Should I bother applying?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello everyone, I posted a similar thread on the Chances forum a while ago but I would like opinions from people more familiar with Harvard admissions, so bear with me :slight_smile:

Before I get into my profile, the gist is, I got everything covered but ECs.

Academics:

GPA: 4.0
SAT1: 2270 (800M, 750W, 720CR)
ACT: 35 (36M, 36S, 34E, 32R)
SAT2: 800 Math, 800 Physics, 770 Biology M
APS: Chemistry, Macro Econ, Physics C, Calculus, Computer Science, Biology, English Lang and Compo. (Received a 5 on all of them)

Recommendations: 100% sure they will both be glowing for various reasons.

Essays: Already been told that they are fantastic by my GC and English teacher.

ECS: Tada, here’s the bummer. I have no significant ECS, only some that are school level that I won’t mention here but on the application to fill up the space.

I would really love to go to Harvard and I don’t want to live my life saying I should’ve at least tried applying, but according to you guys, should I even bother sending in the application or is it a hopeless cause?

PS. I’m an international student.

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

You obviously missed this thread at the top of the Harvard forum: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one-p1.html

Here’s the deal. International students do not have the same odds as US students – their odds are much lower. Most U.S. selective colleges limit the number of international students to around 10% to 11% of their incoming class. With a freshman class of about 1660, that means that Harvard admits about 160 to 190 international students per year – and most of those students come from just six counties: Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea and China.

If you go to the Harvard International Office Statistics page (http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics) and select from the pull down menu STUDENTS, YOUR COUNTRY, HARVARD COLLEGE (the undergraduate school), you can see how many of your fellow countrymen are currently attending the college. Divide that number by 4 to get an idea of about how many students are admitted from your country. Harvard doesn’t publish the number of applicants from each international country, so you might be one of hundreds or thousands applying from your country – it’s anyone’s guess.

You certainly have competitive stats, but seem to lack self-confidence (hence the chance me post). Truth be told, no one on this forum or the chance forum can accurately predict what kind of chance you have. So, you just need to send your applications out into the universe and see what happens. This thread might be of some use to you: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-an-accurate-chance-at-mit-p1.html

Best of luck to you!