<p>Hi guys! I jus wanted to know your opinion on wether or not I should apply Selective choice early action or regular decision to Harvard. I have been been hearing a lot of advantages and disadvantages to both and I want to know which way I should apply to have the most chances of getting in. Here are my stats:
GPA: 3.89 UW 4.69 W
Class rank : 1/500
SAT: Composite: 2330
Sat subject tests: World History:760, Math 1:800, Math 2: 770 Physics: 790
Summer activities volunteer: Volunteer at the local Science museum and at Habitat for Humanity. Went to Atlanta for a summer engineering program at Georgia Tech.
EC's:
Class of 2017 (2 years)
Ping Pong (2 years)
NHS (2 years)
Speech and debate club (2 years)
Special Olympics organizer (2 years)
Varsity Wrestling (2 years)
Kindness Club President (2 years)
Varsity Tennis (2 years)
Hooks: URM (Hispanic)</p>
<p>Is Harvard your top choice of all the private schools? If so, go SCEA. If some other private school is your top choice, apply RD to Harvard. It’s really as simple as that. </p>
<p>@snappletop Yes I believe that Harvard is my number 1 choice along with many other people I assume. What would my chances be at harvard if I applied SCEA?</p>
<p>@Higary17 I believe Harvard officially states they don’t prefer SCEA applicants. They just accept a higher percentage of SCEA applicants as they’re typically more talented, on average, than RD applicants. </p>
<p>@snappletop Oh ok that’s makes sense considering the rigorous competition for that school.</p>
<p>No SCEA helps a lot. 21.3% to 3%. Don’t tell me the SCEA pool is 7 times stronger than the RD pool, I doubt it’s even twice as strong. Harvard might not state it, but they definitely prefer SCEA applicants. The reason is because apparently among Ivies and other top colleges the trend is to accept a lot of their freshman class and Harvard doesn’t get as many applicants so they have to accept more students …</p>
<p>If money is not an issue, then go for it!</p>
<p>From your GPA, ranking and SAT scores YOU HAVE THE STATS and the URM factor to be a competitive applicant no matter where you apply early. So, if Harvard is your first choice school, apply early. It’s that simple!</p>
<p>
If you’re asking the question, you haven’t read this thread: <a href=“Chance Threads - PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING ONE - Harvard University - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one-p1.html</a>. As a future college student and a new member of CC, you need to understand why it’s impossible to predict anyone’s chances at ultra selective schools. </p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback everyone I decided I will apply Early</p>
<p>@theanaconda The SCEA pool doesn’t have to be 7 times as strong as the RD pool. Think about the size differences between the two pools. For the Class of 2018, there were 992 accepted of 4,692 for SCEA. For the RD, there were 1,031 accepted of 29,603. That’s a size difference of about 6.3 times. So, the higher admittance rate can be attributed to the fact that the more students apply RD AND the fact that the average SCEA applicant is better than the average RD applicant. </p>
<p>If as Harvard says you have equal chances early and regular, then the number of regular applicants shouldn’t effect the rate. But Harvard needs to admit more people early to keep up with other schools and so they take a way higher rate.</p>
<p>If Harvard truly has no preference, assuming the bodies of both applicant pools are equally strong (on average), then they should take 6.3 times as many people in regular decision, not barely more. </p>
<p>
As a Harvard parent, I can tell you with certainty that Harvard doesn’t care what other schools think and they always look out for themselves. </p>
<p>When Harvard went back to SCEA, their admit rate was pretty comparable to YPS – and it was easy to accept their explanation that your chances in the SCEA round were no different than the RD round. However, last year Harvard took more than half their class (895 students) early – that’s 246 more students than Yale took SCEA, 198 more students than Princeton took SCEA and 170 more students than Stanford took SCEA. By taking so many more applicants from the early round than their peers, Harvard is letting student’s know – not other schools – that if you really want Harvard, your chances are better by applying in the early round. </p>
<p>Their early rates are higher than Yale and Princeton (not 100% sure on this one). They’re well higher than MIT and Stanford which admit large portions of their class with admit rates barely above 10%; as in they’re getting far more applicants.
I agree that Harvard is saying you have to apply early to get in or have a way higher chance; this is in contradiction with their assertion that it doesn’t matter whether you apply early or not…</p>
<p>You can see the admit rates here: <a href=“http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-class-2018/”>http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-class-2018/</a></p>