Regional admissions officer

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Where can I find who is the admissions officer in charge of my region (and thus is going to be reading my application)? I've looked over their website but couldn't find anything.</p>

<p>BTW I live in Ohio.</p>

2

<p>Harvard does not release that information over its website for a reason (privacy, students flooding inboxes to "show their interest")... You can try and call the admissions office to see if they'll release that information to you.</p>

3

<p>It is hard to get this information because the admisisons officers do not want to be deluged with info from students trying to kiss up. My suggestion is not to bother digging to find out that info, but instead contact Harvard's admissions office only if you really have a question that's not answered on their very comprehensive web site.</p>

<p>Harvard doesn't select students based on how interested they seem to be in Harvard. Far better to spend your time focusing on pursuing your ECs with creativity, leadership, passion and impact than to worry about gathering info on directly contacting your admissions officer. They are really busy and while they'll politely respond to inquiries, they really don't want the deluge of unnecessary calls and e-mails that many applicants send thinking that will help their admission chances. </p>

<p>If you have a legitimate question, just e-mail it to the admissions office and someone will answer it for you. Just do take the time to make sure that it's a question that you can't find out the answer to by reading their web site or using common sense.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I'm an alum interviewer (Note to everyone -- this is NOT an invitation to PM me for private guidance about chances, essay reading, etc. I don't do that.), and I personally know my region's adcom. I also know that the person is deluged with necessary work and definitely doesn't want to have to respond to kiss up phone calls, etc.</p>

<p>I notice that you've posted a lot of threads asking for regional adcoms names at various schools. I do hope that you'll take my advice under consideration because thus far, it seems, you're probably planning on using the kiss up method to try to get admitted to colleges, and your time could be better spent on your ECs (which tend to be a weak point of students' applicants to top schools, which are flooded with applications from students with sky high stats.)</p>

4

<p>I visited Harvard, and asked my tour guide questions about the curriculum, but she was not able to answer them.</p>

<p>I do not personally know anyone from or at Harvard, but I have several friends and a teacher whom I am close with that attended or are attending Princeton. I feel that these connections, though they have no effect on chances of admissions, are extremely helpful.</p>

<p>Meanwhile at another school, I received emails from the regional officer with detailed paragraphs of information and a very pleasant phone call that let me feel personally connected to someone at the school. I want to get to know someone at a university and stay in contact with the same person throughout my application process—even if they have no influence over my admittance.</p>

<p>I surfed Harvard's website, then I emailed the generic Harvard admissions email with my questions, and below is the transcript. I'm a little disappointed with such terse and vague answers but they get the job done. Maybe it's just Harvard is so busy that they do not want to get know high schoolers on a personal level.</p>

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<p>Ease of switching will depend on how far along you are in your course of study.</p>

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<p>Again, it is rare and no specific rules exists. Depends on your majors and
your classes.</p>

5

<p>It's not really necessary to bother adcoms with questions like that..you have to use common sense. </p>

<p>I mean..you obviously can't decide to be an art history major (or "concentrator" in this case) if you haven't taken a single art course and its spring of junior year..</p>

<p>Answering questions like the one you just posted is as simple as actually hitting up the website, checking out the course requirements for a particular major..seeing if there's any overlap between the two you're trying to decide between..</p>

<p>I personally think that even if you got a decent response from an adcom, it would be rather useless because "ease" of doublemajoring is rather subjective..</p>

6

<ol>
<li><p>I would bet money that the school that required with detailed information and a phone call is a school that is not as competitive as Harvard and also is a place where students are not expected to have the critical thinking skills that Harvard students have. My guess is that you may be an extremely desireable candidate at the school that sent you the detailed reply. At Harvard, you're at best in the middle of the pack of their typical group of applicants, which overall are people whom most college adcoms woudl drool over.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't see the point of your questions. What difference does it make how many students double major? Why would you care? I can understand wanting to know if students can double major (and I'm sure you can find the answer on the web site), but your question indicates that you're the type of student who makes decisions by following the pack. That's definitely not the type of student whom Harvard wants to admit. Harvard wants students who'll follow their own drummers and make opportunities for themselves -- something that Harvard is remarkably generous in allowing students to do.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I also thought that the answers, while short, provided all of the information that you'd need. For instance, whether one can switch majors does depend upon how far along one is in one's program. Most students at Harvard and other colleges switch majors, typically two times, and they do this during their freshman or sophomore year. It's not a big deal. The overwhelming majority students at Harvard also graduate on time, something that you probably can find on their website or by using Google.</p>

<p>My overall impression is that Harvard is not a school where you'd be happy. You describe yourself as a person who wants to have personal contact with an adcom throughout admissions, and that leads me to believe that you'd be happiest at a place like a liberal arts college. LACs pride themselves on having contact between professors and students and consequently very nurturing environments.</p>

