<p>Do gibby’s numbers include an accurate number of admitted students who decided to take a gap year? (For every gap student, a waitlist slot would open up.)</p>
<p>Most Harvard non-athletes learn pretty quickly that the majority of athletes have incredible academic resumes. (A few helmet-sport stars and Olympic level athletes are admitted with with lower stats, but hundreds of athletes are great sudents too.)</p>
<p>I am strongly considering turning down Harvard for Northwestern’s Honors Program in Medical Education, which guarantees me a place in Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine so long as I maintain a 3.2. Also, it cuts down courses from 48 to 36 and condenses undergrad to 3 years. With no MCATs and Midwestern affabilitity, it’s a pretty sweet deal.</p>
<p>No MCATS? If that is true, it is a great deal. Good luck!</p>
<p>Fauve: Thanks for pointing that out! My numbers do not take into account students who take a gap year. That may help to explain/reconcile the stated yield for the class of 2014 and the number of students taken off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Quomodo, I think of Stanford as California(H+P). :). Affably driven? I have never seen much alignment between Yale and Stanford.</p>
<p>Bluejacket - congratulations on making it to HPME. It is a great program if you are sure about pursuing medicine.</p>
<p>I have to agree with gadad. The many H students I have met in the last year have, without exception, been interesting, funny, supportive of their classmates and self-deprecating. And, yes, the ones I’ve met have been attractive but that could just be a coincidence. However, I haven’t met every student or encountered many club dynamics. Basa will certainly not be the first student to decline an acceptance based on “not-clicking” with a group pursuing their intended interests. </p>
<p>I think we should all follow our own “gut” in the decision-making process but we should think about whether we need to besmirch one school in order to choose another. I will be choosing H over P but with a heavy heart. I love P and admire the many students and professors I have met there. I feel it is a wonderful place, full of opportunity both academically and socially. When you have great options, like many on this thread, it is hard to make a decision. I chose H because I love it and in the end I decided to spend my next 4 years there. That doesn’t mean I don’t love P and that I wouldn’t have loved it there as well.</p>
<p>H is the best choice for me–because I chose it.</p>
<p>I would have liked to talk to more alumni. Although I ended up choosing Harvard in the end, I had to really search to get my information. Harvard alums from my country (which has quite a few alumni) did not contact me to help me with the decision process. In fact, it was alums from the two other schools I got into who actually connected me to alums from Harvard who could help me. I really liked the way Princeton held a get together in my city for all the pre frosh and also invited many alumni to talk to us. I got to learn a lot about Princeton that way, and it really helped me gauge if Princeton was a good fit for me or not. It was not, Harvard was a better fit, but it was Princeton’s spring party that helped me realize that, and their alums, not Harvard’s party or their alumni. I come from a feeder city and country. I felt that this might not give the right impression to applicants who aren’t decided as they might think that Harvard doesn’t care about the new admits, but really, in the end, make the decision with a balanced mind. I thought about all that Harvard had to offer and the people I talked to really made me see that Harvard was the one. 
But I was this close to saying no to Harvard, and I feel that Harvard could help their pre frosh with the after-decision process.</p>
<p>Wait, Harvard didn’t host a prefrosh weekend for you? Maybe my memory is going dim in my old age (and I’m confusing summer get-togethers, of which I was invited to a thousand, with a spring one), but I thought that I went to one, and that that was a common occurrence.</p>
<p>Maybe this is because we live in the area but my family was invited to one event at the Harvard Club of Boston but also a local family just hosted an ice cream social for admitted students in the Boston west surburbs at her home. My S really liked the Harvard students that he met and is looking forward to attending!</p>
<p>PerfectPixie is in India. So it would depend on whether there is a concentration of people to host such a weekend.</p>
<p>exultationsy: I was surprised too. Well, my interviewer called me up twice, both times to tell me that he’s calling all the admits from my city to meet up, but he never specified a date to any of us. 
Maximum number of admits from my country are from my city. It was alums from UPenn and Princeton who connected me to people who had <em>also</em> attended Harvard. Those people actually called me up themselves to talk and help me out with my decision, and gave me as unbiased opinions as they could, I was pleasantly surprised!
Btw, we have quite a lot of H alums in my city (one of the people I spoke to told me;))</p>
<p>My D turn down harvard/Yale for Rice/Baylor program. Guaranteed to one of the top medical school, No MCAT</p>
<p>That is weird pixie. I have the opposite experience! My Harvard interviewer has made a lot of effort to meet me and introduce me to the other admits from my country (we are about 9). I’ve been taken for coffee and brunch and this Saturday, we have a barbecue with other alum and the admitted students.</p>
<p>My Princeton interviewer on the other hand just dropped me a hurried email congratulating me on entering the elite and distinguished association of Princeton students and alum :rolleyes: </p>
<p>Though Penn has inundated my inbox with emails from Admission officers, International Students, The President of the Undergraduate Assembly! I thought it was very sweet!</p>
<p>I turned down Harvard for Yale. I think I’ll be happier there.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I officially accepted the HPME offer this morning and am really excited! No doubt, Harvard is a great institution… just decided it wasn’t the very best for me. Throughout the application process, I always said I would choose the best opportunity. That proved to be HPME!</p>
<p>Sounds like Harvard alums in India are shirking their alum responsibilities. Guess they did nt get their memo from Harvard to ensure admittees accept/matriculate.</p>
<p>I turned down Harvard for Pomona College :)</p>
<p>My D is a sophomore theatre major at Pomona. Great school and so beautiful, sunny and warm. S will be a freshman at Harvard. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I technically turned down Harvard. [Withdrew my application after getting into the school I liked way more.]</p>
<p>Sad thing is, I might have to apply for transfer for financial reasons… :(</p>