Chances for CS at Harvard

gibby
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 20:55:24 +0000

First off, all students apply to Harvard as Liberal Arts Majors and select a major, called a concentration, during their sophomore year.

Secondly, Harvard asks about your “intended major” to gauge your interests and to see how you have pursued those interests inside and outside of the classroom. However, as more than 60% of US college students change their major at least once during their 4 years of college, Admissions cannot use what you write down as your “intended area of interest” as a recruiting tool because the data doesn’t directly translate into what major a student will graduate with. The key to what Admissions is looking for is commitment and dedication – as Admissions believes a student’s commitment is a transferrable skill that might be applied to CA – or another subject – while in college and in life.

Thirdly, before asking about your chances at CS at Harvard, you first must ask: what are my chances as a student from India?

And to understand that, you need to look at Harvard’s international statistics website: http://www.hio.harvard.edu/statistics. From the pull-down menus, select STUDENTS, HARVARD COLLEGE (the undergraduate school) and INDIA. There are currently 22 students enrolled at Harvard from India who are either freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Divide that number by 4 and you’ll see that Harvard admits, on average, between 5 and 6 students from India every year.

Now Harvard doesn’t publish the number of applications from each country, but I imagine Harvard receives hundreds, if not a thousand, applications from your country for those 5 or 6 slots.

Lastly, as Harvard receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), essays and interview report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of “good character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. As none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours, the best that can be said is that your stats place within Harvard’s range, so your stats will not disqualify you from being admitted.

That said, only 5 or 6 students from India are admitted each year from India, so you have to be the best-of-the-best from your country. Is that you? Is that you for CS? Again, it’s impossible to tell from a post like yours.

As a relatively new member to College Confidential you may have missed this famous post on the MIT forum. Everything in it applies to HYPSM et al: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-an-accurate-chance-at-mit-p1.html

Best of luck to you!