Harvard SCEA 2024 Applicant Discussion!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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Let’s get this party started early! Feel free to vent, post stats, ask questions, or anything else you talented folk can think of!

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Hi! I was hoping you could notify me on the practicality of applying to harvard (possibly early) and being admitted. Here is a rough skeleton of my application accolades)

GPA Weighted: 4.62/5.0
Unweighted: 3.9/4.0
Class Rank 43/833
SAT: 1560
Math 2: 790 (will retake)
Have not taken second yet

EC’s
Speech and Debate: State champion, 4th at harvard tournament, 9th at UT tournament, 12th at nationals, 7th at Emory Tournament
Ranked 10th in the nation

Texas High School democrats of America

JSA Club Founder/ best speaker fall 2017

FBLA: Parliamentarian freshman year, 5th at state in Future Business Leader Interview

Taekwando 3rd degree level 4 black belt

Leadership:

Founder/President of BackPAC (largest student run political action committee in the country)
Founder/President of JSA School Chapter
Texas High School Democrats State Officer
Class Treasurer
Congressional Debate Captain
Historian of MSA

Summer Stuff:
Notre Dame Leadership Program 2019 (fully paid for summer program)
Rohingya Refugee Camp Volunteer 2018
Co-Founder of summer camp for debaters
Katy Speech and Debate Academy coach

This is a lot to go through haha, but i’d really appreciate if you could take a look
Thank you!

3

Your stats are phenomenal. But remember there is no perfect formula to be accepted to Harvard. I had a friend who was similar to you and didn’t get in. Never get your hopes up, just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re definitely a competitive applicant, though. I’m waiting for my letter back from Harvard right now, actually.

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@Debater2020 Yeah it looks like you have a really strong “spike” in debating and leadership. If you let that shine in your application you have a fair shot of getting into harvard and other top schools.

5

Thank you! I wish you the best of luck in your letters.

6

I appreciate it. Harvard is, of course, my reach school. I hope for Duke or Wharton as my more considerable options. Not sure if those are practical for me either lol

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@Debater2020 Yes, those may be very slightly less of a reach but both have insanely low acceptance rates, so make sure you have other schools that are easier to get into.

8

Why are you retaking your Math2? No reason for it.

9

Better chance at Harvard than Duke or Penn-Wharton if debate accomplishments are an admissions factor. The elite universities with highly ranked varsity debate teams are Harvard–#1, Northwestern–#4 & Michigan at #10 for 2018.

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It’s an absolute waste of your time and energy to retake Math 2. FWIW: Your desire to retake the test demonstrates you have no idea what Harvard is looking for. Let it go and spend the time working on your essays, positively contributing to your high school environment, pursuing your EC’s, working at a job, or taking your teachers out for coffee afterschool so they can get to know you better outside of the classroom thereby writing you a better recommendation. Here’s an article you might find interesting to read: Notice most students who have perfect or near perfect test scores are give the same rating of 2+, as such there is no difference between a 790 and an 800: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/6/16/harvard-admissions-behind-the-scenes/

1 Like
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I will say Debate accomplishments are very common at Harvard. Be sure to distinguish yourself from the many, many other debate kids applying.

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@studentathlete18 Interesting… do you think debaters apply because Harvard has a good debate team? Or is it just that many students applying happen to do well in debates.

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@Jedelm23, @studentathlete18, @Debater2020: My guess is that many applicants who are part of their HS debate team apply to Harvard because Harvard sponsors the most prestigious HS debate tournament in the country. As such, debate accomplishments are indeed very common in the pool of Harvard applicants both in the SCEA and RD round. https://www.competitionsciences.org/competitions/harvard-national-high-school-invitational-forensics-tournament/

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@gibby Ah yes, kind of like how MIT sponsors the Massachusetts science fair so a lot of applicants from Massachusetts will have participated in that fair and done well.

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^^ Yup!

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I got my letter back!!! Did you get in??

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This is the Class of 2024 thread, and the user is a junior.

I agree with @gibby . It’s a waste of time to retake.

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I will be applying to Havard this fall! So excited about everyone else.

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lmao I remember doing congress with you at some point, we’re probably friends on facebook from nat cir

20

Hi guys,
I’ll be applying REA this fall. I plan on doing either IR, music, or bio. Do you think I have a shot or is it not worth applying?

GPA (UW) 4.0/4.0
Class Rank: Top 5%
SAT: 1570 (Essay 20)
ACT: 36 (Essay 10)
Math 2: 800
Chem: 800
USH: 780

AP Courses
Physics 1, BC Calc, APUSH, Bio, Macro, Micro
(All 5s)
*also taking Multivariable calc right now

Senior Year APs
Chem
Psych
Spanish
CS
Stats

EC’s
MUN

  • attended and won 30+ conferences
  • club leadership

Music

  • Principal at All-National, All-Regional, All-State
  • Play in local orchestra & performance tour in Europe

Member of school board

  • manage school club budget

Research

  • more below, will have paper (first author) published in a paper w/ IF of 20+

Summer Activities:
Freshman: Research internship (Bioinformatics)
Sophomore: Research internship (Oncology)
Junior: West Point SLE, research internship (BME)