<p>Hi there. I’m a teacher, and one of my students applied to Harvard this year. However, he STILL has not received a decision email, and it’s currently 1:30 AM.</p>
<p>Has anybody had a similar problem? When will they be sent? I thought they were supposed to be sent between 5 PM and 10 PM?</p>
<p>Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>D got accepted, also to JHU BME program and some other colleges. I see that a lot of students who also have high scores (SAT, Subject Tests, ranking, GPA) and a lot of extracurricular activities did not get accepted. It just doesn’t make sense to me.</p>
<p>LOL pretty sure that was a ■■■■■</p>
<p>I don’t believe MordecalG’s post is a serious post. Not sure how those stats could get accepted unless a recruited athlete, and not sure how a triple Harvard legacy family could be earning less than 10,000, even is a foreign country.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted!!! WHAT!!!</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1980 (620 Writing - I know that’s disgusting - 670 Reading, 690 Math)
ACT: 30
SAT II: 700 Math 690 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 20/492, top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc (4), US History, Chem, Bio
IB (place score in parenthesis): IB Photography (6 semesters)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, AP Bio, IB Photo 5, IB Photo 6, Honors Econ/Government, Rec Sports (lol) and Unified Sports Honors (a class with autistic kids)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): nothing MAJOR, just honor roll and such</p>
<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity diving, volleyball and wrestling (all four years, captain on diving and volleyball), NHS, Photography club, Breakfast Club, and I’ve been playing in my church’s band for 4 years.
Job/Work Experience: lol nah, too busy for work
Volunteer/Community service: 300+ hours of community service as an audio-visual technician at my church, and other miscellaneous volunteer work like Relay for Life and Habitat for Humanity.
Summer Activities: diving diving diving (club)
Essays: Used my “letter to roommate” essay from Stanford app
Teacher Recommendation: awesome, I’m sure.
Counselor Rec: awesome, I’m sure
Additional Rec: nah
Interview: Went well. It was really very relaxed and nonstressful. I also got to speak with my specific admissions officer when I went for a “recruiting” trip to Harvard (dive team)</p>
<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): AZ
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public, IB
Ethnicity: african-american wut it do
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: < 50K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Ya’ll whitey’s enslaved us (I’m black, URM), first generation, recruited athlete (that was HUGE)</p>
<p>Reflection
Strengths: I’m well rounded I guess? Instead of a TON of extracurriculars, I had a solid amount and showed dedication/leadership in them. Being a recruited athlete was an enormous help too!
Weaknesses: lame test scores, not a TON of AP’s really (due to scheduling issues)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Because the Lord God almighty is tooooo good to me, that’s why!</p>
<p>General Comments: I’ve been reading threads like this forever, and it’s CRAZY to actually be posting on one of them now - and with a positive post too! I honestly wasn’t even going after Harvard! Didn’t even PLAN on applying until weeks before the application deadline. God really set things up PERFECTLY for me, and I give him all the glory! Good luck to everyone else. For those of you accepted, I can’t wait to meet you all! And for those rejected/waitlisted, life really does go on! College is what you make of it, and not all about where you go. I’m sure you people will end up in wonderful places doing wonderful things! </p>
<p>CLASS OF 2017 THIS IS UNREAL!!!</p>
<p>Accepted! Feeling really good! It has been a good 2013. Congratulations to everyone!</p>
<p>Accepted as well! Arguably the most surreal moment of my life opening up the admitted students portal (email didn’t come until 10PM so I checked at around 7PM).</p>
<p>In terms of other results on Ivy Day: In at Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth. WL Princeton, Penn Wharton. Didn’t apply to Yale/Columbia. Still waiting on Stanford before committing to H though.</p>
<p>Decision: Deferred → Rejected</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 730/790/780/9 (2300)
[</em>] ACT: Didn’t take
[<em>] SAT II: Biology M (750), Math IIC (800)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 22/345
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): World History (3), Biology (5), BC Calc (5)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): Didn’t take
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: 4 APs and rest Honors (except for mandatory Economics)
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Just Academic (AP Scholar, Award from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, National Merit, National Achievement)</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Color Guard, National Honor Society, Orchestra, Best Buddies, French Club
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: None
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: A *lot</em> of volunteer work with my church (Teaching Sunday School, Bible Clubs, Vacation Bible School, etc.)
[<em>] Summer Activities: Color Guard, Independent orchestras, Bible Clubs
[</em>] Essays: Meh, I’m not a very good writer…
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Hopefully good, but I don’t know…
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Should be good, my counselor is very nice.
