Harvard SCEA: Chance Me?

[gibby]

does it fare well to be of a not-so-great financial background for the admissions counselors?

Harvard, Yale and Princeton are need-blind for both US and international students. As such, there is a firewall between the Admissions Office and the Financial Aid Office, meaning that a family’s ability to pay is not a factor when evaluating applications. Student’s are admitted based on everything but their financial need. Only AFTER a student is admitted by the full admissions committee is their application sent to the financial aid office and aid is calculated. So, Admissions technically does not know which student’s are from wealthy backgrounds and which are from not-so-great financial backgrounds.

That said, I think Admissions Officers are well acquainted with certain zip codes. For example, they know that student’s who are in zip codes 90272 (Pacific Palisades, CA), 94301 (Palo Alto, CA) or 10282 (Battery Park City, NY) will in all likelihood not need financial aid. Conversely, student’s with zip codes from 41171 (Burke, KY) and 31634 (Cordell, GA) will need lots of financial aid.

In addition, when Admissions looks at an applicant and neither parent has attended college, they can guesstimate that a student will need financial aid. However, given HYP’s deep pockets, that is not a concern for the institution, as more money can always be found if they go slightly over their estimated budget. That’s not the case at other schools, which are need aware. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/education/edlife/what-you-dont-know-about-financial-aid-but-should.html

Since the Great Recession, the list of colleges that have eliminated need-blind admissions has grown ever longer. Reed, Wesleyan, Tufts, Colby, Agnes Scott and, in February, Clark University are among those that no longer make all of their admissions decisions without looking at financial information, and a family’s ability to pay.

---

Do they consider accomplishments based on the circumstances that a student has been through?

See: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/harvarddean-part3/

The term “extracurricular activities” covers an enormous amount of ground. We are interested in whatever a student does: in addition to school extracurricular activities and athletics, students can tell us of significant community, employment, or family commitments. There are many who spend a great deal of time helping to run their household, preparing meals and caring for siblings or making money with a part-time job to help the household meet expenses.

Unfortunately many schools have had to curtail or eliminate extracurricular activities and athletics, or they charge fees for participation. In addition, many students cannot afford expensive musical instruments or athletic equipment — or have families without the resources to pay for lessons, summer programs and the transportation networks necessary to support such activities.

Admissions Committees keep these factors in mind as they review applications, and are concerned most of all to know how well students used the resources available to them. Extracurricular activities need not be exotic — most are not — and substance is far more important. A student who has made the most of opportunities day-to-day during secondary school is much more likely to do so during college and beyond. This applies to academic life as well as extracurricular activities.

[expertiger]

@gibby @schroscat as a clarification, I meant that kids who grow up in tough circumstances and discuss these circumstances in their essays, etc will have their special conditions taken into consideration. The fact that harvard is need blind is boasted all over harvard’s website and emails.

[schroscat]

@expertiger that’s what I was asking about, sorry for the confusion @gibby (on my original post, I meant to say <$40k, but I miss-typed. Regardless…) I did discuss my circumstances in my essay, as my background/circumstances have really shaped who I am as a person, as well as helped paved the way to my aspirations. Thank you both for your input!

[Darknezzerat]

@schroscat Did you get in?

[schroscat]

@Darknezzerat I was deferred SCEA to the RD round!

[Darknezzerat]

Darn @schroscat

[Darknezzerat]

@schroscat Let us know where you get in!

[schroscat]

@Darknezzerat Of course! So far, I’ve been accepted to 3 SUNY schools, Stonehill, Hofstra, and Northeastern

[Darknezzerat]

@schroscat did you get in?

[schroscat]

@Darknezzerat Nope! I was rejected from all of the ivies, as well. sigh