<p>What happens if you're contacted by one of Harvard's undergraduate minority recruitment programs? Does it even mean anything?</p>
<p>It means you should get your butt in gear and put together the best application package you possibly can!</p>
<p>That’s great Crafty! The ivies truly WANT to accept students from disadvantaged backgrounds and from underrepresented minority groups who they believe can succeed in the rigorous academic envmt, so if they’ve identified you as someone who might be one of those kids, congratulations!</p>
<p>It’s certainly not a guarantee of acceptance, but I think it IS a clear indication that the admissions office will truly look with care at your application and with a DESIRE to accept you. That is QUITE an advantage and you should treat as an excellent opportunity.</p>
<p>If you dont mind sharing, what are your general statistics?</p>
<p>…wait I’m confused. Are you talking about the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program? [Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Minority Recruitment](<a href=“http://admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/hrp/minority_recruitment/index.html]Harvard”>http://admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/hrp/minority_recruitment/index.html)
Because I got an email from the Asian one, and it didn’t seem THAT special to me…</p>
<p>probably harvard doesn’t have too much trouble attracting qualified Asian applicants, so if crafty is an Asian American, I would amend my reply to her. I was assuming she is African American, hispanic, or Native American.</p>
<p>A) I’m a dude.
B) I wasn’t contacted since I didn’t apply, but my friend did.
C) She’s a mix of Cherokee and Colombian. </p>
<p>So, I’ll tell her its a good thing :). Thanks</p>
<p>i got one and i’m asian (chinese)</p>
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<p>^that kind of dispels FBBG’s notion that it’s a huge advantage, because they don’t have a problem with the caliber of Asian applicants, so it’s probably some sort of routine contact. Of course, I’m just speculating.</p>
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<p>True. Harvard (and other ivies) are interested in recruiting students from those backgrounds - diamonds in the rough if you will. </p>
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<p>Sort of true. I don’t think they’ve selected the recipients specifically, rather, the recipients probably have good standardised test scores somehwere (met some base level) and have been noted somewhere as being of a (possibly minority) ethnicity/background.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure about that. Its more an indication that the recipient has met a base level of academic achievement somewhere, moreso than that the Adcoms are going to say, place the recipients of the UMRP letters on a particular list where they will pay particular attention. </p>
<p>Honestly, its another recruitment letter, much like the one they send to kids who score over a certain level on the SATs. </p>
<p>If the Adcoms are going to pay paticular attention, it will be because the applicant is personally making a compelling case - through essays and the application. </p>
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<li>In short, I think its great to be enthusiastic, but its also important not to overstate the case as to how much these letters really mean (which is not much at all).</li>
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<p>I think that this is it exactly. Just another routine letter to Asians, Africans etc. Nothing too special, beyond the fact that they’ve noted that you’ve done well on tests somewhere, or have put down your ethnicity somwhwere.</p>
<p>Any follow up on her progress with Harvard as a UMRP. My D got contacted and I too wondered if it was like the mailing of an application we got or if it indicated stronger interest. I know they did not yet have her SATs as I asked. I do not see how you can see this as a minor thing as they actually had to have someone get on the phone and call to speak with my D and set up a campus visit and offer to meet with her after. True they are not AdCom members but I would think there could be some feedback passed along. Anyway, she thought the 2250 on the SAT was pretty good! So did I! Sorry this thread seems to have died and may not be in the right location. I might recommend it be tied into the Hispanic Student topics area as well as other minority discussion groups besides Ivy Admissions under Harvard.</p>
<p>I don’t think this needs to be in any other section. To answer your question – I was contacted by the UMRP in November. There were two people in particular who I spoke to, they offered to help me during the application process. I really only sent them a curt thank you and that was all. However, when I was accepted on April 1, I received two congratulatory phone calls, one from a member of the Undergraduate Admissions Council and one from the person who originally contacted me on behalf of the UMRP. </p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t want to get you or your daughter’s hopes up, as I myself just ignored the UMRP as a simple gesture of kindness. There may certainly be a benefit to being contacted by UMRP, but until someone else posts results akin to my own, I can’t confirm that its good news. I could just be one of a few, and I don’t know that the UMRP really benefited me.</p>
<p>Do you have any more information about your daughter, information that could cause the UMRP to contact her, i.e. race?</p>
<p>Hi, Yes my Daughter is Colombian and she just was told she received the NHRP by her guidance counselor, and is a commended scholar for PSAT. As I said she just got her first SAT back which was a decent 2250. Not sure she should retake them again except that the Reading score was the only one I thought might be higher, 690 (she has gotten a 790 on a sample test once), math was 760 and writing and 800. Since the SAT says people who retake test typically get 70 pts. lower on Writing with her score and 30 points lower on math it seemed that the pop of maybe 30 points on verbal might not be worth it if the composite came in lower, not sure. As I said the URMP representative was very nice and yes, offered help in the application process as well as suggesting a campus tour (although they are every Tues and Thurs no appointment required), and said if she wanted my D could try to arrange to talk with her after her tour depending on her availability. I think that would be great.</p>
<p>Given your experience, yeah, I do not want to get my hopes up but I do feel that my D sharing her grades, ethnic status, PSATs, SATs, and transcripts has made them interested. I sure hope it will mean what it has for you but I know its a tough school to get into.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, welcome any others who were contacted now or earlier to comment.
W</p>
<p>All it means is that one’s scores or gpa as reported on the PSAT/SAT/or SATII were within Harvard’s range, with Harvard’s range minimum’s being a 3.0 unweighted gpa and 1800 SAT scores.</p>
<p>Being contacted does not mean you are guaranteed to get in. It just means that Harvard is trying to cast as wide a net as possible to locate qualified URMs and encourage them to apply to Harvard.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that what I listed are minimums for Harvard. Most successful applicants – including URMs – have stats far higher than that.</p>
<p>My younger S had SAT scores of 760, 780, 650, which put his scores in about the top 1% of black students across the country. Unfortunately, his unweighted gpa was about a 2.9 because he performed academically far below his abilities.</p>
<p>He got a call from Harvard. He didn’t bother to apply because both of us (I am an alum) knew that he had no chance of getting in. Harvard is trying to find qualified URMs and others, not URMs whose laziness prevented their having excellent grades.</p>
<p>They also want to keep their acceptance rate lower than all of the other schools. The more people who apply, the lower the acceptance rate.</p>
<p>What sat score would be ivy competitive for a puerto rican first generation with a 4.0 weigted gpa?</p>
<p>The bottom SAT score for Harvard probably is an 1800.</p>
<p>Maybe I might get lucky with a 2020:). I plan on retaking in October.</p>
I got contacted twice by two different members.
But my GPA is about a 3.33 and my SAT is a 2300, so I am confused because I am positive my GPA is way too low for Harvard.
I’m just confused at this point
@donjon27: Welcome to College Confidential!
As a new member, I’m sure you’re not aware, but PLEASE DO NOT RESURRECT OLD THREADS. The post right before yours (post #15) is from 2010 – that’s 5 years ago. I highly doubt that anyone from 5 years ago is going to respond to your post.
What you need to do is create a NEW thread, by going to large Orange Button on the top of the page called NEW DISCUSSION.
Please repost your discussion using a new thread, as I agree a 3.33 GPA no matter what test score seems too low for Harvard.
Closing thread.