<p>I know of two kids who, over the past couple of years, have received letters from Harvard Admissions which described the benefits of Harvard and encouraging them to apply. These kids had had no previous contact with Harvard. I assumed that Harvard gets info from the College Board about high school students who meet a certain threshold on the SATs or Subject Tests and then sends them such letters.
Does anyone know if this is, in fact, the case, and if so, what the threshold is for Harvard sending such a letter? (Or, if it is not the case, what causes Harvard to send the letters?) I know that one of the kids got 800 M/ 700 CR, and an 800 on the Math Level 2 Subject Test. I don't think the other kid hit 800, but probably did very well on his total SAT score.</p>
<p>the threshold is pretty low I think. Heard somewhere that Harvard sends such letters to 80000 students each year.</p>
<p>We got letter and viewbook, IIRC. DS is a legacy, but he did not bother applying. Even as a legacy, he probably would not have gotten in. Plus, Harvard’s not worth the money, in our humble opinion. And we say this as veterans of GSAS (DH) and the Div School (moi).</p>
<p>Harvard has amazing financial aid, if that is relevant for anyone.</p>
<p>I think I read somewhere that they send the full application to about 50,000 students each year. They got about 35,000 applicants this year, so it shows you how many people get it. Not to mention that probably a significant number of people who applied didn’t receive an application in the mail</p>
<p>i scored 2110 the first time i took my sats, and harvard sent me a full application package in the mail, encouraging me to apply. so yeah, they must send out a lot.</p>
<p>They sent me an application and all, and I had a 2260. Probably goes out to people with scores from 2400 down to ~2000.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/975395-why-does-harvard-do.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/975395-why-does-harvard-do.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/976815-they-sent-me-application-good-sign-meaningless.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/976815-they-sent-me-application-good-sign-meaningless.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/942038-received-invitaztion-harvard-apply.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/942038-received-invitaztion-harvard-apply.html</a></p>
<p>colleges get student contact information from the psat–not the sat. schools send letters based on psat scores and the answers to the various questions about your approximate grades, intended college major, etc. asked by college board whenever you take the psat. the only way a school knows what your sat scores are is if YOU send the scores to them. because the sat scores can directly impact college admissions decisions, i doubt that college board has legal authority to release any sat scores without the permission of the student.</p>
<p>the psat, on the other hand, only impacts your eligibility for scholarships. but it can be helpful because it may indicate how you will perform on the sat.</p>
<p>
Not so much the questions. I put that I was graduating a year early and majoring in social work, and Harvard still sent me the app and stuff (would have been meaningless if I was graduating a year early, and they don’t have a social work major). My plans changed, but they didn’t know that. They don’t pay much attention to questions other than what your address and email address are. Though religious colleges look to see if you put a religion of preference.</p>
<p>My daughter got such a package from Harvard, Duke, Yale, Dartmouth all within the last two weeks; She has never contacted them although she has been part of Duke TIP and Princeton study because of her gifted status and has won an award from Duke for exceptional performance on the SAT when she was in 7th grade. According to Harvard, they contacted her based on her performance on AP tests. She has taken 14 AP tests in Freshman-Junior year, 7 AP tests in Junior year; passed all of them. Her only 3 was Calc BC with a 4 on AB subscore. She is taking 4 AP this year. </p>
<p>She is a die hard Yankees fan, she glanced at the Harvard package and put it aside. I know for a fact, she has no intention of applying there.</p>
<p>She would prefer Yankees baseball affiliation to the Crimson resources? Well, one less hopeful to crowd the 36,000 applicant-pool.</p>