ironic coda to Harvard's new policy eliminating EA

Parents Forum
1

<p>Harvard, along with a number of other highly selective colleges, has long engaged in the somewhat low-profile practice of issuing "likely letters" as early as October.</p>

<p>I say "low profile" because Harvard's admissions and athletic websites do not describe their policy of issuing likely letters at all.</p>

<p>Harvard's athletic recruiting page goes into great detail about the SCEA and regular action deadlines, and the differences between them, but it does not mention likely letters at all.</p>

<p>The Harvard recruiting page does have a link to the Ivy League regulations, and eventually, buried deep in the Ivy League boiler-plate, one finally finds a reference to the fact that Ivy League colleges are allowed to issue "likely letters":</p>

<p>
[quote]
Admissions Offices at each Ivy school may offer some athletic and other candidates a "likely" letter, which has the effect of a formal letter of admission provided the candidate continues to have a satisfactory secondary school experience.

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/admission-statement.asp?DB_OEM_ID=9000%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/admission-statement.asp?DB_OEM_ID=9000&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It seems to me that if Harvard's admission office really wants to set an example of greater transparency and straightforward honesty with all applicants about their admission process, they would openly and explicitly describe their policy of issuing likely letters on their own admissions website.</p>

<p>The Ivy League website link above says that "likely letters" may be used at Ivy schools, but Harvard's own website has never addressed this issue.</p>

<p>The Crimson has now pressed for an answer and gotten one reported in today's Crimson--Harvard plans to continue issuing early likely letters to athletes even after it abandons EA. The Harvard officials quoted in the article state that they are not happy about needing to continue the practice, but apparently the prospect of losing strong athletes to other colleges is not something they feel they can risk. </p>

<p>Left unstated: will Harvard continue its practice of issuing likely letters to some non-athletes? </p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514592%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514592&lt;/a>
(Article in today's Crimson describe rationale for plans to continue likely letters.)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=512914%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=512914&lt;/a>
(Older article describing the general practice of likely letters, along with allegations of abuses and confusion resulting from their "wink-wink" nature.)</p>

2

<p>yeah, the likely letter, how many Ivy's use them?</p>

3

<p>The likely letter still doesn't guarantee. A boy we knew who was a cox on the nat'l champ hs rowing team got the letter from H and was ultimately rejected.</p>

4

<p>I'd wonder about that letter, MD. As far as I know, every athlete who got an official likely letter from the admissions department--not the coach--was admitted. Remember, parents say all kinds of crazy things.</p>

5

<p>I believe Harvard will not completely abandon their athletic programs, and will have special conditions for athletes.</p>

<p>I am more concerned about the likely letters that Harvard, Yale, Stanford...and possibly others...send out in February and March to NON-ATHLETE candidates. These letters will become even more important....and probably be issued even earlier...especially if Stanford sticks with what has been stated in its most recent PR and continues SCEA. The extra months of "marketing" for schools that keep SCEA/EA could cause a substantial increase the number of non-athletic likely letters that Harvard and others send out. </p>

<p>The problem with these non athletic likely letters is that they are much more random that an EA application which has a specific response date (and...even more random than Athletic likely letters which are dated to arrive no later than Division 1 recruiting deadlines.) For those who receive these letters, they are a great relief...just like EA/ED. For those who don't receive the letters, it just creates much more stress. So...some of what Harvard says they are trying to accomplish by eliminating EA will get worse if the likely letters increase.</p>

6

<p>Richard Shaw at Stanford (formerly at Yale) has already told the Stanford faculty senate he expects to make big use of nonathletic "likely letters."</p>

7

<p>I know the young man quoted in the Crimson article. He spoke about the recruiting process being arduous and wanting to get it over with. He's right. The Ivies do feel strongly about their athletics. With recruiting in my son's sport starting as early as spring of junior year (if not the summer prior), for the Ivies to compete <em>at all</em> without the benefit of athletic scholarships they need to have the ability to issue likely letters. </p>

<p>My son did get a likely letter from his school. We still didn't trust it until we got the official letter in December -- and were even happier when they accepted his acceptance and cashed the deposit check!</p>