<p>Keynes-I don't have money or connections, and I think the same goes for many who were accepted. Luck plays a big role, and I hope you have some good luck in the RD round.</p>
<p>just<em>forget</em>me,</p>
<p>I couldn't agree with you more, but all I'm saying is that people with money and connections have a distinct advantage over people like you and me. Anyways, congratulations on your early acceptance and I hope you have a good remainder of the school year.</p>
<p>Decision: Deferred</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: Math 800, Verbal 770
[</em>] SAT IIs: Math IIC 800, Phys 800, Lit 770
[<em>] GPA: not applicable
[</em>] Rank: 1/43
[<em>] Other stats: 42/45 IB points on last grade reports
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: A bit predictable
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Glowing, though teachers unfamilar with US applications
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Didn't get to read
[<em>] Hook (if any): Legacy (father went to harvard)
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Tanzania
[<em>] School Type: Private international school
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] major strength/weakness: Strong scores/grades (especially math), weak ECs (not many available at my school)
[li] why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: Essay? ECs?[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Any hope?</p>
<p>Just about the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Hopefully the reply from the other Cambridge (UK) will be better.</p>
<p>*Decision: Deferred *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 1480 T
[</em>] SAT IIs: 780 Chem; 760 Bio; 720 Math IIC
[<em>] GPA: 4.72
[</em>] Rank: 4/approximately 560 (Because more advanced by taking non-honors Geometry in 8th grade therefore lower gpa)
[<em>] Other stats: AP 5's: Chem and AB Calc; 4's: Am. Hist, Eng. Lang, and Bio. Only current senior at school as AP Scholar with Distinction.<br>
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Teachers said beautifully woven together, not sure myself.
[<em>] Teacher Recs: One mediocre, other two not sure
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Trite
[<em>] Hook (if any): Research in microbiolgy and polymerization and speech and debate awards.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: Florida
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Vietnamese
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] major strength/weakness: Mediocre scores.
[li] why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: Scores and no extreme wow factor.[/li][/ul]Other Factors: Work at Barnes and Noble 16-20 hours a day and work at a scientific research institute.</p>
<p>Decision: Deferred</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: Jan 2004: 760v/770m June 2001: 700v/790m <-yes that was eighth grade (1550 overall)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800bio/800chem/800iic/740wr/690wr
[<em>] GPA: 3.953uw/4.68w
[</em>] Rank: unranked
[<em>] Other stats: three time AIME qualifier
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: sucked
[<em>] Teacher Recs: no idea
[</em>] Counselor Rec: awesome (used it for research job app at pton over the summer)
[<em>] Hook (if any): well-roundedness(drum major, class and school treasurer, research at pton, lots of saxophone, interned for congressman, leadership award from habitat for humanity)
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: NJ
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Indian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] major strength/weakness: math/science strength, writing weakness
[li] why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: i think because my poor presentation painted myself as the stereotypical asian dork[/li][/ul]Other Factors:
-optional rec from professor at princeton</p>
<p>*Decision:Deferred *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I: 750V/800M
[</em>] SAT IIs: 790/750/750/740/720/660
[<em>] ACT N/A
[</em>] GPA: 3.9ish unweighted...straight A's...1 B+ in AP
[<em>] Rank: top 5%..im maybe guessing 10/400?
[</em>] Other stats: some small stuff... a lot of National Latin Exam awards, AP Scholar wi/ Dis., AIME...etc.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: i thought they were okay
[</em>] Teacher Recs: uhh...okay?
[<em>] Counselor Rec: okay i guess
[</em>] Hook (if any): Varsity Athlete, All State Musician, NHS Office-holder, Science Team, a bunch of other crap, a bunch of work experience, volunteer experience...<sigh> i thought that i had a good shot
[/ul][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[<em>] State or Country:MA
[</em>] School Type: exam public
[<em>] Ethnicity: asian
[</em>] Gender: m
[<em>] Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: ECs were definately my strength, weak testing scores...( i took three SAT2s twice)
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: uhh..im not good enough
[/list]Other Factors:
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: my new dream is stanford lol</sigh></p>
<p>Decision Deferred</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<pre><code>* SAT: 1600
* SAT IIs: 780 lit, 650 writing, 630 Math I
* GPA: 4.4 (highest possible)
* Rank: 1/611
* Other stats:
</code></pre>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<pre><code>* Essays:Awesome, great feedback
* Teacher Recs: 1 best-ive-ever-read, 1 standard
* Counselor Rec: solid
* Hook (if any): My interview rocked, if that counts
</code></pre>
<p>Location/Person:</p>
<pre><code>* State or Country: Virginia
* School Type:Public
* Ethnicity:White
* Gender: Male
* major strength/weakness:Very witty but pessimistic
* why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered:Not a clue, could only be my essays or SAT IIs
</code></pre>
<p>feedback?</p>
<p>do u have any ecs...?</p>
<p>Answering to alyssa...No, not everyone who got accepted is an American...My school had 2 EA acceptances and one deferral. The only american one was the deferral guy. Personally, I need 3 more years to even get citizenship, so...</p>
<p>I have ECs out the wahzoo. Like 10 different things, leadership in lots, Eagle Scout, and plenty of academic awards</p>
<p>most harvard deferrees have nice, nice stats. leads me to believe the difference is in the essay, and diversity factors. (it so happened all the harvard applicants in my area were asians whose strengths were in math, and one of us had a USAMO, so he got in and the other three of us were deferred).</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT: Verbal 800, Math 770
SAT IIs: Math IIC 770, Writing 800, US History 770
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (Unweighted)
Rank: 1/440</p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: Different.
Teacher Recs: Good.
Counselor Rec: Good.
Hook (if any): Multiple things.</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: USA
School Type: Public.
Ethnicity: South Asian--Indian.
Gender: Female.
major strength/weakness: Don't know.
why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred: Don't know.</p>
<p>congrats to all who got in. i'm waiting for RD. aah, slightly nervous.</p>
<p>An0nym0u5: it could come down to the essays, since everyone is so amazingly qualified academically. i'm hoping my essays were good enough to get me in, because otherwise i would consider myself more of a borderline candidate.</p>
<p>Does anybody know of any cases where somebody got into harvard with really weak (and by that I mean non-existent) EC's?</p>
<p>no. when i visited amherst, i met this kid who was 1580 and then 800/800/800 but had virtually nonexistent ECs (except for playing in the high school band) and got rejected.</p>
<p>but, hey, he did get into amherst...</p>
<p>Okay that sucks, because I have nonexistent ECs besides NHS.</p>
<p>but on the bright side, you can always get into amherst...</p>
<p>Yeah, but I'm going into sciences so an LAC isn't gonna do me any good.</p>
<p>Khalid, actually, you'd be very surprised how strong some LACs are in sciences.</p>
<p>khalid ~ you could probably get into swarthmore though. they have a dominant engineering program; you'd be surprised. and amherst is strong in bio. don't just dismiss LACs since you're doing science.</p>