In my experience, some countries do in fact have selective interviews. I posted a more detailed comment explaining what I’ve experienced as an international student at Harvard, and heard from other international students, but it is awaiting review - unsure why? @skieurope
Question: does it make a difference to your admission if you indicated interest in a less common major on your common app?
@fluffysimba Harvard only asks about what department you’d want to study under. Unless you specifically referenced a concentration in your supplement and your activities/writing reflects deep interest in it, then no.
@princet2021 It’s not a bad analogy at all. In fact, what you call ‘an opinion’ is a straight up fact. It’s a fact that Harvard has said that interviews are based on availability and not one’s potential.
Moreover, of course we can never be certain about whether or not the admissions officers and president are honest. However, it’s absolutely illogical for them to not be, in this case.
First of all, determining who gets an interview would add a considerable amount of time to the whole process and would make it more expensive, while the interviews have empirically shown to not be of great importance in comparison to other parts of the application.
Furthermore, do you have any evidence showing that they’re not honest? You’re calling @skieurope out for being incorrect if he has no “factual unbiased data corroborating his theory of Harvard’s defence”, but where’s your evidence? You have made the claim that he is incorrect, while you’ve mistaken a fact for an opinion and have absolutely no hard evidence that what he says is not true.
Does anyone know when the exact the date the results are coming out? I read in a Crimson article it was the 12th this year but … ?
@meringue December 12, 5PM EST.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Alright so we know decisions come out Dec. 12 but @skieurope I’m interested in hearing your opinion on when the last date to send an update in is – as in how many days before Dec. 12 are most decisions already made?
@Telluric when had you received your interview with admissions officer? Was it somewhere in the first week of December? (Because I also belong to a region as you mentioned and haven’t been contacted yet for alumni interview. So I’m a little worried and am in the hope of receiving one with the admissions officer. I submitted the app on November 1.)
@nekanorneki, I had my interview with my admissions officer around this time of the year, late November. One of my friends from a neighboring country who also had an admissions office interview also had his around late November.
When I received my acceptance package, there was a congratulatory note from my admissions officer with a few comments about things they liked on my application - most importantly, the note was dated December 1st, which means my particular decision must have been made prior to that. @LOA1000 that information may help you too, at least some decisions must already be made by that date.
@Telluric that definitely helps! Thank you.
I’ve said that IMO most updates will not move an application from one pile to another. But I think once the first week of December rolls around, most decisions are pretty final, and I doubt an update will get much consideration.
@Telluric Thank you for your response!
So I heard that decisions for URM’s, athletes (obviously), and internationals are made before the rest of the pool since they meet different benchmarks. Any can confirm/comment on this.
How long were your supplements? Mine was ~730.
@MaybeHarvard2022 Mine was about 650
Mine was about 600 words long. Hm, where’d you hear that from?
@futurelegend read it on last year’s SCEA thread. Also, the Admitted Students page for the Class of 2022 is up although you cant log in 
Recruited athletes are competing in a different pool. They are only competing against those for the same gender/sport/position. Plus those accepted will have already received Likely Letters, so yes, those decisions are made earlier.
I have no knowledge that decisions for any other group are made appreciably earlier.
When do decisions come out for Ivy’s ED and SCEA?
Brown ED
Cornell ED
Columbia ED
Dartmouth ED
Harvard SCEA
UPenn ED
Princeton SCEA
Yale SCEA