Harvard Class of 2021 RD Thread

Hello!
For those of you who got a Likely Letter on yours portal-
Where did the likely letter appear? Was it a link?
Thank you!

@skieurope For future reference-- I remember once hearing the rule of thumb that admissions counselors are looking for reasons to admit students, not reasons to not admit them. I truly believe they will not hold anything against a student for sending an update and agree, it can only help. Worse case scenario they just don’t consider it at all. Unless you are really obnoxious, they are not going to hold it against you if you send updates. You are letting them know how much you want to go there. When in doubt, send it.

I’m not disagreeing with this.

As I’ve said before, and other users have also commented, Harvard assumes that it is every applicant’s top choice, particularly when applying in the early round. If they need extra materials to make their decision, they will ask. Some updates are more welcome than others. Glad it worked out for you.

My opinion is that it’s better to err on the side of sending something vs. not sending something. I just feel like if a student ends up NOT getting in, they might second guess their decision to have NOT sent something vs. their decision TO send something.

I’m also not so sure that I agree that Harvard assumes it’s everyone’s top choice, at least in the RD round which is what we are talking about. I think ANYTHING to have your application stand out in a positive way can only help. Yes, reality is it will likely make no difference…but again, it can’t hurt and you don’t want to regret not sending it later.

@collegemomjam if I remember correctly, Harvard has officially said that it evaluates every applicant as if Harvard is their first choice.

I’m sure you are right, but I still think all things being equal they may be more inclined to go with the candidate that has demonstrated more of a “passion” for the school, however that might be. After all, this is a completely subjective process in the end because I’m sure the candidates that have made it to the final phase are all incredibly qualified. It could be that little last "push’ that gets one person picked over another…wish I could be a fly on the wall!

@emli8100 Can you post what they said in the likely letter?

What time on the 30th will decisions be released?

5 pm EST

Hey guys, im a junior and i’m already scared lol. My friend got a 1330/1600 on the sat and took no subject tests and was ranked 21/530, 3.92 gpa, yet he still got deferred by harvard ea. Is this unusual?

@nillupa What did you expect to happen to him? Also, you posted this on Princeton’s thread too, and I replied.

@nillupa Hardly anyone gets rejected EA — I think only 5% get rejected. So getting deferred was the most probable outcome for him.

I was just thinking he should have gotten rejected since people with 2200+ got rejected in the ea.

@VenomBuds i believe a lot more than just 5% got rejected.

But they didn’t release statistics this year except for those that got accepted:/

@nillupa There are many more factors than just raw stats that go into the decision to accept, defer, and reject.

OK so I was contacted by my AO to have an interview after having already completed an alumni interview over a month ago. My AO didn’t give any indication about my status in the process during the interview, but she repeatedly said she liked me. I’m just confused because I don’t know what this means. I’ve never heard of anyone having two interviews for admission to one college. Anybody have anything similar?

@17moonshine Hmmm. I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone either.

I only just got a call from AO that I’ll be getting a likely letter tomorrow… so don’t lose hope if you haven’t gotten one

Where are you from? @brennan0111