<p>new parent: boy I never knew p.k. was a she ;)</p>
<p>But what if you mention in your essays, or recommendations, or somewhere in your actual application that you are low-income, does it help or hurt?</p>
<p>It's definitely not going to hurt you. (Really: the admissions officers don't care how much financial aid you're going to get, it's not like the money comes out of their salary.) It can definitely help you, since they support creating a diverse class.</p>
<p>My only warning would be not to stretch it too much. If your goal in the essay is to explain how low-income you are, it stops being particularly interesting, and admissions offices might feel like you're trying to exploit a need-concious policy. It's important and helpful, but don't go too far with it- focus on your academic and personal strengths rather than demographics.</p>
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It's definitely not going to hurt you. (Really: the admissions officers don't care how much financial aid you're going to get, it's not like the money comes out of their salary.) It can definitely help you, since they support creating a diverse class.</p>
<p>My only warning would be not to stretch it too much. If your goal in the essay is to explain how low-income you are, it stops being particularly interesting, and admissions offices might feel like you're trying to exploit a need-concious policy. It's important and helpful, but don't go too far with it- focus on your academic and personal strengths rather than demographics.
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<p>Admiral is correct. You still have to be a viable candidate in the admissions committee's eyes in order to be accepted. If you emphasize the fact that you're low-income too much, then it clearly looks like you have a chip on your shoulder. Emphasize your own personal strengths, not your circumstances.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, how does the process vary for the children of big ($1,000,000+) donars?</p>
<p>they usually get in for sure</p>
<p>I don't have first-hand knowledge, but here's what I've been told:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Every legacy application is read personally by Bill Fitzsimmons, the director of admissions. (Legacy at Harvard is narrowly defined as having a father or mother who attended Harvard College.)</p></li>
<li><p>Legacies are admitted at a substantially higher rate (close to 40%) than the overall admit rate. But the legacy pool is a stronger pool - the average stats (test scores and GPA) of admitted legacies are equal to the average stats of admitted students overall.</p></li>
<li><p>If the father or mother of a legacy applicant is an "active" alum, meaning a significant donor or fundraiser, or otherwise active in alumni affairs, that will be noted in the applicant's folder. However, the development office is prohibited from talking with the admissions office about any applicant.</p></li>
<li><p>There is no such thing as a donation large enough to guarantee admission if the applicant is not qualified. However, a qualified legacy applicant whose parents are truly major donors (by which I mean more like 8 figures plus) is highly likely to be admitted. The number of legacy applicants whose parents are donors at this level is quite small - in some years none.</p></li>
<li><p>Anecdotally, I know one alum who is a substantial donor (not at the levels above, but well into 6 figures) whose child was not admitted. I thought the child was a pretty strong candidate - excellent test scores and grades from a top high school, solid EC's (though the EC's were perhaps not as spectacular as some Harvard applicants). I was surprised by the admissions decision. I thought that candidate would "get in for sure."</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I have read that the applications are first opened in the office an tagged in terms of whether they are legacies, recruited athletes, developmment cases. Those who have a special talent with great accomplishment usually at the international or national level may also be tagged, especially if it is unusual. Those who clearly do not have the statistics and are not true candidates do not make it through this first round. Harvard is very generous when it comes to deferrals. Unlike Yale which rejects 33% of the applicants SCEA, Harvard rejects very few. Usually only about 500 of the almost 4,000 early applicants are rejected.
Then the applications are given to regional reps. Those who are legacies are not given to the regional reps as they automatically are discussed at the adnission table. The regional reps read the appliscations and make notes on them and they are read by about two others. It is the regional rep who advocates for the applicants in their region at the admissions table</p>
<p>What Harvard has to say about financial aid being a factor in admissions:</p>
<p>"Applying for financial aid does not jeopardize a student's chance for admission. Indeed, the Admissions Committee may respond favorably to evidence that a candidate has overcome significant obstacles, financial or otherwise."</p>
<p>So being poor actually does help you. By how much? I don't know.</p>
<p>This part, however, has changed a bit over the past couple of years:</p>
<p>
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2. Legacies are admitted at a substantially higher rate (close to 40%) than the overall admit rate. But the legacy pool is a stronger pool - the average stats (test scores and GPA) of admitted legacies are equal to the average stats of admitted students overall.
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<p>Because all the highly selective colleges now see applicants from more diverse backgrounds, the legacy acceptance rates, which used to be what Cosar stated, has slowly been going down. </p>
<p>If your parent(s) is (are) (a) Harvard alum(s) and that was about it (no development), then you may be held to a higher standard, since your parents know how the process works and there are no external factors that influence your application.</p>
<p>Cosar already alludes to this, saying that the legacy pool is a stronger pool. Admissions officers will assume, no matter what socioeconomic background you come from (yes, there are many Harvard alumni who don't make gazillons of dollars), that you had a strong foundation from which to start in terms of college admissions thanks to your parents.</p>
<p>cheesemaster, read "The Price of Admission" about getting in for big donors.</p>
<p>Redune, it is not that applying for financial aid helps you. Where it might help is in the application if it is clear that an applicants parents are in lower income paying jobs, the applicant lives in a low income disadvantaged area ect, - admissions officers take into account that that applicant may not have had the same opportunities, or might have excelled in spite of them ect.
Merely checking off that one is applying for financial aid does not help.</p>
<p>I didn't say applying to financial aid would help you. I said "being poor" does. Please read before you write. Coming from low-income is an advantage (provided that you have the grade.)</p>
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I didn't say applying to financial aid would help you. I said "being poor" does. Please read before you write. Coming from low-income is an advantage (provided that you have the grade.)
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<p>It's to your advantage to an extent. Remember, the average income in the U.S. is around $45,000 whereas Harvard's new financial aid policy states that parents making less than $60,000 won't have to contribute. "Being poor" does not constitute an advantage. It is a tip factor, in which when all is said and done, when there are two equal candidates in the admissions committee's eyes and one candidate clearly overcame more obstacles (high school students have a very odd view on what "obstacles" exactly are), then that spot would go to that candidate.</p>
<p>The article at the following link comes with some caveats. It's by the author of The Price of Admission, written for the new gossip mag 02138. And true to the spirit of the mag, it's gossipy. The author has a tendency to string together a few anecdotes and turn them into a "trend." But if you take it with a grain of salt, and you like gossip, it's not a bad read. (As a total aside - I was in the author's class at Harvard, and I wish I could show you his picture from the freshman pig book. It's great.)</p>
<p>So about when do adcoms begin to read applications? </p>
<p>My friend said Columbia didn't start reading apps until about the week before Dec 15th. Does Harvard do about the same thing?</p>
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So about when do adcoms begin to read applications?
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</p>
<p>Now. Meetings are starting this coming Thursday.</p>
<p>do they constantly check to see if new SAT scores are in, even if the applicantions have already been read? or should you email them in case you took the sats in november, just to make sure they know there will be new scores soon?</p>
<p>Do the admissions officers consider factors that may have prevented certain students from achieving/participating in extracurricular activities or competitions?</p>
<p>For example, moving from a non-English speaking country and having to catch up in English, and thus could not participate in many ECs or classes since there was a language barrier in the first 2 years of the student's high school life? Also, how about divorce PLUS those international experiences? Do I have to write a whole essay about it to let them know what I had "something to overcome /mentally/" or do they like... not care...? lol</p>