How many student receive telephone call from current students to the new prospective students even before applications are filed? Is this common practice across the other schools too? Just curious?
Both daughters attended prep schools on full need based aid and have excellent GPA, 800 across SAT II and SAT 1, and 5 on all APs, some national and state level awards, downsides asians looking for full need based aid.
My kids did not receive phone calls, no. Were the calls from students who had graduated from the same prep school?
Are they athletes? There is often contact between current and prospective students for recruited athletes well before the application even opens - speaking over the phone with or staying over a night or two with a current student while going to training with the coach/team they’re trying out for. I’ve heard of athletes getting unofficial/implied “offers” of admission from coaches as early as mid-summer - around when the Common App opens for SCEA.
Otherwise it would be unusual unless they knew them personally in some way/same high school (likely as it is a prep school).
@compmom @Telluric No kids who called at home, while my kids were away at prep school, did not attend the same prep schools as my kids did not know them, did these kid attend other prep school, no idea; I remember that I passed the information to my kids and yes they chatted with the callers.
My kids are not athletes; that is why I am asking this question? At that time I thought it was a routine telephone call as when my kids applied to prep school, after the application and school visit, they received lot of letters to encourage them to look at schools web pages and information and ask any questions they might have.
They did play in club sports at prep schools but did other clubs at much more depth
We got some very polite calls from current students at various universities (not Harvard, she didn’t apply there). However, I am pretty sure that the calls came only after my daughter had been accepted. My daughter is a very good student (#1 in her high school) but is not an athlete.
My kid got a call from the head of the comp sci department after he’d been accepted. It probably had something to do with the fact that he’d told his interviewer Harvard wasn’t his first choice.
There were other schools that had students calling offering to answer questions. I’m guessing they don’t do this for everyone, so I’d take it as a good sign, but not a guarantee.
This sounds fishy. How did the callers get your home number without an application?
Were the callers male or female? Could this have been a ploy to trick parents?
@sgopal2 calls were definitely made from Harvard admission office as my daughters did talk to the students when they called back at the number left on answering machine; I have no idea how they got hold of our number, both daughters did summer research as a rising senior at Harvard, may be through that, but not sure.
One of the daughters also met Yale dean of admission at one event who told her to apply early which she did not. Maybe daughter met someone at Harvard and introduce herself, but no clear idea.
Well this is definitely not a common practice, and the first I’m hearing of. Sounds like they are genuinely interested in your daughters. I wouldn’t count on this as a home run, but sure looks encouraging to me. Whatever happens, please post here once the decisions are in, to let us know if they got in.
Good luck!
I think it is probably a very good sign that Harvard is interested in them. S has gotten calls from students and admission officers at some schools at which he has never expressed interest, but from nowhere even close to Harvard’s level of selectivity!
So, while the call is not a guarantee of admission, it is a sign that they have qualities Harvard is seeking. It might be worth having them visit Harvard to see if they like it. (If they are full need at prep school, maybe Harvard will pay for the trip to visit through a special visitation program high school kids apply to-- see if they have one; I know Williams has a WindowsOnWilliams program like that.)
@sgopal2 and the @TheGreyKing Sorry not to confuse, this happened many years ago, both older daughters admitted to Harvard with full need based scholarships and graduated sum cum laude from Harvard.
The reason I asked question as my third daughter is still a rising junior and she has similar stats but no idea where she will be accepted, I am just wonedering how it will play and only difference is this time when our third child will apply, our income is higher than last time when older daughters graduated.
Two words: Big data or predictive analytics.
When a student registers for the SAT or ACT, they are asked for their contact information. When test results come in, colleges BUY the results – along with the contact information – for about 38 cents per student. That is how a college like Harvard can (and does) reach out to student’s with the credentials they like: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/04/how-colleges-find-their-students/522516/
HYPSM do the same thing. Your file was purchased by Harvard for less than $.40 – and then the marketing department took over! It has absolutely no bearing on whether you will be admitted or rejected. It’s just a way of INCREASING the number of applicants, which thereby makes a university MORE selective. It’s a game all colleges play.
@gibby your explanation makes sense to some extent and that is why I also thought it was a routine call just like prep school do,
If they are targeting the kids they want though marketing, then it is routine matter, and more widely people should be reporting that they have received the similar calls
Yes it is! FWIW: Outreach emails and telephone calls to prospective students increase every year and the situation has been widely reported in the Harvard Crimson, so I would take Harvard’s supposed “interest” with a grain of salt: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/24/admissions-selective-harvard-applicants/?page=single
@gibby thanks for the link
. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/29/Harvard-UMRP-minorities-admissions/ well since we are not minority targeted student that means perhaps kids who were marketed for being poor as kids attended on full need based scholarships to prep schools as well as Harvard. Thanks makes sense and HYPMS are doing this concentrated marketing for poor kids, minority kids or some other target group.
@gibby thanks a lot!
With each year’s decline in acceptance rates, I imagine Harvard (and YPSM) feel the need to increase their outreach efforts by going beyond just emails and have resorted to making telephone calls encouraging students to apply. I’ve posted this several times, but here it is again
I think that’s especially true as Harvard increases it’s outreach by telephoning students. That’s not to discourage your child from applying, but they (and you) should understand the marketing involved in getting thousands to apply each year despite the odds.
That is pretty loud and clear as we understood this message long time back.
When you want a free education from a college, for a mutual benefit we have to bring something to the table for the college as there are millions who wants in these colleges. And there are no guarantees, therefore we have to keep looking for college that will bite what we have to offer.