<p>If it's not brutally obvious that admission to Harvard is impossible to predict, then you don't belong there. Do your best on the app, but unlike other schools, there is no certain threshold of achievement beyond which admission is highly likely.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Not to hijack your thread, but could someone give me my probabilities?</p>
<p>760 Math, 770 CR, 800 W
800 Math II … 
jk</p>
<p>But in the converse, it is very easy to see that some people are not going to be admitted by Harvard no matter what.</p>
<p>I agree with XX55XX</p>
<p>But how many obvious/instant rejects are posting chance threads on CC in the first place?</p>
<p>True, true, ChoklitRain. </p>
<p>But then again, there are many people who apply to Harvard just for the heck of it, regardless of their grades. There were three people in my class who had sub-3.0 GPAs and applied anyways. They were soundly rejected.</p>
<p>I estimate that 20% of Harvard’s applicant pool were automatic denials. Then, you have 70% of people who were given five minutes worth of consideration each, but who were denied nonetheless. And finally, you have that last 10% who were were deemed to be eligible candidates, and from this last 10%, Harvard selects its class.</p>
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<p>i contest this point. how about a well-known actress (i.e. an emma watson type) with 2400 SATs, an organization for displaced youth in nigeria, and who is affiliated with a native american tribe? that’s highly likely. i think this editted language is more appropriate:</p>
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<p>Emphasis on “I estimate.” I think you mean “I made up” or “I pulled out of my ass.” Why do people always post these extremely speculative statements? Do you really believe that 70% of people were given five minutes worth of consideration each? The admissions officers read through ALL the materials (15-20 minutes according to an actual admissions officer) and have become more and more subjective over the years at Harvard.</p>
<p>Sorry that my post sounds sort of disparaging…definitely did not mean to make it sound that way.</p>
<p>Because fifteen to twenty minutes is MUCH better than five when you’re paying them $75 to give you a chance. :P</p>
<p>The thing is, the way XX55XX has analyzed it may not be too far off. Harvard admissions will pretty openly tell you that 80-90% of their applicant pool is highly qualified, and they are assured that these individuals would do well at Harvard.</p>
<p>Really, who knows what happens behind those closed doors at the admissions office? With only a few months and 29,000 applications to sift through, I think Harvard has a system of weeding out those who don’t fit the criteria in any way, shape or form. Personally, I think they have both GPA/SAT cutoffs to achieve this. They can deny it all they want, but cutoff points are the only way to truly reduce the amount of paper they have to go through.</p>
<p>Personally, I think my application got its five minutes of consideration. Unfortunately for me, my SAT score wasn’t that high (I had an 1890) and I didn’t have any outstanding, eye-popping, mind-blowing extracurriculars. My essay wasn’t generic, but I don’t think it pulled any heartstrings either.</p>
<p>Oh well. I am over it. To people applying for the Class of 2014, don’t be too upset when you get that rejection letter in late March.</p>
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<p>What?</p>
<p>XX55XX’s “estimate” meant that only 10% of the applicant pool is “eligible,” with the other 90% being either automatic denials or only worth 5 minutes of review time. If 80% of the applicant pool is “highly qualified,” that means the admissions office is pretty bad at its job.</p>
<p>Actually, it means that, as noitaraprep pointed out, XX55XX pulled those numbers out of his ass.</p>
<p>I did pull these numbers out of my ass. Who knows the numbers, really? You both are absolutely right on that point.</p>
<p>But, however, despite the great amount of faith we place upon the nuances of chance, there WILL be people who will never get into Harvard, regardless of what they do, because their numbers just don’t stack up. How many people with sub-3.0 GPAs got into Harvard this year? You know any, DwightEisenhower? Exactly. Because there were none.</p>
<p>There might be a recruited athlete or two with sub-3.0s. But I don’t really see your point. Obviously if you don’t perform well in school your college prospects will be limited.</p>
<p>My point is, that Harvard rejects many applicants simply because their numbers don’t stack up. Yes, there may be one or two athletes who slip through the cracks.</p>
<p>Whatever. No one truly knows how the college admissions process at highly selective universities works, anyways. But I do have a high suspicion that GPA/SAT cutoffs are employed during the process to weed out certain applicants.</p>
<p>Oh well, there goes my conspiracy theory of the evening.</p>
<p>I agree with everything - My SAT 1’s werent hugely impressive but I still made the wait list even when Im guessing most people on this forum would have said I had no chance- ITs all about LUCK</p>
<p>All these “chances” threads are silly, if one really thinks about it. So what’s one more?? In any school with an acceptance rate in the teens, there are thousands of very qualified students who won’t be accepted. That said, whats the harm in one more redundant thread? Easy enough to skip right on over it… Personally, I dislike all the “what are my chances” threads, but have gotten to know some nice people on some of those threads. So, ya nevvah know, as they say in my old neck of the woods…</p>
<p>A meek voice in defense of chance threads:
A mere “you have as good a shot as anyone else” can encourage a brilliant student to apply when (s)he otherwise might not.
This is true for both me and a friend (friend will be attending in fall).</p>
<p>ETA: Wow, that made it sound like I was calling myself brilliant. Ha. Good thing for my ego I’m not actually going to Harvard. XD</p>