<p>i agree blueducky. i just want it to be over with. My regional rep sent me an email commenting on my last email & ended the email saying that the waitlist is definetly not for the fainthearted. ughhh, i cant take this anymore.</p>
<p>ew, that’s a horrible thing for the regional rep to say, even if it’s true. but then again, them leading you on with “don’t give up” would be bad too. I need the closure. I want to move on.</p>
<p>You guys would be much better off if you focused on the school you sent your SIR to and quit obsessing over Harvard. Any waitlist is the longest of longshots - not a good thing to be pinning your hopes on. Start thinking about and planning for the school that accepted you and quit worrying about the one that didn’t. Then if lightning actually strikes and Harvard calls, you can be pleasantly surprised. And you won’t be miserable in the mean time.</p>
<p>Fair point, Coureur, but it’s not like we have anything to do for those schools. I mean, housing and class selection only take so much time. :)</p>
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<p>Assume you are waitlisted to MIT and Harvard, and MIT is your first choice. You are on both waitlists. If you get into MIT, then, if offered, you will decline Harvard. Nothing sinister. No game playing. Just keeping your options open until your top choice (MIT) accepts you.</p>
<p>does anyone know about how many people they called on friday?</p>
<p>I think the best answer is probably zero. Last year it looked like there were no call until monday afternoon. You can look at last years thread at:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/489328-official-harvard-class-2012-waitlist-thread-24.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/489328-official-harvard-class-2012-waitlist-thread-24.html</a></p>
<p>^Uh, two people on this thread alone got phone calls yesterday. lol.</p>
<p>Still, like sublimate says, most calls (I hope as a waitlistee) will start on Monday. We just happen to have an extremely lucky son-of-an-operadad on these forums. 
and another lucky one.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I am another waitlistee who has been reading this thread for the past month but haven’t contributed until now. I called the office of admissions friday at about 3.45 central time and the representative said that they wouldn’t be making any calls even next week. He said that the committee started deliberating on friday and would take this next week to finish up. </p>
<p>This is contradicting the fact that two people that we know of have received calls, and that the Harvard Crimson states…</p>
<p>"The first round of waitlist deliberations will run from today until the 19th. Fitzsimmons said that “at least 85 if not more” will be taken off the list in the coming weeks, as the office is still waiting to hear from some admitted students.</p>
<p>The admissions office aims to have all decisions out by July 1, Fitzsimmons said. He added that it is possible that students admitted off the waitlist will begin hearing as early as today, but more should find out by the middle of next week."</p>
<p>How come the office is saying one thing and Fitzsimmons seems to be saying something else? Can anyone else please make a call on monday to see what they say?</p>
<p>Thanks, and good luck to all.</p>
<p>Okay, good, because I just remembered that my answering machine has not been working for the past week. I better get it fixed ASAP.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Jeez, how many people were waitlisted? Is this number still kept secret?</p>
<p>hahah. Yeah, kind of intimidating right?</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve searched for the number but I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve seen estimates anywhere between 700 and 1500 who stay on the wait list. That would mean that anywhere between 1050 and 2200 students were waitlisted (using the 2/3 stay on the wait list estimate). But if they accepted 2046, would they really offer anywhere near 2200 spots on the wait list?</p>
<p>If you consider the fact that they use the waitlist as a “polite rejection” for some, the number of truly viable candidates is likely reasonable, with respect to their predicted yield. They wouldn’t waitlist as many people as they admit; however, you can be confident it is no small pool because they want a diverse group to choose from. Too large, and they just give themselves more work in may which could have been done earlier.</p>
<p>@naveen. Both that we have some people admitted already on cc and that last year most people started hearing on monday point to tomorrow’s being the start of wave one. Every day they convene like a normal 9-5 job (maybe longer on both ends), then during their breaks or after 5 they call the people they’ve accepted to that point. I assume the Harvard Admissions Committee knows not to procrastinate in making calls. :)</p>
<p>how do you know if you’re a candidate placed on the waitlist only as a polite rejection? i have heard that kids of legacies and whatnot might be, but what about non-legacies, etc? can anybody elaborate upon this?</p>
<p>I feel like I might have been waitlisted because they didn’t want to reject me outright. All the students in my school who got second interviews were either accepted or waitlisted; none rejected outright. My second interview went terribly…</p>
<p>my speculation (feel free to elaborate or disagree) is that a well-rounded kid that is academically strong might be placed on the WL bc they dont want to reject him outright. … but most viable candidates on the waiting list have something that really stands out. also, if a student is from a feeder school then maybe harvard wouldn’t want to reject that candidate from there straight-out…</p>
<p>Will geographical quotas work with you or against you or not have any importance whatsoever in the waitlist acceptance process?</p>
<p>Yeah, I have heard that the wait list is sometimes a “polite rejection,” but I really hope it’s more than that. Because then all of this worrying is for naught.</p>
<p>However, in regards to the well-rounded kid that is academically strong being placed on the wait list, I have an example that might change that view of yours. A friend of mine who applied to harvard with a perfect 4.0, 2400, 36, eagle scout, several activities in and out of school, got rejected. If there was such a thing as a “polite rejection” why didn’t he get on the wait list? Keep in mind he got into princeton and yale. :)</p>
<p>and music, thanks for the information. I’ll keep that phone on during school in hopes of a call :)</p>
<p>I’m only hypothesizing that “polite rejections” may account for the waitlist’s presumably large size, not that being waitlisted equates to “polite rejection.” If the waitlist consists of 2000 people and 400 are polite rejections, then this should be a comfort to those who are viable candidates–then further, only 2/3 remain. </p>
<p>The primary function of the waitlist is to fill the class, and just as they be lacking in southerners or cellists, they may also lack well-rounded people; well rounded people, mr. fitzsimmons said in an OnHarvardTime interview, make up 3/5 of each class. (his words were “about 300 unusual academic talent, about 300 unusual extracurricular, all the rest are well-rounders, ‘the staple for years’.” So, there are about 600 “geniuses” and about 1000 really good normal people. </p>
<p>The waitlist spots offered would probably carry the same ratio; however, you would expect the “geniuses” to have moved on to other very outstanding institutions that want them. Hence, the waitlist may well be mostly of all rounders, but this increases all waitlistee’s chances.</p>
<p>^Those with perfect exams scores harvard knows to be part of the “genius” pool, but they probably expect them to be accepted by other institutions and by luck of the draw they have already filled spots for that pool. Also, the sat and and act’s do not distinguish an applicant as much as national or international competitions, which effectively rank applicants for them to choose the top 10.</p>