Reapplying to Harvard…lots of background info to consider?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello. I’m a 17 year old high school senior who applied to Harvard RD last year. I was rejected but got into some other top universities in the UK, but I think I prefer the US because of the liberal arts approach. I applied to only ivies, which was stupid, but I’m an international and didn’t know any better, and got rejected from all four.

I study in a rigorous qualifications system and have achieved straight As in every exam I’ve ever taken, which puts me in the top 1% of students in my country. I also wrote a really good common app essay last year (a charity helping me apply wrote “WOW” at the top of the page and said it was excellent) and I have pretty good ECs (no sports, but a lot of volunteering and high profile stuff).

However, my ACT was absolutely terrible. I transferred high schools because of homophobic bullying, so in my senior year when I took the ACT, I was settling into a new school where I knew no one and trying to keep up with the work and make new friends all at the same time. Luckily, I’m much happier now, but the move was unsettling for me as I had years of torment and didn’t know how my new school would treat me. I lied to my parents about the academics at my last school in order to get moved, because they didn’t (and still don’t) know I’m gay because they’re conservative Catholics. On top of it all, my new school is way way better than my old one, which made it look as if I had gained my qualifications in an environment where everyone succeeds, rather than in my old school, which was quite rough (the school profile was for my current private school). In addition, my mother is on welfare and my father is a truck driver, so they’ve not really been able to give me any support or guidance in the admissions process, and, coming from abroad, my school doesn’t really know anything about US admissions. Furthermore, since I go to a school with loads of rich kids (on a scholarship), I didn’t want to disclose this info because it’d exclude me socially. My new teachers/counsellors didn’t really know me that well, so weren’t able to give very good recommendations, and they obviously didn’t know about the bullying or my mum being on welfare so didn’t include that either. In fact, one gave me a class rank of 10%, which is absolute bs, as my scores are in the top 1% of my class. I sat the ACT three times, didn’t study once, and got 28, 28 and 29, respectively. However, if I study, I believe I can get at least a 31. My subject test scores were 620 and 670, respectively, which suck as well, because once again, I was too caught up in personal things to revise.

Should I reapply to Harvard EA, and, more widely, to the other Ivies that rejected me? Will they hold it against me? Should I explain my circumstances? I’m so stressed out at the moment because I don’t want to pick a university in England that I don’t really like just for the sake of going to college. If anyone could give me advice I’d much appreciate it. It’s difficult to convey any of this information to my school when I can’t really even tell my parents!

Thanks so much :slight_smile:

2

Your circumstances will not alleviate your scores. Most schools will tell you that to be successful on reapplication you have to substantially improve your application.

3

An ACT of even 31 would be low for Harvard. I believe the 25th percentile is 32. Often, internationals find it more difficult to be admitted.

4

If you want to go to school in the US, there are many wonderful schools. It sounds like you applied to Ivies because you have heard of them. Look at Loren Pope’s book “Colleges that Change LIves” (also a website) or his other book, “Looking Beyond the Ivy League.” But you might be better off going to a school that accepted you, and not losing a year.

5

Harvard keeps an electronic version of every applicant’s file for 3 years, so if you reapply Admissions will be able to consult your previous application, with your previous test scores, teacher recommendations, EC’s essays, guidance counselor report, etc. And as notjoe said, an ACT score of 31 is still below Harvard’s 25th percentile. If you reapply, whether in the SCEA or RD cycle, you should NOT expect different results.

6

The situation in the US with international applications is very difficult. Only a handful of colleges consider international applicants without taking into account their ability to pay and guarantee them adequate financial aid if they are admitted. Understandably, those colleges are absolutely swamped with applications from international applicants who can’t afford college in the US without aid. And, since they also tend to be among the most prestigious US colleges, they also attract applications from tons of international applicants who CAN pay. As a result, it is super-competitive for international applicants at those colleges – which of course include Harvard, Yale, Princeton.

The factors you discuss improve your application, although you need to make certain that your counselor and teachers address them in their letters for full impact. Nevertheless, if the best you can do on the ACT is 31, and you are a native speaker of English, and you are not a candidate for an Olympic medal or a Nobel Prize, you aren’t likely to be competitive for admission to Harvard or any of its close peers. I am not saying don’t apply, but even without the prior application it would be a low chance of success, and with a prior application . . . it would be lower than that.

