***Official Harvard 2012 Decisions Thread***

[art_star]

Decision: Waitlisted


Objective:

• SAT I (breakdown): 690R 730M 730W = 2150 (Superscored from 3 sittings)
• ACT: 32
• SAT II: 730 Math I, 720 Math II (did worse 2nd time), 720 USH
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): ~95 (school is out of 100)
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 5%
• AP (place score in parenthesis): USH (5)
• IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
• Senior Year Course Load: APs: Calc AB, Psych, and Language
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Hah, nothing

Subjective:

• Extracurriculars: Editor in Chief of Lit Mag, VP of Red Cross Youth Council, SADD Board Committee, Art for 10 years.
• Job/Work Experience: None
• Volunteer/Community service: Volunteering at American Red Cross, Central Park Summerstage and Queens Library
• Summer Activities: Summerstage volunteering
• Essays: Common app was SUPER. Optional harvard one was pretty solid
• Teacher Recommendation: One was, in his words, "beautiful." but i took a peek and it was quite short. The other i suspect to be above average
• Counselor Rec: Not sure because I hardly know her.
• Interview: decent.

Other

• State (if domestic applicant): NYC, NY
• School Type: Catholic
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: F
• Income Bracket: Quite high.
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): personal experiences.

Reflection

• Strengths: Common app essay and I wasn't the stereotypical asian.
• Weaknesses: everything else haha.
• Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I also got waitlisted at Columbia but rejected at Brown and Cornell. I'm hugely surprised that I'm even waitlisted because my stats pale in comparison to the majority of Harvard applicants. I'm putting my name on the waitlist, but for now I'm attending NYU Stern.

General Comments: Congrats to those accepted, and maybe I'll see you in the Fall ;D

[spiffystars]

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

• SAT I (breakdown): 710M 700CR 800W
• ACT: Did not take
• SAT II: 740 Lit / 680 US History / 660 Chemistry
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 15/320
• AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), English Language (5), Chemistry (3) Haha chemistry is not my thing.
• IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Government, AP European History, AP Environmental Science, Student Government, AP English Literature, AP Calculus AB, Humanities Honors
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None really I can think of. Some Science Olympiad regional and state awards, DAR Good Citizenship award, Toyota Community Scholars semifinalist

Subjective:

• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Government (Student Body VP), Asia Club (President), Environmental Club (Vice President - founder of county-wide recycling program), Traditional Korean Fan Dance (Instructor, performer), Science Olympiad (Varsity Captain, but quit in senior year...science is not my thing), Inter-Club Council (Founder, Chairman), I sit on a state-wide Youth Advisory Board, Local Youth Council (Vice-Chair). I do a hefty amount in my community and I love every bit of it! I honestly think it is because of my EC's that I was accepted.
• Job/Work Experience: SAT prep tutor
• Volunteer/Community service: Too many to list. Mostly with our local Arts Council, Youth Council, Student Government, library, etc....
• Summer Activities: Harvard SSP 2007, the best summer of my life. I encourage any rising senior to do it this summer! In past summers I self studied Russian, taught English in Korea, etc.
• Essays: These were very good, I think. Writing is my strong point. One was very lighthearted and funny, the other was very insightful and about a little girl I met on a bus.
• Teacher Recommendation: AMAZING. Truly amazing. One made my teacher cry when he read it out loud (against my will, haha) to my entire Student Govt class. The other was very eloquently written but somewhat generic.
• Counselor Rec: She said "I have never written so many good things about a person ever before!"
• Additional Rec: Did not have one.
• Interview: The guy was a little off, but it was a good interview. It could have been better though.

Other

• State (if domestic applicant): NC
• School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Asian-Hispanic
• Gender: F
• Income Bracket: > $100K
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college, and 1/2 URM

Reflection

• Strengths: I honestly think my interesting extracurriculars, leadership, and essays did the trick.
• Weaknesses: My SAT scores were TERRIBLE.
• Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: No Idea, but I truly am so grateful.

