what were your stats and extracurriculars like?
what were your stats and extracurriculars
could you please share your stats and extracurriculars
See approximately post 802 for stats/ECs
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Deferred…does anyone know what percentage of accepted are First-Gen, Recruited Athlete, or Legacy? Given the 56% increase in applications and the number of admitted students going DOWN, do the words of Fitzsimmons conveying that the 2024 gap year students would not impact the 2025 pool have any validity?
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17% First Gen. Deferred will not have impact on admit numbers for 2025.
What’s happening is elite schools are getting so many applications this year. There’s an increase in Squeaker Apps, but also an increase in outstanding apps. They have a lot to choose from.
Here are both of the articles again:
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Deferred…
Im in a real dilemma. I see more and more articles saying that being test optional was irrelevant and that they didn’t wanna let in almost any people who didnt take the SAT or ACT. How true is this? Im an international applicant and testing is limited here in Serbia. Despite that there were around 2 dates for the SAT since September. My parents are crazy scared of the virus so convincing them to let me go to the only test center (the capital, Belgrade, which is also the most infected city in our country) to take the tests was mission impossible. I barely convinced them to let me take the IELTS there! The only testing date here rn is in march 13 and the results without essay would come in at march 26. Should I try to convince my parents to let me take that one?? Im not even sure the results would be on time because I’m not sure if I’m allowed to report my results as soon as they come out (Ivy day is 31 of march as I’ve understood it from my letter).
Im not even mentioning other colleges for which dates are probably going to be before the sat results date. Im in such a terrible position 
I thought I had a real chance with Harvard with my international science olympiad medal and research projects id done, but if the SAT is going to be the thing that carries me down that would be so unfortunate. Im confident id do pretty well too…
Sorry for the obnoxiously long message but any help or thoughts would be appreciated
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Colleges are test-optional for a reason. Your reason is valid. And March scores are too late anyway.
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You have to let it go, and focus on improving your application in some other way. You cannot take the test and have the result back in time to influence their decision.
Is there any way to find out what percentage of admitted applicants were test optional? If not for Harvard for any other school? If it’s not a lot then I will probably submit my scores.
In your RD apps, please make sure that you communicate this in the covid section. It is a perfectly valid reason why you don’t have a test score
Sorry… wish you had followed the advice of experts on here and moved to RD. They reject so few, but someone who applied REA to multiple places would top the list. Lesson learned I hope and good luck to you!
In my humble opinion, if I were AO whose job is to choose 7 applicants out of 100, there is no-brainer that I would look at those with high ACT/SAT scores and skip test-optional ones.
Fortunately most T20 universities opted not to hire AOs with no brains.
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I hope so…
If 5% of the admitted applicants are test-optional, I will agree with you.
What everyone wrote before me is good advice.
I’m just confirming that.
The March test date would be too late if the results come out March 26-- four days before they post decisions.
However, the reason you could not take it also important, as Faulkner mentioned.
wait those accepted under REA at Harvard with Test-Opt are only 5%, I mean only 37-38 students?
I cannot believe test-optional can be admitted for this round of REA, so I said “if”.
And I am seriously eager to know how many test-optional actually got admitted.
REA heavily favors recruited athletes, donor children, legacies, and special categories of achievement or recruitment. Most of these might have submitted test scores, but that doesn’t mean the test scores were in the normal median. This is because test scores are only one—and not heavily weighted—data point.
I know a guy who just got accepted REA and he had a 24 ACT, so I don’t know why you are belly-aching so much about test optional applications. Many times the test score has nothing to do with why someone gets admitted. Even in a normal cycle, test scores don’t set the bar. They might break a tie between two applicants equal in most other respects.
I’m glad Harvard doesn’t focus heavily on scores because I know many people who scored in the 30’s on ACT, and several with perfect scores, and they are lazy at school and don’t care much about anything except themselves. I’d hate to end up at the same college with them and I’d hope elite schools can see through the smoke-and-mirrors that rote test scores alone, can be.
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