<p>Harvard and similar schools pride themselves on allowing lots of freedom for self-directed students to run with their talents and interests without having lots of oversight and handholding by adults.</p>

<p>Your questions also are examples of why Harvard doesn't give out adcoms names and e-mails. They really are busy, and it would be an inordinate waste of their time to answer the kind of questions that you post especially when students who have those kind of questions really aren't the kind of sutdents whom Harvard is likely to want to admit anyway. They may have wonderful stats and be very intelligent, but people who need to check out what others are doing before they make their own decisions are not showing the independence of thinking and enthusiasm for following their passions that Harvard wants in their students.</p>

<p>"Meanwhile at another school, I received emails from the regional officer with detailed paragraphs of information and a very pleasant phone call that let me feel personally connected to someone at the school. I want to get to know someone at a university and stay in contact with the same person throughout my application process—even if they have no influence over my admittance.</p>

<p>I surfed Harvard's website, then I emailed the generic Harvard admissions email with my questions, and below is the transcript. I'm a little disappointed with such terse and vague answers but they get the job done. Maybe it's just Harvard is so busy that they do not want to get know high schoolers on a personal level.</p>

<br>


<br>

<p>Ease of switching will depend on how far along you are in your course of study.</p>

<br>


<br>

<p>Again, it is rare and no specific rules exists. Depends on your majors and
your classes."</p>

7

<p>Northstarmom has really summed it up! I did not even know who my admissions officer was until I was deferred EA last year (I'm in Harvard's Class of 2009), and only then was I able to find out contact information - and I only talked to her once for ten minutes. The next time I talked to my admissions officer was after I was admitted.</p>

8

<p>Honestly, I don't understand why you posted on several different CC boards asking about how to find out the identity of your regional admissions officer at all of the schools to which you are applying. I looked at your stats, and they are fine, but Harvard is not going to be compelled by the personality of someone who asks these sorts of mindless questions that comes through in your essays. If I were you, I would forget about your regional admissions officers and focus on yourself. Focus on who you are and what you want to become. Write that in your essays. Have dreams, have goals, have passions. Incorporate these sentiments into your essays. Such endeavors will make more of a lasting impression on your admissions officer than the question you asked. </p>

<p>If you get into Harvard, the Committee sees it fit that you belong in a community of some of the brightest young minds and intellectual powerhouse-type professors on the planet. How are you going to convince your admissions officer whether or not you are right for the community when you are asking questions about double majoring? Of course you could if you wanted to do so, they have "design-your-own-major" programs. It might be more in your best interest to convince Harvard that you have the drive to accomplish this feat because it's something important to you with respect to your life goals.</p>

<p>I just agree with NSM and xjayz and hope that you realize that what is on your application will be what is most important to Harvard's decision. However friendly you may get with your admissions officer, you still have to realize that you have to impress the majority of a 35+ person Committee of some of the most shrewd and intelligent people currently in academia.</p>

9

<p>To be of more practical assistance, double majors are rare. By the way, majors are called "concentrations" and double majors are called "joint concentrations." (Or perhaps it's dual?)</p>

<p>Joint concentrations can vary from easy to absurdly difficult. Aka, SB in Engineering is 20 required courses out of the 32. With 7 going to Core, 1 going to Expo, and possibly 2 more going to foreign language (if you don't test out of it). That leaves you 3 to fullfill the requirements of another degree (difficult unless <em>CLOSELY</em> related beyond belief). And, ALL joint concentrators are REQUIRED to write a thesis. </p>

<p>But, if your interest is in Chemistry and Physics... well, guess what? That department already exists! It's <em>almost</em> like a dual major, although I'm not quite sure about the thesis bit. </p>

<p>Some concentrations have few requirements (14 for Ec.) for instance, whereas others have insane numbers of requirements. The difficulty that comes from joining two departments is Harvard's tutorial system -- aka, some departments REQUIRE you to take their sophomore class of about 8-12ish students before you can get a degree. So, if you have two tutorial heavy departments, you'll have to make the tutorial system work for you.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, with the curricular review, the tutorial system will probably be revamped a fair amount, since instead of the end of freshmen year, students can now choose their major at the end of the fall term in sophomore year. </p>

<p>Engineering at ANY school has a lot of requirements. Keep this in mind. And remember that there are 2 degrees available in Engineering, an SB and an AB, obviously both vary in terms of requirements. </p>

<p>As for the humanities, some departments don't require a lot, whereas others require a ton. It's up to you to investigate like the dickens.</p>

10

<p>Just came across this very Old thread. @Northstarmom was so Correct what she said… This should be still true in 2014… ^:)^ </p>