If you really want to go to college in the US – and I am not certain why you should care that much, by the way – your best strategy is still going to be a longshot, and a lot of work. You need to go a good way down the prestige ladder, to colleges where you will be a standout applicant in every way, and apply in the hope that you will be one of the two or three international applicants they decide to admit and to fund. You may need to apply to 20+ colleges (and even then, you may ultimately be unsuccessful). A number of them may admit you but not give you sufficient aid, which will be very frustrating and upsetting; you have to be prepared for that. You have to do some research to figure out which colleges admit even one or two internationals on full aid.

Meanwhile, it’s not like UK universities are so horrible. Your coursework will be very focused, but you can attend lectures widely and get a perfectly good “liberal arts” education, if that’s what you want. Since, in the final analysis, you may not have an American option, you really ought to devote some of your energy to figuring out how to make a UK college experience work for you rather than fantasizing about Harvard.

7

Regarding expecting the same results 2nd time round: given that the admissions process is so subjective and depends on so many arbitrary factors (mood of the admissions officer, competitiveness of the pool that year, number of cellists they need for the orchestra etc.), wouldn’t this suggest a rejected applicant could well be up to standard and succeed after reapplying?

8

^^ @sansculottes: I suppose it depends on why a student was rejected and how far into the process their application went.

From everything I’ve read, after a student presses the submit button their application is downloaded by a file room clerk, who puts their application together, along with a one-page reader sheet that summarizes the applicant’s GPA, course rigor, test scores and EC’s.

The file clerk then sends the student’s application to the local Admissions Officer who oversee’s that particular high school or region. The local Admissions Officer, plus at least one other officer – a minimum of two officers – read each student’s file. In this way, one officer’s “mood” does not affect a student’s application. Each regional officers must agree that the student is exemplary for the application to move forward. I imagine many student’s do not get past the initial reading of at least two officers.

If a student’s application is thought to be exemplary, their file is bumped up to the Regional Director, who reads applications from a broader group of student’s. The Regional Director, along with his or her staff of officers, read all the top-applications from their region and must agree that a student is indeed one-of-the-best for that student to move to the Full Committee. I imagine many student’s do not get past the Regional Admissions Directors’s Office, as the Regional Director, like a lawyer, must advocate for each applicant in the Full Committee meetings. And they don’t want to waste the Full Committee’s time by presenting applicants who are less than stellar.

Harvard’s Full Committee is comprised of over 40 Admissions staff and faculty – and it’s one-person-one-vote. To gain acceptance to Harvard, a student must garner more than 51% of the Full Committee’s vote.

While the applications process is selective, it is far from arbitrary. When a student has been rejected and reapplies, I imagine the local and regional Admissions Officers consult the student’s prior application to understand why he or she was rejected in their prior application to the college.

If the student’s prior application didn’t make the first cut because of lackluster grades, mediocre test scores, weak teacher recommendations, lackluster essays or tepid EC’s, I highly doubt the student would be successful in their re-application. Ditto for not making the second cut to the Full Committee.

If a student made it to the Full Committee and was rejected, I imagine there might be a slight chance that their reapplication would be successful depending upon the competition. However, my guess is that only 10% of all applications – about 3,000 students – actually make it to the Full Committee. As most student’s are rejected prior to the Full Committee meeting, that would suggest that most student’s are not going to be successful upon re-application unless something dramatic in their application has changed.

9

I think that you’d have to assume that;
a) The applicant in question “just missed” getting accepted the prior year, and;
b) Each year, the character of the applicants as a whole changes substantially.

Don’t get confused when you hear adcoms say things like “80% of the applicants could survive at this school”. Even if that is true, it doesn’t mean that simple luck of the draw kept them from getting accepted.

10

Thanks! Yeah I guess it is easy to overestimate your changes with statements like ‘nearly everybody is qualified’ and ‘there are so many fantastic students; we just don’t have enough space.’

11

*chances

12

The OP says he/she was rejected outright at Harvard (and 3 other Ivies). Didn’t even receive a waitlist offer. No one has noticed this. Empirically, he/she was minimally about 1000 people away from an “admit” decision by this fact alone at each school. Time to accept your great local offer and end this dream chasing, IMHO.

13

Hi
Just asking if the 3 year stuff is true. They told me that they refresh everything every year.

14

^^ This article is 7 years old, but I’m assuming it’s still true today: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/4/30/dont-touch-that-file-by-the/

15

MODERATOR’S NOTE:
The original poster has not been active since the question was asked. Additionally, hijacking threads is rude to the OP. Start a new discussion instead of reviving old threads. Closing.