<p>SAT score is a bit low for white male. ACT is okay, I guess.</p>

5

<p>White male valedictorians grow on trees. Doing well on a lot of AP tests is quite common as well. You do seem to be a fairly “well rounded” applicant. As you know, the weakest part of your application is your performance on standardized tests.</p>

<p>How much time/effort did you dedicate to preparing for your standardized tests?</p>

<p>Should you invest the time to study for/take Subject tests and fill out the Harvard app? I don’t know. If you think you’d be interested in attending a particular college, then I think it makes sense to submit an application to that college.</p>

<p>You can’t win if you don’t play…</p>

6

<p>Since you’re considering applying now I’m assuming you’re a junior. And because AP scores for this year haven’t come out, that means you took 16 AP tests in freshman and sophomore years alone? I’ve never heard anyone coming close to that feat. Definitely apply.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all of the advice. Would it be fair to say that it was worth my time to apply? I see that all of your opinions are leaning towards the fact that my application is rather average for Harvard applicants. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing in the circumstance.</p>

8

<p>“Would it be fair to say that it was worth my time to apply?”</p>

<p>If you have to ask the question, then you shouldn’t apply. There are way too many students who already know it’s worth their time (and their parent’s money) to apply.</p>

9

<p>Being an average Harvard applicant means other colleges will love to have you; whether Harvard will want you is a long shot.</p>

<p>You will need great SAT IIs, and maybe want to retake the SAT I to improve the math score. Your ECs don’t point to any real passion–are you good enough to be recruited for DivI swimming or soccer? Or is history your main interest? </p>

<p>There is rhyme and reason in the H results thread–people with amazing ECs or stellar academics, or unique talents get admitted. With your current profile, you will need a hearty boost in one or more of those areas.</p>

<p>Also, Harvard does not have an undergraduate business major. Only an economics concentration. No accounting or finance classes. Have you considered UPenn Wharton- they have an undergrad business curriculum?</p>

10

<p>Yes, you should apply.</p>

<p>Your grades are excellent, your courseload superb. It would be interesting to know whether or not you’ve actually received the scores for all those AP exams, or whether some or all of those are projections of what you anticipate. If the latter, update the thread when you actually get the scores.</p>

<p>Your standardized test scores are very good, but there’s room above you. I’m not really sure that it will make a difference to Harvard whether you have a 2190 or a 2240, but re-taking the SAT or the ACT wouldn’t hurt.</p>

<p>Your ECs are very good, but not out the ordinary for Ivy applicants.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry about the fact that you’re just starting to show interest in Harvard. It wasn’t even on my son’s radar until well into his junior year. Now he is an enthusiastic member of the class of 2016.</p>

<p>There is a reason why schools send literature - to pique interest, to get folks to pursue that interest a little, so that they may consider whether or not to apply.</p>

<p>My son’s interest didn’t come from literature sent to him, but rather from attendance at an open house with two other schools in which he was actually interested. But Dean Fitzsimmons, who presented for Harvard, made the school sound appealing and proactively answered many of the concerns we’d had about Harvard.</p>

<p>Further exploration eventually put Harvard into my son’s top choices, and here we are!</p>

<p>You ask, “I have no idea if I have a decent shot.”</p>

<p>You have a better shot than most. Just remember, Harvard turns away roughly 19 kids for every student they accept. Many of those they turned away are completely qualified to succeed at Harvard, as you seem to be from the small amount of data you provide here. So, apply, yes. But apply to a good range of schools. Cast your net widely. For anyone, Harvard is a “reach” school.</p>

<p>If you have a chance, visit the school. My son visited. He spoke to faculty in the departments in which he has interest. He dormed with a bunch of students. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Folks were generally knowledgeable and thoughtful in their responses to his questions. He encountered honesty and interest in him as an individual.</p>

11

<p>Thank you for the constructive feedback, especially notjoe. I will definitely take your advice and apply to several schools.</p>

<p>In response to Fauve: I am not interested in doing sports in college. I would say that I enjoy business because I enjoy motivating and leading people, and my history of leadership in my community attests to that. I also enjoy working with systems so as to maximize their output, and to find unique solutions to problems. And I love learning for learning’s sake, which I feel is shown by my commitment to the academic teams (Which I LOVE).</p>

