<p>Hey guys, sorry i have not been on for a while .. i've been trying to hammer out a 2400 lol fat chance.</p>
<p>Anyways 1991. to be perfectly honest i have no idea how many are cut regionally it really does matter from region to region. For instance if you come from the NE area then it is likely that more qualified students are in the pile and therefore fewer are cut than say in Utah where a significant number may not be qualified. But again that is speculation. If though you are from a country with a total pool of under 50 what you should do is go to see the number of applicants admitted from you country and double it. That is probably the number that will be survive the first cut. But again that is just my guess. I will ask my dad tonight to reconfirm that. But i heard him say something along those lines once. (But he was referring specifically to this African country so i duo it may into apply). but remember there are no set quotas so it changes from year to year but the averages do stay quite constant. One year a small country may send 5 and then the next 8 and the next 4 it is unlikely to jump to 18 within a year within 10 perhaps but almost certainly not within two or three.<br>
The government yeah you are dead right about the legacy thing.
You are also coreect to say that it does not really give you a huge edge as there are many many VERY qualified legacies. </p>
<p>Waitin . hmm well if you are in the 25% of current students you may be in good shape as long as you have some other strengths to back you up. Most of the people in the bottom 25 % academically will probably be outstanding in some other area sports or otherwise. But yeah just keep believing and be as unique as you possibly can ! good luck ! </p>
<p>Remember guys i am just an amateur trying to help .. i am not an expert. Bye and goodluck!</p>
<p>During my alumni interview the guy asked me if I had any connections to Harvard via family or their friends.</p>
<p>I told him my aunt and about 4 close friends of my grandparents went to HBS and HLS and are actively involved. He seemed to be really interested and took down all their names and grad years.</p>
<p>Does that count for anything? Or was he just fact checking?</p>
<p>Kafka, the SAT 1 is like the only weak point in my app (val, play a sport,lots of community service based in my community/culture, unique extracurriculars, career-oriented extracurriculars.) Plus, I would say my application/essay is going to be more diverse than that of a typical applicant or URM for that matter. (I live in a different country over the summer and have been through a war) </p>
<p>So if I have the same chances as a typical competitive applicant, I am a happy man. I know if I post a chance me thread, I will be shot down b/c of my SAT. Thank God admissions is a crapshoot, or else people sub 2150 SATs do not stand a chance (sorry my fellow CCers who have perfect/almost perfect scores, but it benefits my chances :) ) </p>
<p>Kafka, of course we cannot rely on your dad's description of the process but it gives us all a pretty good idea of how admissions might be like. Thanks. (Just to be clear, I am a minority (not asian), but also not a URM.)</p>
<p>But they do not go by borders, thank God haha. Technically, the Middle East is in Asia, and I would say there are not too many people of my race that go to that school (I asked someone who is part of the Harvard Arab Alumni Club). </p>
<p>In other terms, I do not have an anti-hook :), in fact, being a minority adds diversity to your app as long as your not "asian". Of course, it is not a hook like URM, but it increases your chances somewhat as long as you can prove it makes you diverse. </p>
<p>If I was Egyptian, I would say I am African :). I would not be lying. The common app asks if you are African/ Black, not if you are just Black.</p>
<p>^ I think even though I'm not "Asian" Asian, I'm the other kind that is also URM.</p>
<p>Shucks.</p>
<p>(Which again is a load of nonsense. I was born/raised here. Why should I be associated with a skin color conflated with a national origin? Thanks, diversity pushers!)</p>
<p>Hah; Then why didn't you (and other asians/indians) not give you're race in the common app?<br>
Do colleges look down upon no answers? Or, do they automatically assume you are white/asian? Or do your names give it off (Ken Lin, etc.)?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure if Linda Wang, Michael Wei, Jason Smith, or Dan Jackson didn't report their race the admissions office won't have a hard time making assumptions.</p>
<p>I just left it blank. My name isn't Anglo-Saxon (although I've always liked the name Jack.....yeah, I dunno), so they won't have trouble guessing my 'heritage', but honestly, beyond certain cultural habits, I don't really identify with it. I'm me, not a box.</p>
<p>....This might turn into a rant about how silly it is that society needs absolutes and still thinks it's a good idea to 'categorize' people, rather than familiarizing themselves with an individual.....</p>
<p>But instead, it will turn into me telling you to check out: The Strokes, The Heights, Minus the Bear, Kings of Leon, the White Stripes, and Jape.</p>
<p>If your parents went to harvard, special attention will be paid to you if you are in a similar group of applicants. If your sibling went to harvard, im sure it's considered the same type of deal as your parents (not sure on that, though).</p>
<p>If you're questioning whether or not legacy kids have an advantage over the rest of the public, think about how many people have graduated from each Harvard class, and how many of them have kids who apply. I'm sure Harvard could fill up a class with qualified legacy kids, but they just cant. If they do accept a legacy kids, either their parents donated a large amount of money, or they are just really qualified and deserve to go.</p>
<p>As for the check race box, my husband tore out an article on the 10 mistakes not to make on an application. One was not checking off your race box. I don't recall why and I would really have to dig to find the article.</p>
<p>^ If having to subscribe to a societal norm that I think retards our culture is a 'mistake' significant enough to prevent me from going to Harvard, then I guess I'll just have to deal with that.</p>
<p>I am sorry to say that the legacy connections you have are unlikely to affect you. But I am positive that a bright young person like you could get in regardless. Unless your grandparents friends are very influential Harvard Alumni and know you very well and have been involved with you in a project or community service or something or the other and highlight that in the admissions committee then it can help. As for your aunt again it does not count as legacy per say but I think it can give you a slight slight edge. Basically a rule of thumb when it comes to legacy admission is: If you think you absolutely need legacy admissions in order to get accepted then you probably won't be, if however you are a legacy and think you can get accepted without it then you probably will be. </p>
<p>I think that your interviewer was doing one of three things: he may have been new and inexperienced and just assumed that it was an important thing to write down, he may have been writing any important things you say down to fact check like you said, and thirdly he may have been just writing whatever to appear interested and engaged - its a confidence boosting mechanism for both the interviewer and the interviewee. </p>
<p>Your interview is over and I wish you the best, but people it tends to annoy some admission officers if you bring up random legacy connections that aren't really legacy it looks comical and desperate. Now I am not saying that's what you are Mal77 I am just saying that its treading on dangerous water. So unless you actually know these people and have done stuff with them then it is quite unnecessary to bring up legacy connections that are not from your immediate family - though an aunt may just be okay to bring up if you are cleaver about it. For instance if they ask "why Harvard" you could say something like " Well I am very close to my aunt and when she tells me that her experience at Harvard was superb, the nutty professors, the engaging students, the Cambridge Vibe, and particularly (insert you course here) since I am interested in (field) I feel that Harvard offers unparalleled instruction in that area." or something along those lines. That way he gets that you have legacy connections but you are not banking on them to get in etc. Or trying to highlight them. See the difference ? </p>
<p>So to try to unconfuse the confusion in my brain, people are cut by the regional committees, so that those who make this cut go to the central committee at Harvard and get evaluated, and those who are voted in are accepted?</p>