everyone mentioned “deferred” or “acceptance” for SCEA. But you can also be straight denied. Here is the letter they send for that …
The Committee on Admissions has completed its Early Action meetings, and I am very sorry to inform you that we cannot offer you admission to the Class of 2021. I wish that a different decision had been possible, but I hope that receiving our final decision now will be helpful to you as you make your college plans.
In recent years, the Committee has been faced with increasingly difficult decisions; nearly forty thousand students now apply for the sixteen hundred and sixty places in the freshman class, and the great majority of our applicants could be successful here academically. In addition, most candidates present strong personal and extracurricular credentials. The Committee has, therefore, been faced with the necessity of choosing a freshman class from a great many more talented and highly qualified students than it has room to admit.
We wish we could admit more of our fine applicants, and we understand how difficult the college application process can be for students and their families. While the Committee conducted its deliberations with the utmost care, we know that no one can predict with certainty what an individual will accomplish during college or beyond. Past experience suggests that the particular college a student attends is far less important than what the student does to develop his or her strengths and talents over the next four years.
We very much appreciate the interest you have shown in Harvard, and we hope you will accept the best wishes of the Committee for success in all your future endeavors.
Every year Harvard or Stanford can fill the whole freshman class five time over with applicants possessing perfect GPA and perfect scores. There’s just tons of people with “deserving” academic grades and scores. So the admission office look beyond those academic criteria, especially if you are in Asian ethnic groups. Try to think of what would make you a great addition to the campus and highlight how having you on campus will improve the experience and knowledge of others on campus.
Can anyone give advice to an RD applicant? I wrote an essay for Princeton using the prompt for writing about your experiences using a book quote. I like how the essay represents me and want to use it for Harvard, but is it a bad move to submit an essay that is clearly written for a different prompt? I know they have an “open-ended” option but the book quote portion is pretty obvious.
This number does NOT tell you it is harder for Asians to get in, or that their number is decreasing, for a couple of reasons
it does not tell you the number of Asians, only the percent: if more people were admitted early, the numbers of Asians may actually have increased! We can’t tell from the info given
it does not tell you the numbers of Asians who applied
There are all sorts of legit questions about how Harvard addresses diversity but you cannot draw this conclusion from the number you quote.
@TheCrimsonBulldog are you a Harvard legacy? If not, it may explain your deferral despite of your qualification. And if you are Asian, your chances are even lower.
In one private HS in NorCal this year, all the 4 accepted are Harvard legacies while none of the students without hooks got accepted. The deferred students are of the highest calibers at the school in academics and leadership. Similarly, least 11 accepted into Stanford via REAs, with 10 of them as legacies. The only non-legacy kid who got in has near perfect test scores and one of the highest GPA - he was believed to have been admitted to make the average GPA look better. These are two data points on how ivies work. Ivy schools systemically admit legacies and students with hooks, even if some of these students are less qualified.
my theory is that early admission at Harvard focus rather strongly on hooks and backgrounds. All chinese int’l applicants that got accepted early all have a decent level of international background, while all the traditional acceptees are admitted under RD; and your info further strengthens this theory @1stforce
I’m just a student with no insider knowledge about admissions, so take this with a grain of salt, but I really do think that essays are far far more important than emphasized on CC. It’s objective and easy to report test scores/GPA/number of clubs you’re president of, so those portions of the application are the most discussed. Ivies like Harvard can fill their classes multiple times over with academically identical students; they’re therefore more likely to pay attention to subtleties in essays than “lower tiered” schools. I know that I am very defensive about my own writing, so it can be hard for students to admit that their essays are anything less than “strong” (seriously, everyone on the results threads of any Ivy school says their essays were strong), but even strong essays may not be enough if the CA essay and the supplemental essay are too similar, or if the characteristics highlighted in the essays aren’t what the school is looking for. Again, just my two cents. Admissions is a mystery to all.
Does anyone know how worthwhile it is to send additional letters of recommendations after being deferred? I’m having letters written by a visiting scholar at Yale under whom I’ve studied, a state senator for whom I’ve worked, and a former state representative for whom I’ve worked, and I plan on sending them all to the admissions office just because. Is there any chance that this could help me?
@1stforce , to answer your question, I’m a white male from Massachusetts who doesn’t have legacy status at Harvard; in other words, I’m pretty generic.
@TheCrimsonBulldog No – do NOT send addit LORs as part of your update. Harvard wouldn’t have wanted to read them originally; why would it want to read them now. Multiple LORs beyond what’s required is NEVER a good thing.
The “update” is what it should be – any significant achievements (besides persuading people to write LORs) or awards.
@TheCrimsonBulldog Bud, I understand your situation. I was deferred, too, and my stats are Ivy-caliber for sure. It’s difficult to face deferral/rejection from an absolute dream school, but it’s life. My best friend got rejected from Stanford, even though he was a 4.0, sports captain, ACT 36, and his FATHER was a PROFESSOR there. Like, whoa. He’d been dreaming to go there since kindergarten, and he got rejected, not even deferred (probably wrote some scrappy essays). Know you’re not alone and know that Harvard knows who they admit. IMO, Harvard wholly misrepresents the SCEA decisions with their acceptance rate. EVERYONE I know who got in, both on CC and IRL, got accepted because they were something truly special or had a hook (i.e. URM, legacy, from underrepresented state, went to RSI/TASP, low-income, recruited athlete, International Medalist, SciFair champion). No ONE I know who had awesome stats but didn’t have one of those massive distinctions got in. And that tells me that they admit most of their “normal” admits in the RD round, and it makes me regret that I didn’t listen to this thread earlier, because it is indeed EXACTLY what deferred kids face (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1184853-a-warning-to-harvard-2016-ea-applicants-read-this-important-message-p1.html).
So, sit tight. Don’t send in an massive amount of recs, just update them with solid accomplishments. Also, please stop giving away so many of your specifics. I looked up your PAC and found you in an instant!
@TheCrimsonBulldog I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sending in an additional rec, there are some people who have done that and have gotten in through RD. But I think that three is wayy too many and you should just pick one to send.