[<em>] Additional Rec: None
[</em>] Interview: I’m not much of a conversationalist, but it wasn’t terrible…</p>
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): PA
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): N/A
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: African-American
[<em>] Gender: Female
[</em>] Income Bracket: 90k-ish
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, Child of immigrants</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Definitely academics, SAT scores, and hooks
[</em>] Weaknesses: Weak ECs, General naivety about the admissions process and how to market myself or what I should have done after I was deferred…
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Nothing on my application stood out, I guess…
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected: MIT, Yale, Brown; Accepted: Johns Hopkins, Boston University, Duke, University of Richmond, Northeastern University, George Washington University</p>
<p>[/ul]General Comments: </p>
<p>I wasn’t so much disappointed with not getting into Harvard as I was being shut out of all the Ivies… I keep cycling between being angry that other, “less-qualified” people got in and being depressed and thinking that I got rejected because I wasn’t good enough. </p>
<p>But if I was being honest with myself, I know that as much as Harvard was my dream school, I would have been really overwhelmed and probably not very happy there. :’( Alas, it was not meant to be. </p>
<p>My advice to underclassmen reading these posts is EDUCATE YOURSELVES. I made the mistake of not thinking about college until the summer of my junior year and believing my parents (who are immigrants and know nothing about American colleges now that I think about it) when they said my grades could get me into college, no problem. Learn how to write an essay. Practice interviews… Don’t blow off PSATs or SATs. Start thinking about what you want to do for a career and make an effort to try those fields out in high school (Take language courses if you’re interested in language, intern at a hospital if you want to pursue medicine).</p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who got in. Rejection is compelling me to be awesome wherever I end up :P</p>
<p>D was rejected - no surprise, probably a bad reason but just applied to see if she could get in ;-)</p>
<p>Accepted to Harvard!</p>
<p>…After being rejected ED to Stanford and RD to Yale, and wait-listed at Duke. How does that happen?</p>
<p>@TheOwlMan: I would strongly encourage you to not try to make any sense of it. It will drive you nuts.</p>
<p>Many applicants get into “more selective” schools and get rejected not only at other peer schools, but also at substantially less selective ones. That’s why applications are evaluated “holistically.”</p>
<p>Holistic’s definition: “Characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.” </p>
<p>Go figure!</p>
<p>I agree with Yab123. I was accepted into Harvard but rejected from Northwestern, and I am in no way, shape, or form “overqualified” (if there even is such a thing) for Northwestern. Ultimately, I believe the schools may have just been looking for different things in their applicants and, judging holistically, Northwestern determined that I wouldn’t be a good fit and Harvard decided that I would be.</p>
<p>^^
I find this interesting, Adodie. My son went to Harvard and my daughter goes to Northwestern (she was waitlisted at Harvard, and only applied because we wanted her to go there for the financial aid; in retrospect, we were wrong for making her do that), and both would have been miserable at the other’s school. The personalities of the students are wildly different. Maybe these admissions officers know more than many people give them credit for.</p>
<p>[ size=+2][ color=red][ b]Decision: Rejected**[/color][/size]</p>
<p>[ b]Objective:**[ list]
[ *] SAT I (breakdown): 2200 (750 M, 740 CR, 710 W)
[ *] ACT: 34
[ *] SAT II: 750 Math II, 670 Biology M, 640 Literature
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 4/406
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): European History (3), Biology (4), English Language (5)
[ *] IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP Statistics, AP Literature, Anatomy/Physiology, Spanish IV, Theology
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar
[ /list]Subjective:[list]
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 3 years of musical theater, 2 years of varsity mathletes, 2 years of NHS, 1 year of National Spanish Honor Society, 4 years of minimal community service, 4 years of scholarship essay competitions (placed first 3/4 years)
[ *] Job/Work Experience: n/a
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: minimal, through my school’s Community Service Corps
[ *] Summer Activities: nothing of note
[ *] Essays: decent
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: excellent
[ *] Counselor Rec: n/a
[ *] Additional Rec: n/a
[ *] Interview: pretty good</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Other**[list]
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): PA
[ *] Country (if international applicant): n/a
[ *] School Type: Catholic
[ *] Ethnicity: white
[ *] Gender:male
[ *] Income Bracket: $0-$60,000
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): n/a</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]Reflection**[list]
[ <em>] Strengths: nothing in particular, my grades and scores were pretty typical
[ *] Weaknesses: activities showed no leadership
[ *] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: lack of leadership
[ *] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted at UPenn, Drexel, LaSalle and Syracuse. Rejected at Brown, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford, and *drum roll</em> Penn State Main</p>
<p>[ /list][ b]General Comments: bad EC’s are bad**</p>
<p>size=+2]Decision: Accepted from Deferred[/size]</p>
<p>Objective:</p>
<pre><code>SAT I (breakdown): /
ACT: 35 (E 35 M 35 R 35 S 35)
SAT II: US History 790, Spanish 730
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): My school doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): /
IB (place score in parenthesis): /
Senior Year Course Load: regular
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
</code></pre>
<p>National Competition in History (3 times), Geography (3 times), Croatian (once) and Philosophy (once, almost went to International Philosophy Olympiad), couple of silver and bronze medals on Competitons (mostly History and Geo)
Subjective:</p>
<pre><code>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): President of Volunteer and History club, Vicecaptain of debate team
Job/Work Experience: Animation, Tutoring, Manual Work, Basketball referee…
Volunteer/Community service: Extensive volunteering throughout my whole high school education
Summer Activities: Three international projects in Israel, Swaziland and Italy, I think it was very important for my acceptance
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 7-8, I wrote about war in ex.Yugoslavia and my opposition towards continuing hatred between Croats and Serbs
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 10, the best rec. ever, my teacher absolutely loves me and he presented as some sort of a hero
Teacher Rec #2: 9, great rec. with an essay from Philosophy Competition, it showed my talent in Ph.
