@JKMSNJ i do not know Harvard’s interview report end dates. I keep hearing these interviews are all based on alumni availability but I’m not entirely sure about that. We live near Seattle so we have lots of alum here. I guess there is still some time left. Good luck!
@JKMSNJ February 8
@ohnoitsme thank you for the information.
Someone from my school just posted that they were admitted to Yale. They didn’t apply REA and haven’t had their interview yet. Just wondering if anyone else got an update to their portal.
^It is either wishful thinking or possibly that person got the rare RD likely letter which have come out in the past in early February.
@seniorgirl222 Wow, that seems highly unusual unless they are an athlete?
I’m also wondering if they got an email saying an update has occurred or If they just happened to check the portal.
@seniorgirl222 I was on the A2C subreddit and saw someone who got a likely letter for STEM, so it’s probably that instead of the actual acceptance.
one of my friends boyfriend supposedly recently got a call from the director of admissions that he had been accepted. his applied major is in astrophysics and he applied RD. is this a thing that typically happens? should i, as a deferred early applicant, be worried?
@lamdanu To me this is not a common occurrence, particularly for a non-athlete. I think it’s great that it happens from time to time but I wouldn’t worry.
@lamdanu So does that mean Yale has begun to send likely letters to STEM applicants?
@Cly2019 i think so but i dont know if its exclusively for RD applicants or if its for all applicants that applied STEM. in any case, it seems like a it was an outlier because he definitely is an exceptional applicant
Likely letter recipients typically get a call from the regional AOs starting the last week of Jan and then receive a likely letter in the mail along with Yale class T-shirt and other swags in early Feb. LL recipients by my observation are mostly STEM admits.
@jzducol Wow, that’s interesting. Is that a Yale thing or do other schools follow suit? Computer Science falls within STEM, not really their sweet spot, are highly accomplished CS majors in this category?
“Likely Letters” are neither new nor exclusive to Yale. You can search for information about it on the Internet.
Most admitted students won’t receive such a letter, but if you receive one, congratulations—it means the institution really likes you and wants to let you know! 
All research I’ve done on likely letters showed they were more common amongst athletes, so Stem recipients seemed different from what I read. Yes, for those lucky folks, congrats!
Actually seems like about 100 each from Penn, Harvard and Yale just started coming out in the last day or so. My D just came home from school and a good friend got a LL from Yale last night.
To my knowledge all HYPS and Ivies do LLs. In EA/ED round all LLs go to recruited athletes. During RD LLs typically go to admits with profiles most needed in the school’s admit pool, for example, at Yale LLs would be mostly engineering/CS/math and at Stanford they would be mostly art/humanity.
If my son won his science fair at state level , will it consider good enough to submit as a research supplement?
It is a bit hard to say without seeing the details. My suggestion is:
- Definitely mention any awards the applicant has won (esp. at state level and above)
- If you submit a paper, it could be read by a faculty member. So you have to decide based on how strong is the content.
- If you son has a mentor who is an academic or researcher, it would be best to seek his/her advise.
- It also depends on how strong is the rest of your application.
- If you do not submit a supplement, you describe what you have learned from your research experience (about research and yourself) in one of the essays.
You have two options: only mention the achievement without submitting any supplement; or both (mention the award + submit something in paper).
It is not always the more the better. But with the suitable content (and other achievements/references/ECs to backup), research experience that demonstrate the potential/goals/interests of an applicant could be helpful. A good reference from a technical mentor could also be useful. Hope that helps.