<p>to any current waitlisted applicants or former waitlisted-then-admitted students willing to help me, i am in need of some advice about the waitlisting process.</p>
<p>i just received my decision in the mail today. like many other waitlistees out there (or at least, i would imagine so), i don't really know how to feel. right now, i feel numb. i am left to wonder what i could have done better or differently or what i can do now.</p>
<p>anyway, best case scenario, there may yet be a tiny shred of hope left for me left in this process. </p>
<p>now, i have a few questions:</p>
<p>i want to express continued interest in attending harvard. with whom do i get in contact, and how? do most waitlistees send emails? i found no information in the decision letter about any specific address to which to send information/updates to the committee.</p>
<p>secondly, it occured to me that perhaps it would be best to wait until after may 1 to get in contact with harvard. i am thinking that by this time, the committee will be turning its attention away from organizing and running admitted student weekend and from dealing with accepted students and turning its attention toward considering waitlistees to fill any potential holes in the class. is this a wise choice, or should i get in touch as soon as possible?</p>
<p>more importantly, and speaking of holes in the admitted class, how much does being admitted off the waitlist depend on demographics? if an admitted athlete--say, a lacrosse player--declines to attend harvard, does that mean that the waitlisted person most likely to fill that spot will also have to be a lacrosse player? the reason i ask this is because, as a low-income latino, i am wondering whether an admitted low-income latino would have to turn down harvard (NOT LIKELY) for me to have any chance at all of squeezing my way in. class demographics have been relatively similar in the past ten years, so it calls to question whether harvard would do this. if they didn't, and athletes were replaced with non-athletes and minorities with non-minorities and vice-versa, the composition of the class could be altered in a big way.</p>
<p>it is VERY clear that i am thinking about this WAY TOO MUCH, but bear with me here. :]</p>
<p>my (abridged) stats are listed below. is there too little time left to bring myself up to par? i don't want to pester harvard with updates during this last month of my senior year. besides, i doubt i'll receive any earth-shattering honors or miraculously find a cure for cancer in the next month. i just want to show them that i am still interested in and committed to the ultimate goal of making it to and attending harvard.</p>
<p>decision: waitlisted</p>
<p>objective:[ul]
[<em>] act: 35
[</em>] sat ii: 800 math ii; 780 us history; 760 biology m
[<em>] weighted gpa: 108.79/100
[</em>] rank: 2/493
[<em>] ap: world history 5; english lit 5; english lang 5; calculus bc 5; calculus ab 5; us gov't 5; statistics 5; us history 4; physics c 3; macro eco 3
[</em>] senior year coarse load: most rigorous available at my school (several ap's plus honors band)
[li] major awards: national merit finalist; national merit hispanic scholar; national ap scholar; princeton university book prize; questbridge scholar; national honor society service award; american cancer society volunteer service award; rensselaer medal; all-state band; misc. 'outstanding freshman/sophomore/etc.' awards; several academic olympiad awards at district and regional level in math, writing, and biology</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]subjective:[ul]
[<em>] extracurriculars: national honor society (vp); cultural awareness club (founder and pres); student council (sr class pres and jr class pres); marching band and symphony orchestra (vp one year, secretary another; also section leader for my instrument); math club (vp); model un (secretary); student volunteers club (member)
[</em>] job/work experience: student intern in molecular biology department at graduate health science institution; full time sales associate at various retail stores during summers; office assistant at a charity
[<em>] volunteer/community service: 510 total hours for local american cancer society chapter, local children's hospital, my church youth group, and various other charities (including help with fundraising, awareness campaigns, office help, etc.)
[</em>] summer activities: work and volunteer activities, as listed above (about half of volunteer work was done during the summer, the rest was interspersed throughout school year
[<em>] essays: i spoke of personal challenges (disability), family hardship, and musings on the nature of learning (i won't go into too much detail). i was told i 'spoke movingly.'
[</em>] teacher recommendation: i hope they were good. i didn't get to see them. and i didn't want to be nosy.
[<em>] counselor rec: he said he went 'above and beyond' for me.
[</em>] additional rec: i sent three. i believe they focused mostly on my personal growth and self-discovery.
[li] interview: interviewer told me that, although she 'isn't really supposed to say so,' that i was the 'most promising' of all the candidates she had interviewed thus far. don't know how many came after me though. :[</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]other[ul]
[<em>] state: nm
[</em>] school type: large, inner-city public; <75% go on to colleges/universities
[<em>] ethnicity: latino
[</em>] gender: male
[<em>] income bracket: very low income
[</em>] hooks: urm; first-gen college student
[/ul]</p>
<p>THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP. making it to harvard would not only represent a dream realized for me but would also bring honor to my family and validate my parents' decision to emigrate here to give me and my siblings hope for a better future. sounds incredibly cliched, but it's the honest to goodness truth.</p>