<p>Though I’ve already committed to Harvard for the Class of 2017, I admit that it was disappointing that Visitas was canceled. I really wanted to meet the fellow members of my class and make some new friends before August.</p>
<p>So CC, what do you guys think about how canceling Visitas will effect the Class of 2017? Will Harvard’s yield rate go down substantially as those still on the fence tend to go elsewhere? Will there be a lot of waitlist activity? </p>
<p>My daughter was leaning toward MIT until she did overnight visits to each school (not official “accepted student” weekends). That experience made her pick Harvard, a choice she has never regretted.</p>
<p>So then in the end no one is really on the fence then, because the amount of reports of being on the fence all seem to end up on not being on the fence which anyone of today’s generation could easily confirm via Google.</p>
<p>@Palier: That’s really not the point though. </p>
<p>I don’t think it will affect the class at all. If anything, this makes for a special bond and sense of community in an awful situation. But in term of yield, that I won’t argue with; it too hard to predict! Yield might go down, go up, stay the same… anything is possible.</p>
<p>Every year about 400 accepted applicants choose to attend elsewhere. Harvard usually accepts a little over 2000 applicants in order to fill a freshman class of about 1650.</p>
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<p>Yes, my daughter was hosted by a Harvard student on an overnight visit (not during Visitas) that was arranged through the Admissions office. However, Admissions might well be swamped this year straightening out the mess created by the lock-down. You could also try to arrange a host yourself by appealing to Harvard parents and students here on CC to see a host can be arranged. I’ve seen that work too.</p>
<p>The class of 2017 may enjoy watching a few “Virtual Visitas” videos the current freshmen made on YouTube for the incoming class. And there is also a whole #VirtualVisitas twitter feed going on where current students are reaching out to admitted ones. Certainly not the same as being there, but still helpful. Here’s one of the videos:</p>
<p>LeiaOrgana, My daughter’s Visitas host has already offered to host her next weekend, if she wanted to come. If you’ve been given your host’s contact info already, perhaps consider contacting her to see if she would do likewise.</p>
<pre><code>As a current student, I’m bummed about Visitas being canceled as well. That said, I want to make sure you have as much information as possible to make your decision. If you can get to Cambridge sometime in the next ten days, please reach out to either Harvard Admissions or me (just PM me) and I’m sure you’ll find a student who is happy to host you. If that isn’t possible, please PM me all the same with any specific questions you have. I know that it isn’t possible to convey how a place feels through words alone… but I’ll do my very best to try!
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<p>The Crimson has a story today about Fitzsimmons speaking with the other Ivy League admissions offices about extending the deadline for students to notify Harvard (and I suppose other colleges). This would give admitted students longer time to gather whatever additional information they might need before making a commitment.</p>
<p>It is not sure if the other colleges will go along or even if Harvard would act unilaterally. The Crimson is on-line so check it out daily…</p>
<p>I’d already chosen not to attend Harvard, but I do think that the lack of Visitas may reduce the yield a little. </p>
<p>However, I was massively impressed by the effort students and professors alike made to ensure people still felt they were welcomed into the class of 2017 and any information they needed.</p>
<p>Lemming101, glad you felt good about the response. Where will you matriculate?<br>
(Perhaps I should ask, where are the other 100 lemmings going? ;))</p>
<p>I’m also thoroughly impressed by Harvard’s welcoming students! For me personally, they have been by far the most active in trying to reach to me with messages/emails/…etc. I literally send two short questions and get pages of responses. Some students are even recording videos to welcome the class of 2017! </p>
<p>I’ve been deliberating between Harvard and Yale for some time now, but I think this week sealed the deal for me. Everything is aligning, and I’m happy I’m getting more clarity!</p>
<p>Yale is really awesome. But I’m falling in love with Harvard so hard so fast.</p>
<p>I’m sure that people don’t think that the cancellation was an overcautious response to the situation, but just in case you did…</p>
<p>We live 3 miles west of Harvard Yard, and we live about 1.5 miles north of the place where the second suspect was found in the boat. We had been given the cautious “all clear” to go outside at about 6:15 p.m. on Friday, so we went for a walk. However, there seemed to be an escalation of the presence of helicopters and racing police cruisers as we continued walking. We were pretty close to home again just after 7 p.m. when, all of a sudden, we heard a barrage of gunshots just to our south, so we raced home and stayed put again. Two hours later, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev emerged from the boat. When Harvard canceled Visitas, no one new where he had gone. The situation was very dangerous. I remember going to the activities for parents of admitted students (it wasn’t called Visitas then) back in 2007, and it was clear how much preparation went into it. Every department had an open house, there were student performances, the clubs all had activities, there was food everywhere. I can’t imagine how hard it was for Harvard to decide to cancel.</p>
<p>Anyway, just in case you didn’t know it, Harvard is a great school, so consider going there even without Visitas.</p>