Do I write letter of interest to Harvard for waitlist?

Stonesn
Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:14:45 +0000

I’ve been waitlisted to Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. I know for Columbia, they accept a one-page letter, but for Harvard (and Princeton), can I do the same? Does it hurt? I’ll talk about recent awards and updates to my EC’s? Anyone know?

Here’s helpful info I’ve dugged up for you waitlisters:

To assist students in the spring of 2012 who are placed on the waitlist for the Harvard College Class of 2016 and look back at this thread for guidance on what they might expect to happen, this note tries to provide a summary to date of this year’s Harvard College waitlist postings on College Confidential.

On May 12, 2011, the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported that almost 77% of the students offered admission had accepted, and hence that Harvard would likely admit only 10-15 students from the waitlist for admission to the Class of 2015. This number presumably did not include an additional number of students who would be offered admission to the Class of 2016 with a mandatory gap year.

On May 17, a first wave of e-mails consisting of a few admissions (for either the Class of 2015 or, following a gap year, the Class of 2016) and many rejections was sent out. Each of the admissions was apparently preceded by a phone call to the student from the regional admissions officer several days earlier.

On June 6, a second wave of rejections was transmitted by e-mail. It is unclear whether this wave included any admissions.

On June 20, a third wave of admissions (again, for either the Class of 2015 or the Class of 2016) and of rejections was transmitted by e-mail (again, with each of the admitted students having apparently gotten a phone call from the regional admissions officer several days earlier).

It is unclear whether any students still remain on the waitlist at this time.