How far can my grades drop before my LL gets rejected?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello,
I received my Likely Letter in October to play a sport at Harvard, and before then I was right on the border of being accepted or not. My grades since then have mostly stayed the same or improved, but my average for calc has dropped 5 or 6 points because of a recent test that I did not perform well on… as a future Computer Science major, Harvard stressed that I needed to be proficient in calculus in order to have gotten a Likely Letter in the first place. Now, I’m worried that they will revoke their “offer” because of my recent plunge in calc. Again tho, all my other grades have stayed level or improved, so my gpa will likely stay the same.

So I guess my question is, should I be worried? How much of a decline do you think Harvard admissions will allow?

I know this is somewhat of a unique situation, but anything you have that might be relevant would help tremendously. Thank you in advance.

2

Only Harvard admissions can say for sure of course, but I think you’ll be fine. Normally a Likely Letter will only be pulled for the same things admission will be - a substantial drop in grades (which it doesn’t sound like is your situation), being convicted of a serious crime, etc. It can happen but it’s not very common.

3

I understand your concern. As a borderline LL recipient, you need to be especially careful to keep your grades up. Given that your overall grades are staying at the same level as before, I agree with @bluewater2015 that you’ll probably be fine.