<p>I got it today, and I suspect that it’s just a marketing letter, encouraging me to apply and increase its selectivity. Besides, I won’t apply to Harvard (it’s too late anyway). But, I am wondering if this happens to all URMs despite their SAT scores. BTW, my SAT score is horrible: 1960 (700M/720W/540R)</p>
<p>I got a letter from the Asian society with something like that, but I have a feeling it’s not because I’m an URM.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got the same letter asiaknight. I think they just do it so they can get more applicants :p</p>
<p>All URMS do not get such letters. Harvard only sends such letters to students whose scores are within the range of students that Harvard accepts. </p>
<p>Getting such a letter does NOT mean, however, that you’ll be accepted. It just means that unlike the majority of h.s. seniors, you do have a chance to get into Harvard. Keep in mind, however, that 85% of students who apply to Harvard have the stats and courses indicating that if accepted, they’d graduate from Harvard.</p>
<p>Your scores are not “horrible.” Not only are they high for any student in this country (if you check CC’s archives, you’ll find nonURM students who were accepted RD to Harvard last spring with similar stats), but when it comes to black students, two of your scores are extremely high.</p>
<p>From The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education:
"Let’s be more specific about the SAT racial gap among high-scoring applicants. In 2005, 153,132 African Americans took the SAT test. They made up 10.4 percent of all SAT test takers. But only 1,132 African-American college-bound students scored 700 or above on the math SAT and only 1,205 scored at least 700 on the verbal SAT. Nationally, more than 100,000 students of all races scored 700 or above on the math SAT and 78,025 students scored 700 or above on the verbal SAT. Thus, in this top-scoring category of all SAT test takers, blacks made up only 1.1 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the math test and only 1.5 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the verbal SAT. </p>
<p>If we eliminate Asians and other minorities from the statistics and compare just white and black students, we find that 5.8 percent of all white SAT test takers scored 700 or above on the verbal portion of the test. But only 0.79 percent of all black SAT test takers scored at this level. " <a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html[/url]”>http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html</a></p>
<p>WOW! Northstarmom!</p>
<p>I was about to say: “where’d you get that info from?” but then I say the obvious citation. So much for reading comprehension! </p>
<p>In regards to the letter, I’m an ‘URM’ as y’all say and I recieved one of those letters the day before my acceptance letter came in the mail. Or it might have been the day after…can’t remember- though I do remember thinking that it was the recall/ ‘just kidding’ letter. Thanks for the info La Madre Del Polaris! On the one hand I feel disturbed and saddened by those statistics, but I have to say I kinda felt a wee bit special. Enough with these random dialects…peace out!</p>
<p>Letter is dated November?</p>
<p>umm, are you asking me? Let me check…<em>trying to find Harvard letter in my room of organized chaos</em>…S</p>
<p>It’s a boilerplate letter. The funny thing is people get it even after they have been accepted, deferred, or even rejected early action.</p>
<p>yah i got one 2, they are just tring to get peeps to apply</p>
<p>Another case of inter-departmental communication issues. The respective offices of these minority organizations obviously did not have information on existing early action applicants from the admissions office. This, compounded with the unfortunate timing of this letter, caused much confusion for early action applicants.</p>
<p>i got one AFTER being deferred, what a cruel game.</p>
<p>Thanks for your info, northstarmom. I am satisfied with two of my scores, but my verbal score is killing me. How will this hurt my admission chance? Will my hearing disability compensate for this? Despite english being my worst subject, I still take most rigourous courses in english every year. I’m currently taking AP Literature, and will this help? For additional info about my stats, I scored 750 on math level 2 (too low?) and 610 on SAT history (ouch) and 4 on AP. I will take Bio in Jan, and I’m pretty sure I will score 700+ since bio is my strongest subject and I’m taking AP course.</p>
<p>i think you are fine. just do well on SAT II bio, write excellent essays, get good recommendations, and then you will be just fine. harvard accepts applicants with lower scores than urs. i think your SAT history is little toooo low, but don’t worry about it. good luck!</p>
<p>Hope,
I don’t know how the adcoms will regard your verbal score, but I imagine that they will take under consideration your good writing score as well as the fact that you have a hearing disability and are taking AP Lit. After all, Helen Keller was a Radcliffe (the former women’s college of Harvard) grad, and clearly, she would not have scored high on a test regarding verbal abilities!</p>
<p>According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education’s winter 2003/4 issue, the average black and white scores for the SAT IIs that you took are: </p>
<pre><code> Black white
</code></pre>
<p>Math IIC 589 662
AmHistory 524 605
World History 516 587
Biology 521 595</p>
<p>Remember that only the top students – the ones applying to the elite colleges requiring the SAT II – take the SAT II, so when assessing your own scores, take that into consideration. That’s why the percentiles seem low for SAT II scores.</p>
<p>oh man.</p>
<p>i absolutely love helen keller.</p>
<p>seriously. she is my hero.</p>