Harvard SCEA: Chance Me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello all–

I’ve been searching around CC, and I’ve noticed that several Harvard prospectives have posted this lovely “chance me” discussion. Since decisions are being released soon, I thought I might as well take a shot.

Here we go:
1st generation Turkish-American/Muslim (fluent in Turkish)
1st generation college student
SATs: 1430 (Math 740, CR 690)
GPA Weighted: 100.32
Percentile: Top 10% of class
Principal’s Award for Excellence
Summa Cum Laude Honors
National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society

EC’s:
President of Speech and Debate (county champion in Declamation and OI, qualified for both states and nationals (CFL league))
Senior school newspaper journalist (& media network)
Attorney on Mock Trial Team
Astronomy Club
Student Council (Pres. freshman year, representative for all four years)
Book Club
Drama Club
National Academy of Future Medical Physicians Conference

Music Related EC’s:
Liturgical Music (I am a flautist; I play for school masses, etc.)
School Musical Pit Orchestra: Flute for Footloose, Reed I for the Little Mermaid
Student Director of the Wind Ensemble, Section Leader, Principal Flautist
NYSSMA All-State Audition: 99/100: Flute
NYSCAME All-County Band
(I sent in a flute solo supplemental–both all-state level solos)

Employment:
I work for various theaters for their pit orchestras. I have done both flute and reed books; reed books include piccolo, flute, clarinet, and saxophone. I am also a private flute teacher.

Community/In School Service:
Hospital Service: I volunteer on the maternity floor weekly and have served as a big help, ranging from tending to a patient’s needs to translating Turkish when a translator is not available.
Big Brother/Big Sister Program: A school run program (somewhat like a mentorship) to help the incoming freshman class get acquainted with the school. I have served as a Core Leader, which is the upper level of the program.
NHS Homework Help: Tutoring students weekly on their homework, projects, etc.
Catholic Charities Variety Show: A program to help men and women with disabilities; we choreograph dances for a recital in the winter.
Boy Scouts Street Fair: Yearly/volunteer via my town; help set up booths, make sure event goes smoothy.
South Pacific: >60 hours; Played flute book for local theater

Total AP’s: 10 (History: Euro, US, Economics, Gov/Science: Physics 1, Chemistry, Biology/English: Lit&Lang/Math: Calc AB)

Essay: I guess this is where I am strongest in my application. My father passed away when I was six years old, and ever since that day, I have made a promise that I would not let anyone lose a family member due to medical malpractice. I aspire to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, and change the face of medicine. As the daughter of two immigrants, my father’s death impacted my immediate family greatly; we had little financial stability, and the prospect of moving to Turkey to be supported by my family was very likely. My mother decided to stay in the States and rough it through because the education system in America is far better than in Turkey; she knew I would have a better shot at getting into a good university here.

Misc:
Financial Bracket: >$40k
State: NY
Gender: F
Concentration: Biochemistry/psychology

Colleges I’m Applying To: Boston University, Northeastern University, Columbia University, Yale, Boston College, Tufts, Binghamton, Stony Brook, etc.
Thanks!

2

You seem like a wonderful candidate with scores a tad low (heck, almost everyone’s low for Harvard, don’t feel bad!) and a great story, but no one can really give you a chance other than “unlikely, but possible” for the HYPSM schools. I wish you the best of luck throughout your college process!

3

You sound like a wonderful applicant, as are most student’s who are ultimately rejected. Because Harvard has many more qualified applicants than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), essays and interview report to select one candidate over another. As you haven’t posted those items (nor should you), it’s anyone guess as to how you will fair in the applications process. The most anyone can say about your chances is that your GPA and test scores indicate you are a qualified applicant.

4

@Jcannon1023, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve just gotten so anxious waiting, and I thought I’d just give it a try!

5

@gibby In all honesty, I don’t know how other applicants are able to access their teacher recommendations/interview reports. (As well as that, I’m not sure if I want to access them in the interest of privacy of those who sent in reports). Thank you so much for your input!

6

Just to give you a tid-bit of insight, my best friend interviewed for Harvard (he’s attending now!) and his interviewer said that 70% of the applicants are qualified to do well at Harvard, but they just can’t select each and every one of those applicants! I’m sure you’ll end up at a great school!

