My son applied Restricted Early Action to Harvard. I just read on Harvard’s website that there is absolutely no advantage given to early applicants. In fact, it sounds like it’s almost harder to get in early, since they say they only let in kids who would undoubtedly get in through regular admissions. Yet, in exchange, Harvard does not allow their early applicants to apply early anyplace else.
In other words, it seems like they’re taking away something very valuable (the chance to apply early to other schools where there definitely is an advantage). Yet they’re giving up nothing of any value in return.
My son’s first choice is hands-down Harvard because he did the summer program there, and fell in love with it. (He said it was learning “Utopia.”) Yet, I’m afraid he was blinded by emotions, and made a mistake by applying early there.
One more note: My son handles rejection with maturity, so he’ll survive if he doesn’t get accepted. That’s a “plus” for taking the risk. I just wish I had paid more attention to his application strategy (assuming there is one).
Not true: “If you apply to Harvard under our Early Action program, **you may also apply at the same time to any public college/university or to foreign universities **but you are restricted from applying to other private universities’ Early Action and Early Decision programs.”
Harvard has always been clear there is no advantage in admissions. The advantage is knowing early. We didn’t let our D apply to Princeton SCEA because Tulane requires EA for scholarships and that was her best chance at merit out of the private schools on her list.
Good news is he will know early and that is worth something.
Back out the athletic recruits, it’s closer to 12%. Then back out legacy, it’s even lower. But yeah, there is still a slight, (very very slight) advantage to applying SCEA.
Oh, and nobody ever said that life was fair.
As mentioned above, one can apply elsewhere, but it’s obviously limited. Additionally, if accepted, Harvard does not require one to accept the offer, so one can still balance out FA packages, which one cannot do with ED.
Additionally, if one gets a positive answer early, it eliminates the stress of filling out additional applications.
“My son’s first choice is hands-down Harvard because he did the summer program there, and fell in love with it. (He said it was learning “Utopia.”)”
Given your above comment, your son likely would have regretted applying binding ED elsewhere and never finding out if he can get into H. As noted above, the main benefit is getting an early admission if your son happens to be admitted, thus avoiding applying to a bunch of other schools.
We do not know anything about your son’s qualifications or if he has a hook (URM, first gen, legacy [which may not even be much of a hook anymore at schools like H]). If he has no hook, are his stats in the 75th percentile of admitted students? Are his ECs and/or awards unusually excellent?
Even if the benefit of applying SCEA to H is slight, it sounds like it was the right thing to do given his feelings about H – unless he really is not a competitive applicant.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I actually feel much better. You’re right that if my son had (1) applied ED elsewhere with the ED advantage, (2) gotten into the ED elsewhere school, and (3) been obligated to withdraw his regular-decision Harvard app since he got into the ED school, then he would definitely have had some regret and wondered if he could have gotten into his first choice of Harvard. In other words, applying ED elsewhere would have been a mistake.
When it comes to his Harvard chances, he doesn’t have a “hook” and my husband insists he doesn’t need a consultant, so he’s “winging it.” On the other hand, his grades and test scores are in the 99th percentile, and he has the awards (Natl Merit Semifinalist, Natl AP Scholar), activities, etc. that should give him a fighting chance.
Thank you so much for the reassurances. Ironically, I’m the only one who is stressed out about this. My son is completely relaxed. ; )
You, your son and husband should have a conversation to make sure everyone understands how competitive the application process is to a school like Harvard, even for students who are in the 99th percentile! I’ve posted this before, but here it is again:
Whatever the precise number of seats available to unhooked applicants may be, it is certainly much lower than what one might surmise from a cursory glance at the overall admission statistics.
It’s definitely not luck to become a serious candidate for admission, but a degree of luck/serendipity plays a part for many who are ultimately given the nod.
The non-hooked acceptance rate at basically every college at that tier will be below the total acceptance rate. However, that was not what the OP asked, so we’ll move on.
@Sportsman88
That’s a shame.
Stanford REA still let me apply to Umiami EA as I was gunning for scholarships (similar to your kid).
See exception #1
“Exceptions
The student may apply to any college/university with early deadlines for scholarships or special academic programs as long as the decision is non-binding and in order to be considered for the program, the student must apply in the early round or by an early deadline.
The student may apply to any public college/university with a non-binding early application option.
The student may apply to any college/university with a non-binding rolling admission process.
The student may apply to any foreign college/university on any application schedule.” https://admission.stanford.edu/apply/decision_process/restrictive.html
I’d heard Stanford did that. She decided not to apply to Stanford. It worked out in the end. Ironically, she didn’t get one of the full tuition scholarships to Tulane but did get in to Harvard RD.
Last year our daughter applied to an SCEA school with the understanding that applying in the early round does not offer any advantage. She received an offer of admission in December and accepted it a few days later, withdrawing all her RD applications. I would say that applying early and accepting early were advantageous to her not so much because it cut down on application work, but because she was able to enjoy her winter break and spring of HS senior year without stressing out about college admissions. Additionally, during the spring semester, she had the time to focus on opportunities and making contacts at her future university that she wouldn’t have had if she were juggling a bunch of potential schools all the way to the end of April.
Thank you for the very realistic and sobering feedback.
Besides being a top student, my son has a few other things going for him: children’s book co-author, award-winning Eagle project, etc. Even so, I now realize that “fighting chance,” is probably the wrong phrase in light of the insane odds. (40,000 applicants?? 600 “unhooked” places available???) I had always thought it would be sort of “fun” to be an admissions officer, but it must actually be a real drag.
I wish my son hadn’t fallen head-over-heels in love with Harvard during the secondary school program, but I’m still so glad that he did the program. His intellectual and ethical growth during the program was profound, almost to the point of comedy. For example, I made a steak dinner the night he came home, but he wouldn’t eat the steak because he had become a vegetarian, and had come to believe it was “unethical to end consciousness” of an animal. My daughter pointed out that the cow was already dead, so we might as well eat it, and the whole thing turned into an hour-long philosophical discussion. This was a big step up from the pre-summer dinner conversation/argument over who got a bigger baked potato. ; ) As far as getting into Harvard as an undergrad, maybe it’s time for another discussion…