<p>Terra--Thanks! As jcr said, you can probably guess the institution that sent me the letter. In terms of rarity, I'd put that on similar terms as they put it in the likely letter linked earlier in this thread. I agree it might seem a bit strange that this school thought highly enough of me to send such a letter, while Harvard deferred me. There are two explanations I can think of, both of which I'm sure play a role. One was making Intel finalist. The other is the fact that each school gets so many awesome students, they simply can't make all the same decisions. That being said, I am still hopeful that Harvard accepts me RD and that this letter means my application is strong enough to stand a fighting chance there. No offense to the school that sent me the letter, which is easily one of my top few choices, but if I get that acceptance letter from Harvard, I'm definitely going. The dilemma comes if the other schools (there are 3) which are basically tied with Likely Letter school accept me and not Harvard, because that's a tough decision! hehe but we'll just hope I end up on Garden St. and not worry about it all till March ;)</p>
<p>Congratulations on the likely letter to Stanford guitar =P. Stanford often calls or sends likely letters to STS finalists, so I'm nearly certain that this is the school you are talking about.</p>
<p>Guitar, congratulations! I've told many people how lame Harvard was to defer you. I too think you look good for RD, and it seems like at the very least your college future shouldn't be too much of a disappointment. :)</p>
<p>I just got my likely letter from Harvard today and I could not be more excited. I was actually very surprised to get the letter as I am not a recruited athlete or anything of the sort.</p>
<p>These are savvy_sley's stats(posted on another thread) so this is what it takes to get a likely letter from Harvard!!!:)</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT: 2100 (CR:730, M670, W700)
SAT IIs: Not very good (IIC: 690, Bio:650, USHistory: 680)
GPA: 4.5 weighted
Rank: 1/325
Other stats: 6 AP classes </p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: I really liked my long one, it was about working at a restaraunt where 75% of the employees are recent immigrants of Brazil and don't speak much English. Really heartfelt and honest.
Teacher Recs: My AP Bio teacher wrote one that was incredible and showed my passion for science. The other ones were so so.
Counselor Rec: Decent
Hook (if any):</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: Boston, MA
School Type: Competitive Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female</p>
<p>Other Factors:I have a pretty good variety of EC's: Captain of both the swim team and quiz bowl team. Varsity tennis, NHS, Student Council, Community Service, etc. I've held down the same job for about 4 years.</p>
<p>General Comments: I'm very excited/surprised. I thought for sure that my less than fantastic SAT scores would hold me back, but I think my essays and teacher recs helped me out a lot. I'm looking forward to talking with some other EA acceptees.</p>
<p>you really don't think there's something odd about that? top 100 out of like 21,000. i mean the stats are good, but this is harvard. could the "glowing" counselor rec and "heartfelt and honest" essay really do it? Is there some other connection? I dont understand!</p>
<p>What I don't understand is I thought that Harvard has hardly looked into the applications yet. I would have thought for likelies they take a look at the academic superstars (Val+2400) & the nat'l award winners (Siemens/Intel) and see if any of them justify a likely letter. </p>
<p>I'm not saying this person wasn't an easy admit to Harvard, but I'm just wondering how they figured it out already without a significant amount of eye-grabbing things in the more quantitative part of the application.</p>
<p>Wow congrats to all on your likely letters.</p>
<p>I was deferred SCEA at Harvard. Does anyone suppose that it's too late for me to send them stuff (like a letter reaffirming my interest)? I read in some sources that this sort of stuff should be sent out in March but apparently deferred applicants have sent stuff in as early as when they found out about being deferred! Am I too late? Please shed some light on this. What should I send? My school will be sending my mid-year report really soon (once second quarter grades are available). Should I just send my letter to Harvard then? Also, in retrospect, my essays for all my Regular Decision schools, BY FAR, were much better than my EA Harvard ones. Should I send one of them to Harvard? It truly is stellar! Let me know please. Thanks, and good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Chopsticks, there is a link in this thread (page 1), where you can find the likely letters. They look like watered-down acceptance letters. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice for me (please refer to my previous post). Thanks. Good luck to everyone!</p>