@skieurope hey, if we have something to update our app with, what would be the most effective way of doing so?
From my school counselor, I’ve heard that the best way to update our app is through the Harvard Portal 
@LOA1000
@skieurope Does Harvard ever contact students/GC for first quarter grades? If they do contact you, does it mean anything for the admissions process?
@jswani I try to be, haha. Haven’t had much time to practise yet, but I’ve mastered the beginner’s method (1m30s max) and I’m learning CFOP! (Go youtube tutorials lol.) Fun to see someone else here who likes the Rubik’s cube :-).
@ivydreamer2022 Harvard’s admission and financial-aid office will remain closed from Nov 22 to Nov 24 for thanksgiving. They reopen on Nov 27. Doesn’t it contradict with what you said about the full committee meetings (Nov 22 to Dec 5)? Also, do you have any idea when the selective interview (in those countries where an interview is issued only for those candidates who are almost sure to be admitted) usually take place?
No idea really. No one in my region as far as we know.
@nekanorneki The “the selective interview (in those countries where an interview is issued only for those candidates who are almost sure to be admitted)” you’re talking about, do(es) not exist. Who gets an interview is solely based on whether there’s an interviewer available, and absolutely not on ‘who are almost sure to be admitted’. Do not worry if you don’t get an interview. All it says, is that there’s no interviewer available to interview you. That’s all.
Yes, as I’ve mentioned several times.
It’s best if you read nothing into it; most GC’s will not even tell you if they’ve been contacted.
@Tomas1355 thanks for your reply. Actually, in our country, Harvard doesn’t interview more than one applicant each year. And it turns out that interviews have been conducted for only those students who later ended up getting admitted to Harvard (Yes, hardly one applicant gets accepted to Harvard each year from our country). However, your point that an interviewer may not be available is spot on. So it probably means the admission officer might organize a Skype Interview or something if they really like me?
The plural of anecdote is not data. Harvard says that it is a fallacy that it only interviews international candidates that “are almost sure to be admitted.” Believe it or don’t believe it, but don’t continue to spread the urban legend here.
Ivydreamer2022 is no longer a member of this site, so take what s/he said with a grain of salt. S/he heard it from a friend who may or may not have seen a preliminary timeline. Refer back to my earlier statement about anecdotes and data. If Harvard wanted applicants to know when the full committee meets, it would tell them. But one should assume that they are not meeting on a key US holiday. While SCEA decisions are at the top of every applicant’s list of important things in life, for the committee members, spending time with family is as important, if not more so. Regardless of when they meet, they have always in the recent past rendered their decisions on the date they stated.
@skieurope thanks for your response
I’m not sure if this link was posted before regarding interviews, but helpful refresher for those still waiting for one. https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/hear-our-students/student-blog/my-unofficial-tips-interviews
Does a recommendation from an “other recommender” show up in the Harvard portal?
@elloox No
@elloox and @ballin2022 I think the recommendation from “other recommender” shows up in the portal as “Academic Work” because the very moment I activated my portal (Nov 1), I saw “Academic Work” already included in my portal (even though I hadn’t added anything). So it can’t be interviewer’s request (I still haven’t received my interview) or anything else. It has to be other recommender’s recommendation letter! @skieurope What are your thoughts?
I don’t recall. But as I said before, in most cases, optional info does not show up in the portal, so the portal should nor be used by the applicant as any sort of checklist. If the additional rec was sent, assume that Harvard has it. If you want to contact them to be sure, go for it.
In this particular instance, it has been stated many times by AO’s during college fairs and other events. One can certainly choose to disbelieve what Harvard says. Having gone through the process, I share my experiences only.
Bad analogy; I doubt that Drew Faust concerns herself with that level of detail. Only a member of the admissions staff can speak with absolute certainly, but none of them is posting here.
I’m quite certain that the extra LOR don’t show up on the portal. I called the admissions office to confirm that mine was submitted, so you can also do that if so inclined
I don’t see the need to debate the merits of holding an opinion on the process–I doubt anyone, including the AOs, could claim anything for certain. When you have a process as holistic as is Harvard admissions, almost everything is subjective.
I wanted to comment on these statements as a current international student at Harvard and someone who knows many of the internationals in my class and other classes. My experiences are as follows:
I interviewed from a region of the world where there are very few (virtually 0) interviewers relative to applicants - all those interviewed actually receive interviews with the admissions office directly, NOT ALUMNI. These interviews are different to normal interviews - I was interviewed by my own admissions officer, who had my application open while talking to me and discussed aspects of my Common App essay with me. In my country and neighboring countries, in the past 4-5 years only one or two people are interviewed per country, all by the admissions office directly and not an alumni, despite many, many more applying (think up to 50-60 per year) - each of those interviewed received an offer of acceptance (or were deferred, and then later accepted). It was very clear to me that the admissions office had read my application and then decided to interview me.
Similarly, in some particular countries such as India, there are often many, many hundreds of applicants for every interviewer - and so a very small proportion of applicants are able to be interviewed, and yet almost all of the Indian nationals who were accepted and are currently in my class and the classes above and below were interviewed.
Yes, Harvard’s official stance may be that whether you get an interview does not depend on your chance of being accepted - but in my experience, I know quite literally 0 internationals who have been accepted without one, and it seems that in some countries at least, there does appear to be some kind of short list prepared where the admissions office directly contacts those of interest for interviews.