<p>How much hope is there for us waitlistees? Or is waitlisted basically rejection without the harsh feelings?</p>
<p>Last year about 230/240 were pulled from the waitlist.</p>
<p>From The Crimson:</p>
<p>"This year, Fitzsimmons said, the admissions office has been conservative with acceptances, covering the College in the case of up to an 81 percent yield.</p>
<p>The conservative number of admitted students means that it should be another good year for wait-listed students, said Fitzsimmons."</p>
<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: College Admits Record-Low 7 Percent](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527378]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527378)</p>
<p>Make of that what you will.</p>
<p>anyone know how many applicants were wait-listed total?</p>
<p>does anyone know how many applicants got the year gap acceptance option??</p>
<p>Not a lot of hope. The Harvard waitlist is huge. You had much better chances of getting in RD than off the waitlist.</p>
<p>How do we know that the waitlist is huge? The only numbers I’ve been able to find suggest that the waitlist is about 700-1000 people.</p>
<p>If you check the decisions thread, every tom dick and harry is waitlisted. Or every third person.</p>
<p>scipio i was thinking of the opposite!if lets say 1200 were waitlisted which is decent,the letter said that 2/3 remain on the wl so that makes 900 wlees.And if sth like 250 places are offered and another 50 gap year then that makes a yield of 33%!!!Instead of the 7% we had initialy!Guys i have a good feeling about this!!Correct me if i was wrong somewhere in my calc</p>
<p>i looked at the other thread @ CC and Harvard would not reveal the number of waitlistees…</p>
<p>i really hope the number of waitlisteees are around 1200 or less.</p>
<p>^^ Not sure the size of the waitlist is a function of the number of “waitlisted” decision posts seen on CC. Most rejecteds don’t post – they drop off of threads, I think. And it may also be possible that CC attracts a larger percentage of “bubble” applicants than are present in the general applicant pool, bubble applicants who are in the “most-likely-to-get-waitlisted” category of the overall Harvard applicant pool, due to the fact that many students on CC come here because they may strongly suspect (like me) that their Ivy aceptance isn’t a slam-dunk, but neither is it a lost cause. So we come here to get differentiator tips, or inside info to help us squeak through the last few hurdles of a tight process.</p>
<p>Just saying that high relative numbers of CC waitlist announcements may be some sefl-selection trend rather than an indication that most people get wl’d at Harvard. Most get rejected, they just aren’t CC members.</p>
<p>Of course, I am W/L’d, so I am obviously saying all this to make myself feel better.</p>
<p>If i come across a link with the waitlist size, I’ll post it here… but 1200 sounds comfortable…</p>
<p>I’m starting to think that its closer to 3000. In my area, I know of about 6 students that applied. Three were denied, three were waitlisted, and none were accepted. Try checking the 2012 threads about the waitlist to get a projection about your chances. But, remember that Harvard had to put enough people on their waitlist to be 100000% sure that they will have enough students in their class next year. And, this is a weird year, so they don’t know what to expect with the economy = more waitlists.</p>
<p>3000?!?!?!?!?!?</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>I mean, yes, with the economic situation, the waitlist may be big, but not OVERLY huge.</p>
<p>My school had ~ 6 waitlists last year and ~7 the year before. Not really saying much, but 1 school shouldn’t determine the overall size of the waitlist.</p>
<p>Ugh, I really hope it’s not around 3000.
Will they convene and pull people off the list by going over the applicant’s overall application again? And comparing that with the rest of the waitlistees?</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, and I’m NO admissions officer, it seems like they compile the applications of the people that turned down their offer of admission, and determine what types of applicants they need to take from the waitlist to ensure that they round out the class. If all of their band students go to Stanford, they are going to take band kids off of the waitlist, for example. But, yes, I have heard that they go back over all of the applications.</p>
<p>does harvard send out letters to waitlisted students?</p>
<p>also, my mom suggests that I visit harvard to show my interest in getting off the waitlist. is this a good idea?</p>
<p>dfinch - That’s not a good idea, actually. Harvard doesn’t track demonstrated interest for its applicants (since pretty much everyone is very, very interested). So the expenditure for the visit wouldn’t be worth it. However, if between now and when you hear from Harvard, you win any really significant awards or have any other major accomplishments, sending a letter to admissions updating them couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>I have heard from one source that they have already god their geographic quota and that well will only pick from the “best” that are left.</p>
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<p>What if everyone from Mississippi declines? They might pick someone off the waitlist from Mississippi.</p>
<p>I think the proper way to look at it is: Harvard says they do not rank the waitlist. Taking them at their word, it probably means, they take of the waitlist based upon what their needs are. If they need more girls, then they take girls off the waitlist. If they need more from the midwest to keep the geography balanced, then they take kids from the midwest. If they meet all their various diversification goals, then they probably take the best qualified, or maybe a few more hard luck cases. Maybe, they want a few more full-pay students, or don’t need as many. Thousands of reasons you can imagine for their decision making, after the fact, once all acceptances are in.</p>
<p>One major one: Kid of a high profile parent doesn’t quite cut it. They waitlist the kid and see how much pushback they get. If the kid is happy to go to Yale, then mission accomplished. If the Parent calls the school, then they are first off the waitlist.</p>
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<p>They aren’t dumb. Their typical yield is 75-80% of kids offered. I am sure they have stats on their yield off the waitlist. Assume it is a “bad” year and only get 65% yield, then they would only need 315 off the waitlist. Assuming a 50% yield off the waitlist (I have no idea what the right number is), then they only “need” a waitlist of 700. With 1,000 kids, they would be 100000% sure of meeting their quota.</p>