Counselor Rec: Didnt see it, i suppose it was good
Additional Rec:
/
Interview:
</code></pre>
<p>Absolutely perfect, we clicked immediately and I think it was critical for my admission</p>
<p>Other</p>
<pre><code>State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Croatia
School Type: Gymnasium
Ethnicity: Croatian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 20.000 $
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
</code></pre>
<p>nothing</p>
<p>Reflection</p>
<pre><code>Strengths: Competitions, Standardized Tests, Recommendations, Essay, International projects, Interview
Weaknesses: Extremely low G.P.A., I thought I won’t get in
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Above mentioned, I think I had unique app and showed my capacities despise the low G.P.A.m I think Harvard really appreciates diversity and will rather accept a unique person than extremely intelligent, but socially handicaped one
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
</code></pre>
<p>Rejected from Yale, Cornell and Amherst, Waitlisted from Dartmouth and Yale-NUS</p>
<p>General Comments: I still can’t believe this is actually going in, Congrats to everyone who got in, and to those didn’t: guys, this is a lottery, either you get lucky or not, I am sure you’ll go to your dream schools</p>
<p>I haven’t seen my result yet, did u guys get it by email? I opted out of the email… I thought it only came by mail, not an online posting…</p>
<p>rejected with 2340 and 35, #1 in class.
ECs were ok but not good enough for harvard
only will have taken 10 aps before graduation.</p>
<p>what were the acceptance rates this year?</p>
<p>It seems as if many of the applicants to harvard that got in were rejected at other colleges</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2260 (800 CR, 770 M, 690W) (single sitting)
[</em>] ACT: N/A
[<em>] SAT II: Math I 700, Bio 700, Chem 570, Lit 690
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 94.4/100 – 3 year cumulative average
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis):N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Honors core classes, no AP classes offered at my high school
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):4 years Football, 4 years Lacrosse, 2 years wrestling, School Newspaper, Literary Magazine, Student Athlete School Spirit group, Faith group
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Caddy, busboy
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service:Religion Teacher to youth
[<em>] Summer Activities: Work, athletic training
[</em>] Essays: Pretty good
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation:Solid, I think
[</em>] Counselor Rec:Great, from what I was told
[<em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[</em>] Interview: Ehh
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?:Yes
[</em>] Intended Major:Undeclared Engineering
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): NY
[</em>] Country (if international applicant):
[<em>] School Type: Catholic
[</em>] Ethnicity:White
[<em>] Gender:Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: <100k
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):Nothing I can think of
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: Versatile, well-rounded, writing ability, grades/SAT
[<em>] Weaknesses:No real hooks, I’m a dime a dozen applicant in some of these applicant pools
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: No real hooks, pretty common applicant, low SAT II’s
[li] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:Accepted to UVA, Binghamton, Northeastern, Fordham, Pitt, Delaware among others. Waitlisted to BC, Hopkins, Tulane. Denied from all ivies i applied to (HYP, Cornell, Penn)[/li][/ul]General Comments:
I always said I would make sure to post in these decision threads when I got my notifications because I always perused these boards when I was doing my own applications. To any high school juniors thinking about college, I just have a bit of advice. Don’t apply to more than 10 schools, try less if you could. I know what it feels like to be that overachiever, wanting to “keep your options open,” but seriously – the essays will pile up, the fees will pile up, and god help you when every school wants a seperate financial aid form on top of the FAFSA and CSS. Apply to your favorites, the practical, and a few reaches because thats what its all about hahah. Practice SAT tests too, a little bit of work can skyrocket you into a whole new echelon of schools and merit money.
I guess things are just getting more competitive by the year in college admissions. Maybe grad school</p>