<p>I am a Harvard student who used to spend a ton of time on CC when I was in high school (under a different sn). Now, I work in the admissions office. I thought all of you EA people would be interrested to know that all of the EA decisions were finalized yesterday. On Tuesday, I will be stuffing the deferral and rejection envelopes (the office next to mine works on acceptance).
I want to wish all of you a tons of luck. I've read many of your applications (I am a student so I have no influence on what happens to you), but I've been able to get a sense of how incredible all of you are. Whatever happens, you will be happy. Harvard was not my first choice, and I didn't get into the school I applied to early, but now I absolutely love it here and couldn't imagine being anywhere else. My friend who always wanted to go to Harvard, ended up at Dartmouth and says there is nowhere else she'd rather be. I hear this story again and again. You will be happy wherever you go if you choose to be.
There is so much luck in this process that there is no point in beating yourself up. If you are accepted, great. You are very talented and very lucky. If you are deferred, don't despair. Many of you will be accepted in the spring, and all of you will get into other great schools-- the Harvard admissions committee saw something great in you. And to those of you who are rejected, you are fabulous too. You applied, and that means you've done something that 99.999% of people never do. Taking the initiative and having the nerve to apply to one of the best colleges in the world means you are the kind of person who is going to do great things no matter what college you go to.
This time next year, your going to laugh at yourself about how crazy you were right now. I can't believe how much I cried when I was deferred from my first choice last year. I cried and felt so worthless, and applied to a bazillion schools after that all of which I eventually got into except the one I applied to early. And guess what? Everything is great now. Life is going to be okay, I promise.</p>
<p>Hakima -- welcome to the community of undergrads on CC! On behalf of just<em>forget</em>me, Admiral, sunglasses, saxfreq1128, lowellbelle, WindCloudUltra and myself, welcome! PM us for our real names! :)</p>
<p>Hi Hakima,</p>
<p>Thank you for your words of encouragement and experience. Hopefully, I will end up as you predicted - happy no matter where I go. ^^</p>
<p>The fact that the decisions have already been finalized sends butterflies through my stomach. Best of luck to all!</p>
<p>Thanks for the update!</p>
<p>Just out of pure curiosity, which were the last states read?</p>
<p>Thanks for your sincere words and for taking the time to post. =)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for this post!</p>
<p>WOW, thanks!!!</p>
<p>"On Tuesday, I will be stuffing the deferral and rejection envelopes (the office next to mine works on acceptance). "</p>
<p>Will you be working overtime? =P</p>
<p>Thanks for the post!</p>
<p>I love you!</p>
<p>For posting what you just posted, Hakima!
How thoughtful of you!</p>
<p>I feel all calm and prepared now. SEDATED.</p>
<p>^^^ Me too.</p>
<p>That is such an awesome post, Hakima.</p>
<p>One question please.
For those people who are rejected, are you going to write the reasons for the refusal? like, no this, no that...</p>
<p>yea..similar Q. do colleges ever write comments/ actually personalize letters (acceptance or rej.)?</p>
<p>Does anyone think that guidance counselors have a heads up in advance as to who got in before the decisions are on line?</p>
<p><em>hops on the gratitude bandwagon</em></p>
<p>It's always amazing to hear from folks like you. It makes me feel better, even though there's no rational reason for doing so. I guess I wish I could find out whether I got in or not now, but I can't...but somehow I feel better knowing that it's going to be all over soon.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the state thing. My impression is that they don't go in order of the states, but I could be totally wrong. I don't get to sit in on the formal committee meeting so I wouldn't know.</p>
<p>No, rejection and deferral letters are not personalized. I would personalize them if I were allowed to, but I'm not. </p>
<p>Occasionally, acceptance letters are if they really want you, or your admissions officer had a particular fondess for you (but don't worry if this doesn't happen to you because this is very rare). However, most of the acceptance letters look like they're personalized because we have this machine that signs "we hope you will join us" in this messy writing that looks as if it were written by hand.</p>
<p>Haha, I love that detail about the fake note...</p>