<p>I updated harvard on Jan. 27th on some major awards I've received since I sent in my application, but just got the confirmation e-mail like today. So will this information (intel semis, some other math/sci stuff) be even considered? Was this too late to affect the decision on my application? Will they have made decisions already for a majority of ppl?
thanks!!!</p>
<p>…no, decisions are made at the end of march</p>
<p>^really? I thought that Harvard had rolling decisions starting Dec. 1 (admit…reject…admit…in the order received?)</p>
<p>Anyways, I updated on intel semifinalist and another award that may/may not be considered too great. Hopefully it will be considered in making their final decision!</p>
<p>Does anyone else have any opinions/feedbacks on how updating works?</p>
<p>c’mon people! Respond! Anyways, does anybody know how Harvard goes about making decisions? I’m trying to look up an article but can’t find any
yes, i do have bad search skills</p>
<p>Harvard will begin reviewing the applications from Dec. 1st. The final decision will be made before Mar.20th. So don’t fret.
10char</p>
<p>^That sounds good! So I’m guessing that means the “final, official” decisions begin maybe end of February? I would still think that right now they are on the initial review stage for most applicants. Right?</p>
<p>What little I know relates to my daughter. Last year on March 2 she was brought into campus for additional interviews. The AC that had called her mentioned something about that committee finishing at the end of that week (note that I said “that” committee not all committees). My daughter was ultimately accepted but obviously the “final” decision to accept her was not made until some time after March 2. Also, you should know her application was submitted prior to the Dec 1 date so this has nothing to do with a late submission.</p>
<p>PS Another thing just occurred to me - mid-year reports should still be coming in or have only recently been received.</p>
<p>Horsetrading still goes on up to the day that admission notices are sent.</p>
<p>Sub-committee meetings take place starting in February, and committee meetings begin in earnest in March. Your submission was timely.</p>
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<p>My daughter is expecting to hear about some significant awards around Feb 16th and she is considering sending an update around Feb 20th. This might mean it gets placed into her file around March 1st. Will that be too late? She already has several items to write about since she turned in her application in Dec, but has been waiting to have everything in place before sending in one consolidated update.</p>
<p>Getting the update into her file by March 1 should be fine. Since there are only ten days to wait until more awards come in, I think it is fine to wait and send one update on all awards. Congrats on the awards!</p>
<p>Thank you for all your responses! I actually heard about intel semifinalist in Jan. 13th, and thought I might as well wait until finalist notification comes out (i didn’t get finalist though) and got a notification of another national award. I’m glad to hear that they’ll look at it before decisions, although I’m not sure how much intel semifinalist can boost a person…maybe if they are borderline. I submitted my application on Dec. 1st exactly, so maybe they haven’t even gotten to me yet, considering the thousands of ppl submitting before that.</p>
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<p>Maybe not, but if that is the case then they are in for a really busy three weeks! I am sure there were many more applications that arrived after Dec 1st than before that date. And I doubt that they are actually reading applications for the first time in March.</p>
<p>^yes, definitely true! But it’s amazing how so many people have their apps done early…
I’m just hoping they use it when making the final decisions. Probably they’ve looked at my app already for the first time, and will probably get to final decisions in three or so weeks.</p>
<p>There are first readings and second readings of each file before the sub-committee meetings. Each file is read by at least five persons; therefore, it’s on on-going process for each file.</p>
<p>I would really like to thank everyone who answered my questions on this thread. I have another question, though. I realize Harvard does not allow one to track supplementary materials. In that case, how would we know whether any of our supplementary material was received or not? I guess one way could be that when you write what materials you are going to use as supplement on your app section (the H supplement), they could contact you if any of that is missing, like a music recording or something?</p>
<p>Yes, they might contact you if something you mentioned in your application as a supplement is missing from your file when someone sits down to read the file. The job of the first reader is to look for missing items. Is this system perfect? No. I wonder whether supplements ever go missing without any notification of the applicant to alloow the applicant to send it in again.</p>
<p>I think the best you can do with supplements is mail them with delivery confirmation or by certified mail with return receipt.</p>
<p>Did you update them just by sending an email to <a href=“mailto:fileroom@fas.harvard.edu”>fileroom@fas.harvard.edu</a>?</p>
<p>^motion - yes, that’s the update address i used, cuz they told me to</p>
<p>and Browniebaker, thank you! That sounds good. I sent in a research paper and a supplementary resume, and a rec from someone, so hopefully they’d’ve notified me. I did use priority mail, and it said it reached them, but you never know with the thousands of things they have to sort out</p>