General Comments: It is not the end of the world if you did not get accepted. You all are truly truly amazing people and will go far in life! I am so humbled to have been accepted out of all of these TRULY amazing applicants. You guys simply amaze me!

[emmabelle]

still no email!

[Hamman]

OMG Congratulations to all those who are accepted!!! I'm so happy right now lol. It's a battle between Stanford and Harvard for me!! EEEEEEEEE

[pommery]

Decision: Rejected

Objective:

• SAT I (breakdown): 710M, 790CR, 800W
• SAT II: 770 Lit, 760 Math 2, 580 Spanish w/ Listening
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/250
• AP (place score in parenthesis): Lit (5), Macroecon (5) -- wasn't able to take many APs due to alternative school, etc. It was explained.
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc, AP Comp, AP Gov, Spanish 4, Anatomy
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist

Subjective:

• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity Club Crew for all 4 years, various clubs at school
• Job/Work Experience: tutoring
• Volunteer/Community service: Poverty fighting club, relay for life
• Summer Activities: travel back east, went to El Salvador to build schools for 2 weeks
• Essays: I didn't do the optional essay... probably a mistake. But my common app essay rocked.
• Teacher Recommendation: Excellent
• Counselor Rec: Excellent, best in career, etc.
• Additional Rec: From my crew coach, great.
• Interview: went really well

Other

• State (if domestic applicant): Oregon
• School Type: Public, top 500
• Ethnicity: white
• Gender: female
• Income Bracket: >100,000
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): RECRUITED ATHLETE

Reflection

• Strengths: SATs, gpa, main EC
• Weaknesses: extra essay? SAT IIs?
• Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: it's a crapshoot.

General Comments:
To be honest, I'm surprised. I've been in contact with the coach since november, they felt very positive about my chances, I was flown out to visit, etc. I had hoped that being recruited, along with great stats, would do the trick. All the same, I'm getting pretty excited about going to Stanford. Best of luck to everyone.

[baseballpat4]

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

* SAT I (breakdown): 2180
* ACT: 35
* SAT II: 800 Math II, 740 US hist
* Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9 (4.55 w)
* Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/419
* AP (place score in parenthesis): 7 AP's thus far, all 5's. 4 more this year
* IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
* Senior Year Course Load: AP Macro, English, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Psych, Spanish
* Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):AP scholar stuff? Not much outside of awards in EC's.

Subjective:

* Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis)ebate (captain), Mock Trial (Captain - State champs), NHS, Science Olympiad, Varsity Baseball
* Job/Work Experience: None really. Applying for one this summer
* Volunteer/Community service: Lots of work with the city of Burnsville. Wrote my essay on how it helped build me as a person and harbor a passion.
* Summer Activities: Played a bunch of baseball in summer and most of my volunteering took place then.
* Essays: Good. I didn't write the optional one because I didn't have anything else to say. My application represented me well and it worked.
* Teacher Recommendation: Sent in three. One from AP Euro teacher was really good. He compared me to past Harvard student from our school who was very bright. Science teacher was generic. Optional one was about mock trial which was amazing.
* Counselor Rec: Solid
* Additional Rec: See above.
* Interview: Lady seemed impressed. Doubt it had much to do with admission decision.

Other

* State (if domestic applicant): MN
* School Type: Public
* Ethnicity: White
* Gender: M
* Income Bracket: over $100K
* Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college?


* Strengths: Strong ACT (one question away from composite 36), good leadership.
* Weaknesses: My SAT scores were below average for Harvard
* Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Solid candidate who got lucky. Half of this process is luck.

General Comments: Congrats to all those who got in. I know there were more qualified people who got rejected (compared to me). You will be successful wherever you end up.

[jdlkem]

freshman pchem and math55, here i come!?!

psyche.

