I’ll be applying for the class of 2022. I don’t really have a list of awards to flaunt about but what I have is a practical political experience.
Have you tried googling this information? Less than 2% of applicants from India are admitted.
http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics
My guess is only the top students in the country are applying. If you think you are in the top 2% of the top students (not top 2% of the general population) then you have a shot. Please don’t think that having political experience will trump good grades and test scores.
@123Mom456 I’m not sure about the test scores as I’ll be taking it in December, but my grades are pretty good according to my school’s standards.
The answer to your question has no bearing on your admissions. They don’t just que all the Indian applicants and take a top percentage. They look at the applicant in their entirety, and often the Indians who do get in have much more than grades and a little political experience. You have to be a world beater, not just your average Indian student or even an Indian beater
@ANormalSeniorGuy a little political experience? I have spent my entire high school years for it. I’ve lead 20 men, I’ve organized rallies, I’ve given speeches in front of thousands of prospective voters. I’ve dealt with a diverse group of people from uneducated to super educated, from young men to retired adults. I’ve interned at a stock broking firm over the summer. Do you realize how much weight it carries as an applicant and that too from India. I’ll be having a glowing letter of recommendation from my party leader. Harvard is all about business and politics and so am I. “You have to be a world beater, not just your average Indian student or even an Indian beater” is the lamest argument I have ever heard.
Ummm… you realize that we’re all strangers, right? All we know about you is what you’ve written in your posts here.
Here’s what you gave us to go on in your OP : “I’ll be applying for the class of 2022. I don’t really have a list of awards to flaunt about but what I have is a practical political experience.”
@ANormalSeniorGuy has tried to offer you his perspective. No need to fly off the handle because he wasn’t familiar with facts you haven’t offered.
You seem to think you have the answer to your question: you’re in. So why worry about how many others get in with you?
@bjkmom oh no! I have not lost my temper. It’s just I’ve explained what all I have done. and I’m just disagreeing with his statement “You have to be a world beater, not just your average Indian student or even an Indian beater” that’s all.
Typically there are over 3,000 Indian applicants to Harvard and less than 250 of them get in, according to a post on Quora that you could have found as easily as I did if you did a search online. Are you looking for these facts as your question suggests? Or are you looking for opinions and advice on your chances of admission?
Typically people seek opinions and advice on CC, and they can accept or reject the feedback without posting condescending responses as you did above. Saying someone’s opinion and advice is “the lamest argument I have ever heard” and “disagreeing with his statement” is entirely inappropriate in this venue.
If your arrogant attitude comes across in your application to Harvard, I sincerely doubt you will get admitted. And just fyi, Harvard is not just “all about business and politics.” There is much more going on there.
@damn There several indications that you lost your temper, along with several issues with your response.
1: You claim my argument is “lame”, when it is simply my advice and is general enough where you can apply it to anything. Im not saying anything about your chances in my advice about having to be a world beater. However, its odd to me that you would disagree with something so universally accepted as a truth for any top university. They want the best, which is literally what I said.
2: You say that Harvard is all about business and politics, but even if that were remotely true just cause you are affiliated with those subjects and have experience in them does not mean you are in. Harvard is not a technical college or a per-professional college (even though many see it as such), so no your political experience does not guarantee you admission. Regardless of your skill or talent in the field, just being affiliated does not do anything, so you have no idea how Harvard will read your political experience. As it is extensive, hopefully well, but your being in politics has nothing to do with your admission chances.
3: Your response seemed to indicate I hurt your ego or something, as you literally started off by scoffing at the idea of your political experience being “little”, even though I had no idea the extent of your experience as you never told us anything about it, besides it being “practical”. You seem to have blown up because I insulted your experience, when I had no idea about it in the first place.
4: You seem pretty damn sure of yourself that you are in, so why ask? I understand you are nervous and want support, but don’t go on CC if you dont want actual advice. We are not here to pat you on the back or give blindly positive advice. You say that “Do you realize how much weight it carries as an applicant and that too from India” and “Harvard is about politics and business and so am I” like you know what they will think of you. Firstly, you dont. Secondly, just cause you match what you think is their specialties does not mean anything, and in fact can make you look non-special
Overall, chill out and dont go on CC if you want us to back you up no matter what. We are not here to stroke your ego, and my advice is sound in that Harvard will not just que the entire Indian population and skim off the top. Especially if there are some as arrogant as you.
Actually, if you go to http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics and filter for students from India at Harvard College, the number is 22 for all classes. Dividing this by 4 means there are probably between 4-6 students from India per class. Then assuming an 80% yield rate (probably is higher), we are looking at 5-7 acceptances a year.
OP, if you are trying to measure how you stack up, you should first go to the Harvard CDS https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2014-15.pdf and see how your objective statistics compare to the general student population. You can also search through the results threads here for Harvard for the past few years to see what was reported by students from India (accepted, rejected, stat’s, awards, EC’s and self assessed quality of other subjectives.
@ANormalSeniorGuy It’s all good man and thanks for your precious perspective.
You stated: "@ANormalSeniorGuy It’s all good man and thanks for your precious perspective. "
You’re apparently a bright kid.
But either you don’t understand the way “precious” will be perceived, or you have indeed once again “lost your temper.”
@ANormalSeniorGuy – I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by either of us returning to this thread. The OP has the information he asked for.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. The question, as posted, is unanswerable. Harvard does not release the number of applicants per country. As for how many are accepted, @BKSquared estimation of 5-7 per year is probably on target. The assumption that the acceptance rate is 1-2% is probably also on target. But since it’s all speculation, there is no need for others to add additional speculation.
Additionally, for the future, the OP should know that s/he is certainly able to accept or reject advice from users. But when one asks a question, one should assume that people will respond, and not engage those users in debate.
For users who are answering questions, I would not suggest spending much time parsing the meaning of one particular word when it is used by a non-native English speaker. Then you are entering the kingdom of “inferred” vs. “implied.”