<p>In response to Gibby: I didn’t mean to come across as disinterested. Going to Harvard (Or any Ivy League school) would be huge for me personally, and I have had a lot of members of the community encouraging me to try. I just don’t want to spend the time focused on Harvard if I am working on a sinking ship.</p>

12

<p>“I have no idea if I have a decent shot.”</p>

<p>With your stats, you are definitely in contention, but then again so are 90% of the students who apply. Just remember, Harvard rejects 94 out of every 100 students. With those odds, no one has a decent shot. See: [Guidance</a> Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 1 - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1/]Guidance”>Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard's Dean, Part 1 - The New York Times)</p>

<p>Our goal in admissions is to attract the best students to the college. Many people believe “best” ought to be defined by standardized tests, grades, and class rank, and it is easy to understand why. Such a system, another Harvard dean of admissions, Bill Bender, wrote in 1960, “has great appeal because it has the merits of apparent simplicity, objectivity, relative administrative cheapness in time and money and worry, a clear logical basis and therefore easy applicability and defensibility.”</p>

<p>While we value objective criteria, we apply a more expansive view of excellence. Test scores and grades offer some indication of students’ academic promise and achievement. But we also scrutinize applications for extracurricular distinction and personal qualities.</p>

<p>Students’ intellectual imagination, strength of character, and their ability to exercise good judgment — these are critical factors in the admissions process, and they are revealed not by test scores but by students’ activities outside the classroom, the testimony of teachers and guidance counselors, and by alumni/ae and staff interview reports.</p>

<p>With these aspects — academic excellence, extracurricular distinction, and personal qualities — in mind, we read with care all the components of each application.</p>

13

<p>So I suppose that the packet they sent me is rather run-of-the-mill material and does indicate a specific interest?</p>

14

<p>All colleges, including Harvard, purchase mailing lists from the College Board. Harvard literally send tens of thousands of letters and applications out every year, so yes it’s run-of-the-mill and it does not indicate interest. </p>

<p>The below article does not say how many mailings Harvard sends out, but notes that Yale cut it’s mailings down to 80,000 in 2005. I would imagine that Harvard sends at least that many out. [Ivy</a> League Colleges Solicit Students Rejected for Stake of Selectivity - Bloomberg](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>

15

<p>

Yes, the packet is run-of-the-mill. I would not interpret the brochure/marketing literature as “Harvard has a specific interest in me.” The same mailing is sent out to many, many other high school students.

I’d recommend not listening to other people about where you should or should not apply to college. Check out the school on your own and evaluate whether the school is a good match for you. Unless the community members are alumni/ae of Harvard (or the other schools to which they are encouraging you to apply), they are basing their recommendations exclusively on the reputations of the respective institutions. In other words, they are making uninformed recommendations. (To a certain extent, the same can be said about the parents of current/past Harvard students who did not attend Harvard themselves.)</p>

<p>The fact that community members (who may or may not know you well) are encouraging you to apply to highly selective universities is a testament to how “smart” they think you are. Take it as a compliment…and leave it at that.</p>

<p>Apply to several schools with a range of selectivity. Have fun with the process. Don’t stress out about it. Enjoy college wherever you end up and embrace the freedom you have to pursue your academic/extracurricular interests. Be happy. :)</p>

16

<p>Well shucks, that’s a bummer about the letter. I am keeping my eyes open to other possibilities (Such as IU, Notre Dame, and UChicago), I just want to find a school that will be really challenging and engaging because I love to learn and I want to get the most out of my college education. I know that Harvard is held to a certain level of excellence, and after research I am confident that I would be able to grow a great deal in that environment. There is just a lot of uncertainty regarding their admissions process (Like all universities, I suppose) and I’ve been really curious as to where I stand. Bartleby007, you made a lot of good points, and I am indeed happy. I’m quite honestly pumped to finally get to this stage in the process. The uncertainty is really galling though. Not on whether I get in or not, but rather the caliber of student that each school is looking for.</p>

17

<p>You are the average to above-average applicant for Harvard and probably got their standard letter because of your “33” on the ACT. They will want you to apply and see if there is anythng else going on with you that might interest them. It is crucial that you remember that Harvard does NOT have a business program. So, if you remain interested in Harvard, and time comes to fill out the Common Application form where you list your academic interests, DO NOT check “business” (at least as # 1). You will have submarined your application at the get go.</p>

18

<p>Why is your Math score so low yet you got 5s on the Calc AB/BC exams? Wouldn’t that mean you’re pretty good at math?</p>