Ending Apartheid in South Africa will not guarantee your chances of Admission. However, if you are a legacy student, we’ll look past the fact that you are currently holding your son hostage and accept both you and your son immediately.
@skieurope, just in case you did not read this, but in your opinion, do you think it’s bad if you did not include anything in the “additional intellectual activities (ones that you have not specified elsewhere in the application)?”
Not necessarily; it depends on the balance of your application.
Personally, I don’t really get the question. If it was important to me, I would have already discussed it elsewhere. Does admissions need to know that in my spare time (as an example, it’s not true) I’m learning conversational Klingon? Would even mentioning that add to my application, or would it, in fact, detract from it.
I feel like we’re perpetuating a fairly toxic culture, or a culture that can at least turn toxic. Many of us students (and to a certain degree, parents) base so much of our self-worth on this process, believing it to be the end-all-be-all assessment of how valuable we are to the world. It’s okay not to be “the best” – whatever that means – it’s okay not to have a 1600, it’s okay not to have a 4.0, it’s okay not to have taken all APs. All of those achievements, while impressive, aren’t the point of a high school education, and obsessing over them tacitly says: Achieve at all costs. Don’t get sick, don’t take vacations, don’t spend time with friends, don’t enjoy time to yourself, your worth is what’s on your transcript. Worth is not based on achievement at all, imo.
And even when we’re just talking about ourselves, we’re implicitly telling the kids who couldn’t afford tutors and study books for the ACT or who got sick with mono that their situation is a weakness. We’re saying: achieve at all costs.
To those of you who have applied – that is impressive, but it says nothing about who you are. Just sit back, relax, binge-watch a good TV show or something, and know that the most interesting part about you has nothing to do with your scores or grades or some such thing. The trollers are annoying, yes, but I think they’re just reactions to a culture that we, as students across the country, need to take some ownership of. We act too much like the college you go to will determine whether you’re an Alpha or an Epsilon. Who cares? Most Ivy League graduates will tell you that Ivy League educations are overpriced and overhyped anyways.
Parents, let your kids just do what they want and go where they will. Students: Do what you want and go where you go. I’m sure you’ll have fulfilling and meaningful lives. It’s chill.
Do guidance counselors at some schools get a “heads up” before students?
Does Harvard cap student numbers at schools. In other words, even if the applicants are different from one another, are they competing against each other more than students from other schools
If deferred, do you have recommendations on how to improve your chances for RD?
thanks
They get a notification. I don’t know the timing. I suspect that they may not get advance notice of admits, but may get advance notice of very select legacy/donor deferrals. But that’s a guess. Don’t bother your GC to see if you got admitted, though.
No. But if the historical admits from a school are 1-2/year, it’s unlikely to be 5 this year.
I personally don't know the universal answer but I've never heard of any of the counselors at my school getting a "heads up"
I wouldn't say a hard definite cap. It's more like a soft cap. harvard wouldn't accept more than 2 people from my school unless there are 3 unusually amazing applicants (now, they REALLY wouldn't pick 10 people from my school to go to harvard, so there is definitely a soft cap). but there are too many things involved to say one universal answer. the admissions officers are also painting a larger picture for what the new class will look like. it really depends, but at a school that only sends 1-2 students, it'd be very very extremely rare for that same school to suddenly send 4 or 5. At a school (like choate rosemary hall) that sends about 4-5 students to harvard every year, it would be weird for harvard to suddenly pick 10 students. EXTREMELY rare, but not completely impossible because there isn't a DEFINITE cap.
I've asked this to my regional harvard admissions officer and she said send in another rec letter or two, update any awards or upload any other essays you'd like to share about yourself
will it look bad in any way that my neighbor got rejected last year. We have similar stats but are extremely different from one another and she had a horrible interview she said (most likely because of her shyness)
@skieurope yikes, I’m pretty sure the only person that’s gotten in from my school in recent history was a legacy or a double legacy or something like that. I go to a school that is pretty mediocre compared to the ones around me and a lot of students from those schools get into Ivies, so I guess that doesn’t bode well for me
I’m genuinely curious as to why the decision date has not been announced. Do we know for sure that decisions will be released next week? It seems strange that they would wait so close to the decision date to let us know that they will be coming out.
@lilyfullford I’ve heard a case where an admit looked at his own files and found that his interview weighed 50%. So, any single factor could work in your favor. Be confident and good luck to you! Will your twin sister know hers before you do?
She already got into her two safeties! But she should know more about her top schools in January! I’m rooting for her so so much and I hope you ends up where she is happy even if we aren’t applying to any of the same schools good luck!! @Dataminer
good luck!!