<p>Accepted=Wharton/Princeton/Yale/Stanford/MIT/NYU Stern/Emory/Notre Dame
Waitlisted=Harvard???????????????</p>
<p>Stranger things have happened.</p>
<p>The best Harvard app I ever saw was accepted EA to Harvard, accepted at about 9 other top 25 universities including Yale, but rejected Brown. I knew the local Brown alumni interviewer, who told me that the student also was the best app to Brown he'd ever seen.</p>
<p>I got accepted regular decision to all those schools if you're wondering if I took the easier EA path for some.</p>
<p>Oh great, another brag thread.</p>
<p>Not really. I'm just confused by why I got waitlisted at one and accepted to all the others. If it was only 1 or 2 of the top, I can see why. Everyone I know who got into Yale/Princeton/Wharton/Stanford got into Harvard. Those who get into Harvard rarely if ever do the same.</p>
<p>It's a massive crapshoot, pal. It's just so arbitrary that I've given up trying to make sense of the whole game.</p>
<p>northstar, post stats of "Best harvard app"??</p>
<p>I know a black female, National Merit (Yes, you read that right) Scholar who was accepted everywhere including Yale, waitlisted Harvard, and not offered a spot off the waitlist.</p>
<p>When it comes to places like HPY, whether you get in depends not only on your stats and ECs, but also on the rest of the applicant pool including what the colleges need to include in the class to make it as diverse (in all meanings of the word) and well rounded as possible.</p>
<p>Probably your waitlist was due to quirky factors far beyond your control, and you'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out.</p>
<p>I'm happy going to Wharton [I was leaning there in the first place (In fact, I told the regional head of admissions that Wharton/Harvard were both my top choice :p~No need to hide my thoughts)]. Just the waitlist made no sense in the overall context with my high school (Better ECs/Grades/Awards than the group of kids who got into Harvard only last year considering they were all rejected from where I got into this year ;D). I'm didn't get any AA advantage either if you're wondering with all my other schools.</p>
<p>As always, with students who stand out, stats are not what makes them stand out. Sure, they have the stats, but the rest of the package is what makes them outstanding in a pool of students who in general have outstanding stats.</p>
<p>National Merit Commended, Sal of class in a competitive public high school, national president of a large, well respected high school academic organization that really does things (student also credibly answered questions about how he had influenced the organization); state awards in competitive math; state or national awards in Latin; local awards in art; more than a decade of classical music lessons; local performer pop music; presidency of some school clubs that really were doing things; community service that included mentoring (was not fake. Student enthusiastically could provide details of how he had affected mentee's life and how his life had been changed through his relationship with her.)</p>
<p>Student was unusual in that he was genuinely well rounded (Some students try to fake being well rounded, thinking that's what top colleges want. Typically the best applicants for top colleges are well lopsided -- pursued in depth their quirky interests. There are some rare people who also are genuinely well rounded, and passionately pursue lots of different things). </p>
<p>He also was very personable, community service minded, and had handled with grace pressure from his Asian immigrant parents to concentrate only on academics while not doing any ECs.</p>
<p>I just remember, he was EA deferred from Harvard, but got in regular.</p>
<p>To the OP: Your waitlist makes sense in that even though you probably are outstanding, Harvard got something like 5,000 more applicants than it did last year, and this year -- due to the better financial aid its offering -- yield is expected to be much higher than it was last year, when as usual, yield was best in the country. Students who would have had a better shot than you would include students with lesser stats who still qualified for Harvard and also came from schools that had never sent anyone to Harvard before.</p>
<p>Your strength also is in an academic area -- economics -- in which Harvard gets lots of strong applicants. Harvard's new financial aid also would cause it now to attract cross admits who in the past may have selected Wharton.</p>
<p>OMGZ i feel 4 u man, its truly, truly awful that harvard didn't accept you. I just hope that you can deal with the crappy schools that you were admitted to</p>
<p>cry some more?</p>
<p>lol. :D :D</p>
<p>You've kind of lost perspective, no? To be spending time wondering about this? When there are about a million people on this board who would give an arm to be accepted or even waitlisted at any one of those schools?</p>
<p>This is most definitely a brag thread, whether you, OP, know/want to admit it or not.</p>
<p>ummmm, harvard had the lowest acceptance rate of all the schools you mentioned (except maybe wharton, idk their rate), so why is it suprising that you would be waitlisted there?</p>
<p>Similar happened at my school: 5 kids who are at the top of my class applied to the same schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown and a few others. They were all accepted at all of the schools except the girl who had the highest gpa in the class was waitlisted at Yale O_o</p>
<p>it would have been stranger if you had been accepted to harvard and waitlisted at the others</p>
<p>Odds are quite high. Not unusual at all.</p>
<p>Remember that this is one of the strangest years for college admission, too.</p>