<p>Hey,
My mom half-jokingly talked me into applying to Harvard, along with Cornell, U of Rochester (I live in Rochester, NY) and St. John's in Annapolis, MD (a tiny liberal arts school). I hadn't really thought much about it until I got a call to schedule my alumni interview today, and I started wondering what my actual chances of getting in were.
I took my SAT I's sophomore year, got a 760 V, 730 M and didn't retake.
35 ACTs composite ( 34s on English and Math, 36s on Reading and Science)
800s on SATII Writing and Literature, 760 US History
5s on AP World History, US History, Physics B, Environmental Science, and Psychology.
Oh, and I got a paid summer internship at UR's lab for laser energetics, doing optics research, and am a Nat'l Merit Scholarship semifinalist.
I have really high grades at a really poor public school. I had a weighted cumulative GPA of about 101 after junior year (we get 4 extra points for honors classes and 6 for APs, but high school classes we took as advanced students in jr. high are included without weighting and are bringing me down), and my first marking period avg was 104.5 with AP gov, economics, calc AB and english lit (I'm also independent-studying AP Bio, as I did with Env. Science last yr. and Physics B for half the year, because of schedule conflicts). I'm not taking many classes because we don't offer many APs, this is all I can get. I also run various extracurriculars, am a 3-letter varsity athlete, and am really involved in social justice groups in my community, as well as the local Green Party. </p>
<p>There it is. It's not that I'm desperate to go to an Ivy, and I could totally turn it down in favor of a less prestigious school I thought would be more academically rigorous. But now that word is out that I've applied to Harvard, I don't like the idea of being a reject. So... what are my chances?</p>
<p>Your chances look about as good as anyone else's are for Harvard. Admissions into HYP are a crapshoot for anyone. Your stats are impressive, but many qualified people are rejected from top schools each year.</p>
<p>No matter how good you are, Harvard is a reach for everyone if you are not targeted by them. They, along with Princeton, Stanford, and Yale, look for something else in an applicant besides grades. You need that extra, serious, fantastic hook to get into those 4 schools if not targeted. They reject plenty of 1600, 4.5 GPA students each year. Don't get me wrong. If you apply to Northwestern, Georgetown, Amherst, Williams, Brown, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, and other Ivy/extremely prestigious colleges and universities, you need that extra hook to get in if not targeted. However, at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford, specifically at Harvard and Princeton, that extra hook has to be taken to the maximum, literally. Hopefully, your essay stood out, you've interviewed with Harvard, sent in supplementary material if you have a talent, got an extra letter of recommendation, supplied them with a picture of yourself so you can give a face to your application, etc. Basically, don't get discouraged if you get rejected from Harvard because plenty do. Their acceptance rate for non-targeted applicants is definitely below 10%, probably around 5%-7%. However, you may be targeted by Harvard because in your info you mentioned how you are a three letter varsity athlete, and athletes are targeted by most highly selective colleges. What sport do you play?</p>
<p>When you say poor school, what do you mean? Are you a URM or is your school heavily minority? Where are you from? You may well have an excellent chance.</p>
<p>Umm, inner-ring suburb just outside Rochester, NY. It's not inner-city but my AP english class doesn't always have books, and people get arrested on a regular basis (does that help? ;-) )
Oh, and I'm a mediocre Cross-Country, Outdoor Track distance runner; on indoor track I'm a pretty standout racewalker (which should help me at UR and other local schools in conferences where it's an event that's offered, but probably not at top-tier schools). Basically, I'd never considered myself an athlete until approached by the UR's track coach this year.</p>
<p>ACT 35 is very, very good so test scores are at worst a non-factor. It is just so hard at the top Ivys, predicitons are useless. They like commie Green party members like you there though.</p>
<p>Ha, thanks. I'm afraid to mention it in my interview though, I'm afraid their alumni may be less bleeding-heart-liberal than their recruits and I'm not sure it's a good time to be talking about politics.</p>
<p>In an interview it's appropriate to talk about your EC and academic interests and passions. If your interests would prevent your being admitted to a college, then, frankly, that college is not for you.</p>
<p>Playing it safe and trying to say what you think the interviewer wants is a great way to deep six your interview. I know. I am an alum interviewer for Harvard, and few things irk me more than talking to an applicant who clearly is monitoring their every word in order to try to feed me what the applicant thinks I want to hear. It is fake and boring.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Harvard tends to be a liberal institution. Most people who are liberal while they are young continue being liberal as they get older. </p>
<p>(For those who are conservative and are considering applying, being passionate about conservative beliefs might be such a rare quality for Harvard applicants that it ends up tipping you in.)</p>