I feel like they made their waitlist larger due to covid 19 but I would also think that they would have admitted many more people in order to compensate for a possible drop in yield? They only admitted 30 more people than last year. I mean naturally their goal is to not have to go to the waitlist at all and that everybody they admit will want to come so I feel like they would have opted to admit more people rather than just waitlisting a whole lot of people and admitting close to the same number. Idk I feel like making a super long waitlist just gives them more work to do because now you have to reconsider all these applicants, especially at a time that makes it difficult for the committee to congregate.
@chrisincollege it is definitely strange that they only admitted 30 more people. I guess it’s good news for us waitlistees because I don’t see any way that they wouldn’t have to dip further into the waitlist this year. I’m sure they waitlisted more people than usual, but approx. 1/3 of those people won’t accept the offer according to Harvard’s estimates, and who knows what the rest will do.
I think a lot will depend on the situation with international students, as they may not be able to get visas this year or won’t want to travel outside the country.
I’m not sure how Harvard will handle this mess, but if there’s any year to be admitted from the waitlist, it’s this year.
@chrisincollege Their goal for any normal year is to take no one off the waitlist. In a normal year, however, they can accurately predict their yield—something they can’t do this year. The safest bet is that yield will go down for nearly every school, but that’s only a prediction. If it doesn’t go down and Harvard were to have compensated by accepting many more students, a) their acceptance rate would’ve skyrocketed and b) they’d have too large of an incoming class. By admitting roughly the same number of people as last year, they’ll likely make a sacrifice for the sake of their acceptance rate and class size: admitting more students off the waitlist.
In terms of the size of their waitlist, they unfortunately haven’t released that data anytime in the recent past. Yale, however, has given this information for the past couple of years, and it looks like they only put around 150 more students on the waitlist than usual (last year was around 1,000; the year before around 1,100; and this year around 1,200). I don’t see any reason why Harvard’s waitlist size would be much different; in fact, I’d imagine it might be smaller, seeing as Harvard is historically more confident in their yield.
So, let’s say they waitlisted 1,200 kids this year. They tell us around 2/3 accept the offer, so that’s 800 kids competing against each other. Let’s say only 1,485 of the 1,980 kids accept their offers of admission (a liberal estimate), leaving 175 kids to get off the waitlist. That’s about a 22% chance of getting off.
I’ve seen many people say it’s unrealistic for kids, even internationals or those in tough financial situations, to just give up their offers. However, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to assume many of these kids will take gap years. Even though they’re technically still accepting their offers of admission, Harvard has to fill spots in the incoming class, and they do this by taking kids off the waitlist.
I completely agree with y’all. It’s hard to make predictions because they are very obscure about their waitlist numbers. We do have to keep in mind that without admitted students events and campus visits, student will be making decisions likely based on the name of the school rather than the feel of the campus. Nevertheless, I think they’ll accept more people off of the waitlist this year.
From what I have been hearing about kids, most people tend to pick Stanford over Harvard, but it is debatable given other elite universities. I know of some people who opted out last year because of differing financial aid offers. Also, I think Harvard is pretty confident in their yield rate so they historically have had way more selective waitlists, even then of Yale and Princeton. Let’s hope that they inform us on the same time as last year applicants were updated so we can know as soon as possible!
I suspect admission decisions were finalized before the gravity of the coronavirus crisis and its consequences were fully known. That would explain why they accepted only 30 more than last year. Would be interesting to know what deposits are like today compared to this day last year.
i would love if we could gain some information on yield so far–several schools including Barnard have been utilizing the waitlist for over a week now, hoping that others such as Harvard follow suit in the coming weeks, or at least early in May.
My other question though is whether or not international students are committing and paying deposits given the unknown about visas and travel? If they want to come might they be committing anyway? And how would that affect the numbers?
Like someone said, now students will be basing their decision on the name of the school, not necessarily the feel of the campus. Therefore, I feel like Harvard is not having too much of a problem with their yield; yet.
yeah i definitely could see that. what i meant though is are international students going to be committing without really knowing whether or not they can matriculate this fall? how is that being moderated at this point in time?
I don’t normally post on here but according to my counselor, Harvard waitlists wayyy more people compared to its class size than its peer institutions. It doesn’t want people to “resent” Harvard so it waitlists a lot of people, possibly around 2,500. In addition, Harvard does want to accept people off the waitlist. In the Class of 2021, they couldn’t admit anyone off the waitlist and had to resort to alternate housing. Since then they’ve always admitted less people
That is a factor. But it’s countered by no visits and Harvard being in the 26th highest density city in the U.S. (read: coronavirus).
There could also be the fact that because there are no visits students will be more prone to pick Harvard because of its infamous prestige. But yeah, it could also cancel out.
Boston happens to be a hot spot at a time when students are deciding. It’s not rational but it affects people.
Prestige is a lousy reason for going anywhere. Harvard is a great school but has a lot of large lectures with grad TA’s. Not the best fit for everyone.
I tend to get the sense that most kids accepted to these types of schools have already visited or value education above a campus. Yes, there are those stories of kids going for the underdog school, but I think that an absence of visits won’t affect anything or, as others have mentioned, be cancelled out by some other factor.
I agree, and foresee any main differences with yield and matriculation coming from the international population. But what is unclear is whether or not such students will be committing by May 1st even if they do not know whether or not they can feasibly matriculate in the fall.
What have you guys submitted besides your LOCI?
@chrisincollege I submitted a short creative writing piece and might get another letter of rec
An AO at an elite LAC in the Northeast told my family two things. Their deposits are way down from last year and, interestingly, many of those paying deposits are doing so only to hold the seat, not because they are committed to matriculating. Paying deposits at multiple colleges to CYA?
At a time with so much uncertainty, kids should be committing to Colleges they have been accepted to and move on. I’ve read way to many kids talking about being accepted to all the Ivies and then waitlisted at Harvard…and they’re holding out for Harvard?!? It’s the bigger picture problem with our society…always wanting more. For all the kids out there if you have a place at an Ivy take it- take your name off all waitlists and be happy 
! Great job on all your hard work!!
Congratulations on getting into Princeton CS. Would you mind sharing your stats?