One more chances threads, for the win...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Well, the interview is tomorrow, and most of my financial aid things are sent out, so the waiting game has truly begun. So, for the sake of closer, I'll repost my statistics, and you guys can give me your take on it =). RD of course.</p>

<p>URM (African American, but I'm not really American, born in Europe)</p>

<p>Age: 15</p>

<p>Rank: 7/138</p>

<p>GPA (Unweighted/Weighted) : 3.86 or so/4.5 or something</p>

<p>SAT I: M = 800, V = 730, W = 750</p>

<p>SAT IIs: Math I = 720, Lit = 720, Bio-M = 770</p>

<p>APs: English III (Language and Composition?): 4, US History: 5</p>

<p>National Achievement Semis (when I sent it, I'm a finalist now)
National Merit Semis</p>

<p>Classes during 1st semester:
Pre-AP Spanish III
Pre-AP Physics (finished it in half the course length)
AP Physics C E/M
Calculus AB (now taking BC)
AP Chem</p>

<p>Recommendations: Stellar, as far as I know</p>

<p>Essays: My English teacher liked it, =)</p>

<p>ECs:
State Qualifier for Debate, Master Debater for 04-05, Treasurer
Chess Club President, couple of trophies
National Honor Society, volunteering hours mostly
Piano, 1 year, not very good but w/e (sent a sample, it was decent)</p>

<p>I think what might work in my favor is URM status (I don't like affirmative action, but when it helps me... :) ), my age, perhaps the Math SAT, and my counselor rec (she pointed out that our class is ultra competitive). Debate is also nice, I guess.</p>

<p>My ECs, however, aren't stellar, academics aren't legendary either, so I would probably be a reject were it not for URM...</p>

2

<p>You are not a URM. You are not African American. You are a European who happens to be black. </p>

<p>I don't know whether or not you'll get into Harvard. I don't think, however, that you'll benefit from affirmative action since it was not designed for black immigrants.</p>

3

<p>your stats are great, but remember that places like harvard are very wary of admitting younger applicants such as yourself. they don't even like admitting 16-year-olds because of the maturity issue. now, i'm sure that you are a very mature person, but just know that your chances are more slim because of your age.</p>

4

<p>Wow...the two things I've been counting on have just exploded in my face. When I consider what was just said in this thread, I have close to no chance compared to other people who's applications were frankly better than mine, but were still rejected. Not that I thought I had a chance anyway.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]

You are not a URM. You are not African American. You are a European who happens to be black.</p>

<p>I don't know whether or not you'll get into Harvard. I don't think, however, that you'll benefit from affirmative action since it was not designed for black immigrants.

[/quote]

In principle this is true, but I distinctly recall reading an article somewhere about how prestigious colleges (including Harvard) "inflate" their racial diversity statistics by admitting many people of color from overseas. And, judging from the newly created admitted-students-only message board administered by Harvard (a wholly unscientific sample), there are a lot of "minority" international students, nearly as many as the ones from the US.</p>

6

<p>" but I distinctly recall reading an article somewhere about how prestigious colleges (including Harvard) "inflate" their racial diversity statistics by admitting many people of color from overseas."</p>

<p>There were articles last year related to Harvard in which black Harvard faculty, students, adcoms were noting that a disproportionately high number of black students at Harvard were either internationals, immigrant Caribbean/Africans or the offspring of Caribbean/African immigrants.</p>

<p>The concern was that Harvard was not doing a good job of attracting black students who came from the largest group of blacks in the US -- blacks who are not of Caribbean/immigrant African heritage. The type of blacks who are underrepresented also are from the groups most hurt by the Jim Crow and other laws, the repercussions of which still are hurting African American nonimmigrantCaribbean/African families.</p>

<p>As a result, my understanding is that Harvard as well as some other colleges are doing more to try to recruit students who are black Americans who aren't naturalized and don't have immigrant parents.</p>

<p>What was particularly interesting to me was that one of the black alum who spoke up about the underrpresentation of African American nonimmigrants was black Harvard law prof Lani Guinier, who is bi-racial (white, Jewish mom) and her late dad Ewart (sp?) Guinier (one of Harvard's first black tenured profs) was a black Caribbean emmigrant.</p>

7

<p>JohnDoe,
If you don't get into the kind of college that you wish to, you might want to take a year off and do a productive gap year such as working a job or doing some structured community service.</p>

<p>I don't think that your age will boost you into college. I think that colleges will compare your stats and ECs with those of students who are the regular age of college applicants, and your ECs in particular may seem lacking compared to the achievements of the other students. Colleges also may have concern about whether a 15-year-old or 16-year-old would have the maturity to take full advantage of the college environment, not just the academics, which clearly you can handle, but being able to truly run with the EC opportunities.</p>

<p>Since I lack a crystal ball and aren't an adcom, I don't know your odds. I'm just giving you some reflections and possible alternatives if you don't get the exact options you want in April.</p>

<p>Clearly, you are extremely bright, have excellent scores and the smarts to be able to do well at a place like Harvard. Whether this means you'll get in, is anyone's guess.</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>