Harvard recently contacted my counselor and asked for my current grades. I was deferred early action, and I was wondering what this meant and sort of where I was in the application process. Does this mean that they’re considering me again?
Also, my grades right now aren’t stellar due to outside reasons/circumstances… I have A’s and B’s and even a C in English. Do you think this will reflect badly on me at this point?
Thanks
I’m surprised you didnt have to send in your first semester grades as a deferred EA. Yes, poor grades will hurt… If you had sent them in yourself, you could have explained, but it’s too late now. good luck.
That does indicate that they are looking seriously at your application. The downward trajectory in grades will probably not reflect super well. But there must have been other great stuff in your application to draw their interest.
You were deferred, not rejected. Thus, of course you were still in the running for a spot in the regular decision round. One reason a school like Harvard may defer you is to get a look at a last look at your grades before making a final decision. Thus, if your grades have fallen off in the meantime, that’s not a good thing. Whether there’s much that can be done about it at this point is an open question. If your counselor hasn’t yet sent the grades, perhaps you could prevail upon him/her to send them along with an explanation of the fall-off in your performance that clearly points to outside, unavoidable issues that would legitimately cause the decline.
Yes, a downward trend in grades your senior year WILL reflect badly upon you if presented without an explantation, so you need to follow @notjoe’s advice
Wow, thanks for the number of responses in such a short time. (=
Ah jeez, didn’t expect that I would have to worry so much regarding quarter grades…
But anyways, let’s say that I ask my counselor to send a letter of explanation, and he complies. Does this mean that I have a strong, or at least, good, chance of being accepted? I’m not sure whether you guys are saying these recent grades are the last hurdle before acceptance, or if I have good grades, they’re willing to reconsider my application.
Thank guys, really appreciate it.
Some schools defer and automatically consider the applicant without the applicant having to do anything.
If you are applying to be an English major, I’d be very worried about the C. If it is AP English and you are going for engineering or science, less so.
@jdondeca,
" I’m not sure whether you guys are saying these recent grades are the last hurdle before acceptance, or if I have good grades, they’re willing to reconsider my application."
I don’t think anyone’s saying quite either of these things. Harvard says that it only takes the strongest applicants in the early admission round. You didn’t make it. So, you weren’t among the strongest applicants. They defer most of the early applicants to the regular decision round. You got deferred, so that means you weren’t in the bottom part of the pile.
Where you are among the vast middle pool of qualified applicants is anyone’s guess. We don’t know. But your deferral does mean that broadly speaking, Harvard considers you qualified enough to keep looking. But they still have way more applicants at the end of the early admissions process than they have spots. All it means is that your application lived to fight another day. Most of the folks who were deferred, and of course, most of the regular decision applicants, will be rejected.
I don’t think anyone here can say more about your chances.
@jdondeca: Look at it from the point of view of an Admissions Officer. Admissions liked you in the SCEA round, but had a question about your file, so they deferred you. Why were you deferred? No one knows why, but let’s assume they wanted to see additional grades from your senior year. So, they’ve asked for them. If your GC submits your senior grades without explanation, the first thought that’s going to cross an AO’s mind is “Gee I guess jdodeca is having a senior slump.” That is not going to bode well for your chances unless your GC can counter that with an explanation as to the legitimacy of the decline. If your GC sends in an explanation, it will hopefully appease the AO’s thoughts about your senior year grades, but no one can say more about your chances.
wait I thought only 1st SEMESTER grades counted…do 3rd quarter grades also matter?
Everything matters. They want to know you’re not slacking off.
Yes, and so do 4th quarter grades. Even if you get accepted, it is conditional upon maintain your grades. A downward spike into the D/F arena is a surefire way to get your acceptance rescinded.