Since the preliminary committees are done deliberating, is sending an update worth it? I want to send them something about me moving on in the Coca-Cola Scholarship and about the Oct. ACT results?
Does havard do something like likely letters for EA? I read somewhere they did, but it was from a sketch post from like 2009 lol
Also, what’s the purpose of the test-update form on Harvard’s admission portal? Don’t we have to only put our scores in on the Common App?
@Euclid314 I believe that’s if you would like to update them on recent scores
@idkhelp Thanks! For your question, I think that Harvard sends likely letters for EA applicants only if they’re athletes. They send out likely letters to athletes and students during RD.
@jzducol #155…your assessment on the focus on RA is false. Recruits to the Ivies…especially Yale and Harvard, at least in non band sports, focus just as much on the academics as the athletic accomplishments. In the sport my daughter competes in, fencing, many high ranking Fencers don’t make it past the AdCom at the Ivies, and find themselves seeking other options.
^sure, Harvard and Yale etc have high academic threshold. But once such threshold is met I imagine coaches would focus more on athletic accomplishment to pick the recruits, no?
@jzducol not quite. The way it works, at least in fencing, the coaches at Harvard and Yale start with a highly ranked fencer. In the first conversation they make clear the admission standards and state actual recruiting can’t begin until they receive the full transcript, which includes school grades since freshman year, ACT/SAT scores, and subject test results. Once they receive it, they generally have an idea if one is recruitsble but they have to send your transcript to the AdCom for a pre-read. At this point no ranking can help you. At these 2 schools in particular if said recruit has even 1 C freshman year that fencer will not be recruitable. The GPA in general has to be on par with the typical student that gets admitted to these Universities. If the Act/Sat scores are lower than the avg admit the fencer is told to retake the test in the hopes of improving the score. Many top fencers compete at big box like ND, Ohio St, Penn St, and a school like St. John’s for this reason. So, to say these schools focus on the athletics over the academics is patently false.
This is just not true. Read the SFFA documents. 76% of recruited athletes with academic rating of 4 were admitted cs 1% otherwise. There is still an academic threshold of 1 SD below average of prior classes but many are less. Athletic is more important than academic achievement after meeting criteria. it is right here. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/6/30/athlete-admissions/
@ShanFerg3 may be confused because i bet sports like Fencing have smarter recruits than most other sports, so could require a higher average score/GPA than say football. The overall athletic MEAN ACT/SAT score may be set at 1 standard deviation below average Freshman class but coaches have leeway on how to achieve that. eg my friend was recruited in baseball with an ACT of 33 which pleased the coach because he could dip lower now for a truly amazing player. Fencing team, i bet ( but am not sure) has higher requirements Same with squash,
My son entered the Regeneron Science Talent Search this year. The application was due on Nov. 14th and after he submitted it, he submitted his research paper to the Harvard portal as supplementary academic materials. Does the admissions board actually review things that are submitted after November 1st? Additionally, he is the 2nd author on a research abstract that has been presented at two national neuroscience conferences. Is it worth submitting this abstract? He’s not the 1st author, but the research won an award and grant money for 2 years of further research. My son had his interview last week but forgot to ask the interviewer.
i suspect they would review these if they are unsure about him If his application already yells out “ strong science/ research,” this won’t add much. I might also reserve in case he is deferred—the likely outcome for most of us—as this would be a nice add on for Regular Decision. So can’t hurt, might help, but might be better to hold in back pocket.
@hgrad2010 since the subcommittees stopped on the 19th, and the full committee meets from the 27th to the 6th, what happens in between the deliberations?
@hgrad2010 also, is it possible that you give us some sense of how the subcommittees present their cases to the full committee? what more does the full committee take into consideration?
Thanksgiving. Thursday and Friday are paid days off. Since there are no classes today, many people also took today off.
Thanks a lot! @skieurope
Here’s an older article on the process:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/02/admissions-process/
Here’s a video from Amherst; I’m sure it’s similar at Harvard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OLlJUXwKU
thx so much @skieurope !
My son has been recruited to several schools for rowing including a couple of ivies. H did not recruit him but he chose to do EA there anyway bc of their physics dept and staff knowing he can walk on to row. Being recruited from other schools, his GPA and scores were a large part of recruitment in addition to his rowing accomplishments. They choose athletes that can boost their average GPA to weigh against athletes they want to recruit who may not have as strong of a GPA/scores. That was the way one ivy coach explained the process to us. There is a threshold in minimums and averages but the threshold is different for each athlete. If you don’t meet the minimums you are not considered, but if you’re at the top of your sport your threshold assuming it’s at the minimum will be a bit lower…
@nrsebayer They are termed “Academic Boosters”. Athletes who are passed over early in the recruiting process may have more leverage later if they have a high AI. If a coach is in a bind and needs a player to boost the team’s AI, a less-talented athlete with a monster AI may get the nod.