[baseballpat4]

**where ever

[dizzydxz]

Decision: Waitlisted


Stats:

• Fee Waiver Used?: No
• SAT I (by section): 2200 (740 R, 800 M, 660 W)
• SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC, 770 Physics, 760 US History
• GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.0 UW
• Rank: 1/450
• ACT: didn't take
• APs (including this year's): 10 total, got four 5's on the ones I took last year.
• IBs (including this year's): none
• Senior Yr Courseload: 6 aps
• Number of Apps from Your School: 2 or 3
• Other stats (Awards, etc.): State awards (1st and 2nd places) for math, knowledge bowl and fbla

Subjective:

• ECs listed on app: Key Club, Math Team, Varsity Track, Knowledge Bowl, FBLA, Church, Health Dept. volunteering
• Job/Work Experience: 3 summer jobs
• Essays (subject and responses): one key club essay and one success essay
• Teacher Recs: amazing
• Counselor Rec: great
• Interview (feel, interviewer and general location): I'm not sure on this one, the interviewer was a little wierd. I got the feeling that he didn't really enjoy his time at Harvard
• Hook (TASP, RSI, Research, etc.): state position for key club ... not really a hook tho...

Location/Person:

• State or Country: USA
• School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Public
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: 100,000
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): uhh...
• Strengths: Essays, recs, Rank
• Weaknesses: SAT I score, interview, race??
• Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: Too many applicants...

Other Factors:
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: I'm not too mad about it...being on Harvard's waitlist...BUT I'm going to have to reject Harvard on this one...cause I'm going to YALE!!! :]

[braaap]

waitlisted.
ACT 35, rank top percent, no special clubs, essays were Good I think. Teacher Recs were proabbly pretty standard.

[stupidkid]

ACCEPTED!! Now i gotta pick between HYPSM!!!!!

[grandfand]

Still no email - I am going crazy here! What if it never comes?

[sassyohiomom]

I can't even log into the system when I enter my PIN code, so when I E-mailed the school to verify what it was, they said that they couldn't find me on record...
here's the E-mail:

"We were unable to find your access information in our files.

Remember, you must include your first and last name in the body of your request."

Did anyone else get this? What does this mean?

[webgoudarzi]

Why haven't I got the email yet. This is ridiculous. Its 2 hours past what they said they would. Isnt 2 hours enough for them to send 27000 emails. :/

[QuixoticRick]

Decision: Rejected

Stats:

• SAT: 1760 (630 CR, 590 W, 540 M)
• SAT IIs: 680 Bio E, 680 Bio M, 670 WH, 650 USH, 600 Math II, 550 Lit
• GPA (uw/w): 4.00uw/4.58w
• Rank: 2/236 Salutatorian
• Other stats: One out of a handful (less than/equal to 5) from my high school; high school rarely sends grads to top schools outside of UC system.

Subjective:

• Essays: Wrote about my passion for law and how I've fulfilled and come to the passion: law academy, law courses, mock trial, mentorships, internships, etc.; supplement essay about JROTC leadership growth; supplement after deferral about my interest in Harvard/science abstract + research.
• Teacher Recs: From law academy teachers that talked about my mock trial work and my influence in the classroom, etc.
• Counselor Rec: Talked a lot about my ECs and how accomplished she thought I was with my courseload, personality, ECs, etc.
• Hook (if any): Research at a CSU? Law "motif?"

Location/Person:

• State or Country: California
• School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Taiwanese
• Gender: Male

Other Factors?: My SAT killed it for me.
General Comments, status update dates: I got rejected from all the private schools that I applied to but then again they were all reaches (Ivies) except for USC, which was supposed to be my match (even high match, nearing reach). I got accepted into UC San Diego, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. I am leaning towards UCLA right now but Cal might give me scholarships and seem to be really, really interested in me (calling me, inviting me to apply to Cal scholarships, etc.) I got sent an e-mail asking me to apply from the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Division. I also sent in two supplementary recommendations from lawyers that I've worked with through mock trial and an internship that were Harvard alumni, one of them having graduated from both Harvard College and Harvard Law.