@Robbyb I’m from a fairly large city in Canada (so technically I’m an international student), and I go to a mid-sized public school (graduating class of ~250).
@hgrad2010 Thanks for the info! Do you know how interviewers report back to the admissions office? I’ve heard that the report they send back contains a qualitative description of how the interview went and a ranking of the student in certain categories (academics, extracurriculars, personal rating). Is this true?
@hgrad2010 is the December 13 date the day candidates will be notified?
@azcc333 Oh ok yeah Canada is one of the last geographies to have subcommittee deliberations over–in fact, they looked at your app today!
Check out this link which explains the mechanics in decent detail: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/29/how-to-get-in-to-harvard/
But yes you’re correct. The one thing I’ll note about the rating system of 1-4 (with +/-) is that interviewers are supposed to only give 1’s for extraordinary qualities that would represent a top 5-10% or so of a Harvard class. They tell us that a 1 for academics should be reserved for folks who can attain summa cum laude at Harvard and possibly be a good candidate for a Harvard professorship!
Admissions officers say that mostly 2’s and a few 3’s would be the typical rating for those admitted. So sometimes interviewers are overly generous and the interview report won’t be as useful. An admissions officer told me that she knows one particular elder, habitual interviewer who routinely gives out 1’s, but knows to read between his ratings!
@nrsebayer yes I believe December 13 will be the day candidates hear back for early action. March 28 for regular action.
@hgrad2010 thanks!
My son had his interview Saturday and he could not have been more pleased. While this may not weigh much on admissions process he felt a connection with his interviewer despite their different interests academically. Random question “if you could be a vegetable which one would you be” mostly he felt the alum answered all of his questions about Harvard and offered him insight and info he didn’t have before. He felt the interview mostly focused on will you he a good fit for H and will it be a good fit for you.
Glad it went well. Seems like a positive sign.
Regarding timing of interviews: DD didn’t get contacted for her interview until Nov 29 (a few years back). And the interview itself didn’t happen until Dec 2nd. She was accepted. Her sister (this year) hasn’t been contacted yet for an interview. She has a 4.0 unweighted, 35 ACT, and 800s on SAT math2 and chem. We live in a medium sized city in Southeastern US.
I’m still waiting for my REA interview @havesomeheart.
I also have a friend who last year had a late interview (december 3rd). He was accepted on dec 12th.
@hgrad2010 Is the preliminary yes/no decision made at the subcommittee meeting? Is the financial aid (HFAI) information reviewed after the subcommittee meeting? I read somewhere that the full committee has some idea on the economic status of the applicant. Any thoughts on this?
From the timeline I have seen in a REA admission file, the subcommittee would have finalized the list to be presented to the full committee by Thanksgiving. In another word, by now the preliminary decisions have most likely been made by the two readers and the subcommittee. For applicants advancing out of the subs they may still need to add more to their files, such as interview reports, additional materials as requested by AOs, etc. It looks like the full committee starts meeting and voting after the Thanksgiving break.
There are many places where AOs can see the social-economic status of an applicant. Every applicant’s summary sheet, which contains about ten rating scores by each reader and other information, has at least three places at the top that indicates SES: Fee Waiver: Y/N; Fin Aid: Y/N; Low Income: 1/0. Also prominently displayed in the middle portion of the summary sheet are parents degrees/schools, their employers and positions. Anybody looking at the summary sheet would have a pretty good sense of applicant’s SES in a few seconds.
There is also a box “HFAI” at the top to be checked on the summary sheet.
Is there a breakdown of scea applicants? Last year 6.630 applied and 964 accepted with a breakdown of 53% men, 47% women, 13.9% African American, 9.8% Latino etc…but what was the breakdown of the original 6,630 applicants? How many men, women, Latino etc…? Of course from the 964 accepted you have to subtract 250 for RA’s as well.
I do not believe they provided that.
AFAIK, Harvard has never publicly stated the number of recruited athletes per year, but the max number is 230 per Ivy League rules. Most schools don’t come close to that number, but it’s generally thought that Harvard and Princeton come closest.
Sorry, meant 230 not 250. Too bad that didn’t provide those numbers, it would give applicants a truer percentage of their chances.
What is HFAI? Is it the applicant requesting financial aid?
I’ve said many many times on this site over the years that applicants need to back out 225 (my guess for Harvard) from the SCEA acceptance numbers because non-RA applicants are not competing for those spots. And I am not the only user that has stated this. Without sites like this, I’m not sure that a typical applicant, even one to Harvard, would make that connection. And you know that colleges are never going to spell it out like that.
Harvard Financial Aid Initiative
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/harvard-financial-aid-initiative
@qwerty66, @jzducol’s account of the process is accurate as I understand it. The last subcommittee is supposed to have met yesterday, and full committee is supposed to meet 27th-6th.
Yeah I’ve never seen any further breakdown of the applicant pool. This article has some interesting tidbits; data suggests Harvard admitted ~202 recruited athletes for the class of 2022. https://features.thecrimson.com/2018/freshman-survey/makeup/
You could even back out the legacy count and apply the ~30% admissions rate for legacy students based on the stats in the article if you want to arrive at a more apples-to-apples admission rate for the non-hooked (albeit across ethnicity since we don’t know those figures) candidate.
thanks for your very helpful responses @jzducol, @skieurope and @hgrad2020.
HFAI site says “There is no special application or qualification necessary—just apply for financial aid when you apply for admission. Applying for financial aid does not hinder your chances for admission.”
Will all the candidates who applied for financial aid have this HFAI box checked for them?
But note that the Crimson article is based on self-reported data and 60% of first-years filled out the survey.
Some legacy applicants also have another hook.