<p>i was thisclose to going EA with harvard. i backed out at the last minute though, because by late october (around the DIVOH) i still hadn't finessed my application. my personal essay was barely started, so i decided to forego finding out about harvard a couple months earlier, and instead try to improve my essays.</p>
<p>hopefully that may have helped me. i don't know how your decision turned out though; hopefully it was good.</p>
<p>and the 75% chance is SOOOOOOO awesome. i am completely thankful for that! otherwise i'd be freaking out about automatic rejections from colleges or something.</p>
<p>and the drinking ... oh yeah. that was pretty crazy. it was one of the downsides for me.</p>
<p>my hostess went "out" to the next room at 10:00pm and was completely wasted by 10:05. ridiculously low tolerance for alcohol, i assume. and then they were playing human bowling until 3:00 a.m., which was annoying, since the prefroshes still had to get up the next morning and all.</p>
<p>the financial aid guy was really nice. so were all the other faculty members and admissions officers. </p>
<p>remember when we were at the red room and we could ask questions? i was the one who asked about art portfolios ... and katie fretwell said, "oh, you're the one who indicated studio art major on your application!" </p>
<p>that was crazy she remembered that. i was impressed.</p>
<p>sorry about posting multiple times. i just noticed gatsby87's question.</p>
<p>gatsby: it's a 75% admit rate for Diversity Open House participants. it was explicitly stated on the letter of acceptance to DIVOH. most who were accepted to the Open House were at least academically qualified, so we stand good chances during the RD round.</p>
<p>That's not true. There were both Asian-Americans and white students at the DIVOH I attended last October, as well as African-Americans and Latinos.</p>
<p>I think they also count diversity as where you live too, like if you live on a farm in the middle of North Dakota. I dont know what other factors they use (one of my friends was invited to a Johns Hopkins one), but it seems that it is definitely not just the traditional URM.</p>
<p>the diversity open house was someting you applied for very early in the school year, and if accepted thwy would pay for a part or all of your trip. i absolutely loved that open house- i thought it was a lot of fun and helpful. the parties were a little odd (i went to the cross country party and left), but it was my first look into college life and i enjoyed it.</p>
<p>oooh sorry to post twice in a row.
this is in response to TheDad: i know i should have listened to my gut instinct, (oooh and how exciting i had a 75% of getting into amherst after the DIVOH), but another reason i think my mom chose for me to go to harvard is although amherst has a fantastic financial aid program, it is most likely that harvard will be giving me a 100% 4-yr scholarship... so that was definately a big thing.</p>
<p>rjsmith1031, what isn't true? i said that asians typically aren't URMs. and the white students were probably there either because they were partly hispanic or because of their socioeconomic background... could be that.</p>
<p>What I was saying was that the DIVOH wasn't limited to only black and Latinos, but to Asians and whites as well. I agree that "Asians typically arent URM's." However, I can't say whether or not white students were invited because they were bi-racial/ethnic.</p>
<p>I actually got an invite (and to a Williams one too), but I am very much white and from the northeast and am not poor, so I have no idea how I got an invite. I didn't apply- partly because I would feel strange being there and knowing that it wasn't really intended for me, but mainly because I have the means to visit on my own (and did) and felt that it would really be unfair of me to take someone else's place.</p>
<p>Any other impressions/experiences at Amherst? We'll be visiting the school this spring with our D. It'll be interesting to see what she thinks of it.</p>