Our son has his RD Harvard interview coming up. He SCEA’d to, and was accepted by, Princeton. I’m assuming, perhaps incorrectly, this will come up in his interview and this choice might be held against him (from a cross-admit rankings point of view Harvard might not want to offer a slot to someone who is very likely to choose Princeton).
He chose Princeton as his SCEA because:
He is an engineering student (still undecided what flavor, leaning towards ChemE for now, but very open to changing to BioE) and generally speaking, Princeton has a more developed engineering program with more of an undergraduate focus. However, Harvard appears to be vigorously investing in engineering, especially with the recent mega donation to SEAS.
He is considered a first gen student by Harvard, but not Princeton, so he thought that the SCEA mini-bump would help his Princeton chances and the first gen mini-bump will help his Harvard app.
We didn't have the time and money to tour either school, especially given such low odds of admission. So asked to make the largely uninformed choice between a smaller school in the suburbs (Princeton) vs. a larger school in the city (Harvard) he choose the safe/familiar option. I truly believe, if accepted, he'd tour Harvard and see that he could love Cambridge / Boston.
Overall, Princeton was a safer choice, but I am hoping that if he was offered a chance at Harvard, he’d tour the school and see the opportunities there.
Given all of that, will the Harvard interview ask about his SCEA school? If so, what is the best way to handle this? I believe honesty is the best way forward, but how does he present it in a way that really highlights he has not made up his mind and would greatly appreciate all that Harvard offers?
He doesn’t have to tell them he applied early to another school. Even if asked point-blank, he needs to know how to answer in a way that turns the convo back to Harvard. You don’t have to share this full reality.
@psywar, I see this a little differently - he should feel very confident about himself since Princeton took him early so I don’t see any harm in him telling the interviewer(s) if they ask. It makes him a more alluring candidate to know that P took him early. If he is asked, something along the lines of “I was fortunate to be admitted to Princeton in December but I am very interested in Harvard because of its XYZ” will re-direct the conversation to Harvard. I can’t imagine a H interviewer asking which school he prefers, and if they do, shame on them!
(My D was also addmitted SCEA to Princeton this year and I’m thinking it’ll make her a more compelling candidate should the one other RD school interviewer – not H – ask.)
@lookingforward Thank you for the reply. I was under the assumption that Harvard would know about his SCEA actions via the CommonApp and the SCEA lists presumably shared between schools to prevent someone from SCEA’ing to multiple Ivys. Or is that totally wrong?
^^^ My assumption is that they share SCEA admitted kids lists to compare to their own SCEA admitted list … but don’t expend any resources comparing lists of RD applicants to others’ SCEA lists…
It’s a common misconception. There’s some agreement not to share applicant info and it’s not part of what comes through with the CA.
Given a choice, if asked, the safer path is to deflect. Don’t tell them he was accepted to Princeton. Don’t even say he applied early there. OP, even if he somehow gets cornered about early, he could just say his parents encouraged him to cast a wide net, then focus back to H. He should know why Harvard is his choice.
Gnocci, no good can come from a 17 year old trying to navigate that with an interviewer and then praying it gets conveyed right on the report back to admissions. In the case of the Ivies, it’s no selling point. It’s like making your own Tufts Syndrome and handing it to them.
Psy - My D was also accepted SCEA to Princeton and she also had her Harvard interview before the SCEA results. I have to tell you that it never even came up specifically. The interviewer asked her where else she was applying, and my D basically told the Interviewer that she was also looking at H’s peer institutions. She did not go into detail about who those were.
First off, as @Lookingforward noted, it’s against US federal law for any university to share information with another university – that includes a list of applicants, a list of accepted students, or a list of financial aid awards per student. In legal terms, it’s an antitrust violation and was specifically banned by the US government in 1991.
Secondly, if asked by your alumni interviewer “Why didn’t you apply SCEA to Harvard?” I advocate telling a little white lie: “Truthfully, I wasn’t satisfied with my supplemental essay and kept trying to tweak it.” That answer completely deflects the question (even if you were admitted SCEA to Princeton, Yale, Stanford or EA to another college) and allows a student to reframe the conversation around their supplemental essay.
FWIW: During my son’s interview for Dartmouth, he was asked what could have been a very awkward question: “What other colleges have you applied to?” My son listed his colleges, including Yale (not mentioning that he had applied SCEA and had been accepted). The alumni interviewer then began to tell my son why he should choose Dartmouth over HYP if he were admitted to all of those schools. In the end, the discussion made for a good conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of each school. So, IMHO, a student should be honest if asked this question, but the student should not divulge where they have been admitted (if at all) during the SCEA round, as that information is no one’s business!