@greenessential It is not.
@Kaleab470 I’m also Ethiopian (living in America, though)!! Best of luck with everything
@Telluric I just re-read your posts and realized that you belong to a country where virtually no alumni is available for interview. So it totally makes sense that admission officer directly contacted you. However, I belong to a country where all the past admitted students have been interviewed by alumni (most admits were in RD with few exceptions of EA admits). That being the case, I don’t wonder why the admission officer didn’t email me for interview (because alumni were available in all the past cases). However, I still didn’t receive a call/email from the alumni. Does it mean that the admission officer might have contacted the alumni to interview me somewhere late in November (like @Soccer1235 received the call on November 27) but the alumni probably didn’t check their email/ were busy/forgot to contact me? (Because most admits have been in RD, it could also be possible that the concerned alumni didn’t check his/her email so late in EA round) Should I contact the admissions office once?
@nekanorneki why don’t you wait it out and hope for a deferral (if not an acceptance), and then if they’re interested, they’ll be sure to contact/re-contact you for the regular round? Contacting the office will prob get you the typical website response.
Also, I’d highly recommend watching a movie or something like that to get your mind off Harvard and reduce the anxiety. If it’s not meant to be, it won’t happen. If it’s meant to be, you don’t need to stress so much.
@crimsondream22 what did you fill out in the common app when it asked for your interview status? ‘I didn’t have one but I plan to’ or ‘there are no available interviews where I live’? Plus, would you consider it detrimental not to get an interview if you’re from the countries not listed on the website?
@Tahir4321k Your advice totally makes sense. And the deferral is actually excruciatingly painful. I would rather be denied than be deferred. And if my email/call to the admissions office can actually avoid that deferral, would it not be worth it? Thanks for your response 
@futurelegend thanks Good luck with your application 
I am confused on how the regional committee works. I’ve been reading this thread a bit, but couldn’t find answers to some questions:
How large are the regional committees?
I’ve read that ~80% of Harvard applicants are qualified, but only 2000 applications are sent to the full committee. Why were the rest of the qualified applicants withheld?
Does the admissions office give jurisdiction to regional offices to decide whether a student moves on? If so, do they have their own panel, like the main office, where people vote? Or is it solely the admissions officer who reads my application who decides this? And when does this even happen, if interviews are still being given?
Finally, are there quotas per regional admissions office? If there were an office that received 100 early applications versus one that received 10, wouldn’t a person who lives in the latter region have a higher chance of going to the full committee and therefore getting accepted?
@Kaleab470 I’m positive I put “there are no available interviews where I live.” As for the possibility of not receiving an interview being “detrimental,” I don’t think so. However, you should probably take every assumption I make with a grain of salt because I’m by no means an expert in college admissions. My advice would be to stop fretting over it too much and spend the next few days doing anything that could get your mind off of Harvard—we will find out the result soon anyways! All the best!
3-5 including the regional AO and a senior admissions officer.
The great unanswered question of all time. they just aren’t what harvard is looking for in that particular class.
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look
the regional committee does the first cut. the regional ao has read the complete application, along with another reader and will present each applicant to the regional committee, which will vote (majority rules). those that make the cut will go to the full committee.
My guess is that there is no quota/min/max, but the real answer is known only to Harvard, and they won’t say.
Regardless, all the questions fall into the category “it is what it is.”
I can’t lie, I’ve been pretty anxious lately to the point that my mind creates the worst case scenarios that could’ve happened to my application (lost in transit, GC forget something, etc). Just need it to be over already!!
What are you all going to do if you get in? I’ve already agreed to eat a whole habanero and film it :))
@MaybeHarvard2022 Basically, it means that I wouldn’t have been less worried even with an interview :))
@jswani If I’d get in, what I would do is attend xd. But seriously, I’d probably cry a bit out of happiness, wake my family up and I’m pretty sure that I’d stay up all night as there’s no way I could just go (back) to sleep after reading ‘Congratulations!..’ (it’ll be late in the evening or midnight when decisions are released).
Expecting a rejection though, so no worries LOL.
@Tomas1355 I think the decisions are expected to be released on December 12th 5pm EST so hopefully, you’ll get to celebrate, then sleep that night!
I’m also super nervous but I hope it goes well for all of us!
Does anyone here think they have a really strong app?
@LOA1000 No, I’m not an idealistic fool.
@LOA1000 Lol I would say that I do because I’ve got all the stats (36, 4.0, first-gen, low-income, great essays, state/national ECs, elected office, great recs, etc) but there is no way I can be confident with a 5% acceptance rate. It’s better for me to just ignore it and be pleasantly surprised if I get in.
@jswani My friend dared me to text my ex-crush and say “I miss you” if I get in, and I said okay… Glad I’m not the only one who has agreed to do masochistic crap if I get in.
@alwaysbubbly Aha, 5 PM EST. That means decisions will be released around 11 PM for me. Should be fun. Hopefully I won’t wake up my neighbors if I do get in haha.
@LOA1000 I do definitely not think that, especially given the truly astonishing applicants there are in the world, but I’ve been told that. I got 1 int’l honor and 5 national ones, all our national equivalent to Siemens finalist, USAMO/USACO, RSI etc. Furthermore, I speak 5 languages, know 7 programming languages, volunteered for Khan Academy (love for Khan Academy <3), took 2 grad courses in my junior year, was a member of the national student organization (and a columnist) and have some other ECs. I have also had some major hardships and all of what I’ve mentioned has been confirmed in the LoRs from my teachers and counselor, so that’s nice.
Too bad I’m an international applicant and have not received an interview LOL. RIP my application. However, I have applied to multiple universities, so there’s still hope. I’m glad my safety school is a great university and I know that I’ll be happy and do the best I can regardless of where I’ll end up, just like all of you amazing people :-).
@ski_racer Lmao, good point. Almost everyone expecting to get in will probably get really, really disappointed.