7

Sometimes teachers will give a student a copy of their recommendation letter. One of my son’s teachers did that. It’s unusual for a student to get a copy of their SSR or interview report though. As a result, most student’s only get to view about half (the half they supplied) of the information that an Admissions Officers uses to judge the quality of an applicant. Several short video’s I highly recommend you watch. Although they are not about Harvard, they will give you an idea of the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UYhTylqC9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OLlJUXwKU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96XL8vBBB7o

8

@Jcannon1023 I went to visit Harvard for an information session in October, (I’ve visited several times before, but this was my first official information session) and the admissions counselor said that if they were to go through all the applications over again, they might have chosen a completely different class for any incoming class of Harvard students. There are roughly 37k students applying, with only approximately 1,600 seats available, so of course they are going to have to reject truly qualified students. It takes a bit of luck to get in, but it’s a chance I’m willing to take :slight_smile: Thank you for your insight!

9

@gibby Hmm…as per the common application, I waived all my rights to view any of my letters or reports. Perhaps after I graduate I can access them. Thank you so much for the videos; they are really great resources for what goes in admissions. I appreciate it!

10

It does not preclude a teacher from offering to show/give you.

Anyway, good luck, sit tight for 2 weeks and see what happens.

11

@skieurope Thank you so much; I have asked in my own school about this, and I’ve gotten so many inconclusive answers regarding accessing the letters.

12

My son also checked the FERPA waiver agreeing that he would never view his recommendation letters, but one of his teacher’s gave him of copy of the letter nonetheless. As I said, some teachers do this, others do not.

Just as an FWIW on Harvard’s Admissions process: Harvard’s full Admissions Committee is comprised of over 40 members, half of whom are professors: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/04/harvard-college-admits-1990/

And it’s one-person, one-vote! Every accepted student must receive a nod from at least 51% of the people in the room. If every member of the full committee happens to be present that day, that means each student needs at least 20+ people in the room saying “YES” for them to be accepted.

It’s important to remember though that not every student is brought before the full committee. Regional Admissions Directors and the regional admissions committees read files and only bring the strongest applicants to the full committee.

My guess is that between the SCEA and RD cycle maybe 3,000 to 3,500 students who have it all: top grades and test scores, stellar teacher recommendations, thought provoking essays, good interview reports and remarkable extracurricular activities – are brought before the whole committee each year. Of those 3500 students, about 2100 of them are made an offer of admission. The 1400 or so applicants who are not chosen by the full committee probably go to the waitlist.

The vast majority of applicants – probably 85% to 90% of students who apply to Harvard never make it to the full committee. That’s because their Regional Admissions Director had other top candidates to choose from.

Best of luck to you in the Admissions process!

13

@gibby Thank you so much for the information! I really appreciate the insight into what happens in the admissions process; I was unaware of this little tidbit of information. It’s a great reminder of the grand scheme of the enormous endeavor I’ve embarked, haha. I’ll just have to wait and see!

14

@gibby is this regional siphoning applicable to the SCEA round as well? Do you think they at least bring in a few more applicants to the committee simply because fewer applicants apply SCEA?

15

Yes, it applies to both the SCEA and RD rounds.

The SCEA round is thought to be more self-selective, meaning more top students choose to apply in the early round. So, proportionality then (in terms of admits/applicants) the committee sees more tippy-top students in the SCEA round, but not because there are fewer applicants. It’s that the applicants are more competitive in the SCEA round than the RD round.

16

@gibby I saw that (I believe it was last year) that out of the 5,000 that applied SCEA, ~500 were rejected, and those who were not accepted were deferred. How are students deferred within the regional siphoning (if my memory is correct, around ~3.5k were deferred) process? Does Harvard give a certain criteria to those regional representatives to defer or send an application to the admissions board for final review?

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While this article is old, it will give you an idea of the process: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/keys-to-the-kingdom/

18

@gibby thank you so much; you’re a great help. Quick question: does it fare well to be of a not-so-great financial background for the admissions counselors? Do they consider accomplishments based on the circumstances that a student has been through?

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@schroscat yes they do. Although a lot of people overestimate its impact (according to a yale alum I spoke to)

20

@expertiger thanks! I was just going through some threads and I felt that my application is rather insignificant; some students have certain programs that I have been unable to be a part of due to my family’s financial status. (In all honesty, I have come to the point where I’m freaking out over everything.)