Harvard SCEA Class of 2020 Applicant Thread

Colleges and Universities Harvard University
#1

Since application season is beginning, it wouldn’t hurt to get a thread started.

I’m currently debating on which school to apply early to. I know that a lot of people here have Harvard as a first choice; so, for anyone set on applying SCEA, here are some questions that could start up a discussion:

  1. Why are you applying to Harvard for SCEA?
  2. What draws you to Harvard?
  3. What makes Harvard stand out from other schools?
  4. Where else are you applying for RD?
  5. What are your qualifications?
  6. What are your summer plans?
  7. What is your intended major?
  8. What are your hobbies/interests/extracurriculars?
  9. What tips/advice do you have for applying?

Regardless of whether or not I end up applying to Harvard SCEA, I wish you all the very best in this paramount epoch of life known as the college application process. Good luck! :wink:

(And yes, I also started the application threads for Princeton and UChicago — it’s a way for me to gather information so that I can finalize on an EA school in the fall.)

#2

  1. the doors that a Harvard diploma can open. Furthermore, no one from my school has ever gotten into Harvard and I want to be the first. (still didn’t decide whether Ill be applying to Harvard or UPENN early because I want to do business.)

  2. The people! Harvard picks wonderful students that make a college experience. When I was at HMUN, the students seemed so cool and I really wanted to get to know them and share classes and my college experience with them. Even the dean of Harvard admissions said that it is the personality which triumphs grades and test scores.

  3. The people, the campus, the name, the tradition, and the close “home” feeling you get at Harvard.

  4. Cornell, Penn, Bing, Brandeis, not really sure

  5. Good average (with the MOST rigorous course load), Good ECs (with leadership), Potentially good essays and hopefully good recs.

  6. Interning for a senator in Vermont

  7. Humanities

  8. Debate, MC, MUN, SG, Student fund raising committee, Newspaper, and charity.

  9. Honestly, don’t base what you see off of college confidential… this site attracts the top HS students. Scores aren’t everything nor is any one part of your application. Be the best applicant… Sell yourself amongst your shortcomings, and most importantly… Tell a good story. Make an admissions officer want to take you in. The reason why scores are of the matter is because they need to ensure that you can handle the schools curriculum. The reason why grades are important is because they need to ensure that you’ll stay consistent with your studies (NOTHING! looks worse than if a college has a high dropout rate (Harvard has the lowest)). Those two factors (grades and scores) almost never get you in… (ASSUMING YOU HAVE A 4.0 (taking challenging courses) AND A 2200+). What gets the student in is the “human” side of the application (the essay, recs, and achievements)… Harvard is admitting a human being not a test score, not a gpa so sell yourself well!

Best of luck potential 2020ers, hopefully we can take a stroll through Harvard yard in the fall of 2016 (bs’'d)(iyh)

#3

@verizonwireless Wow, I never expected to get a reply this early! Your qualifications look really amazing!

Harvard interests me because I am really interested in economics (and thus is why I am debating between Princeton, UChicago, and this university). If I do decide to SCEA Harvard in the end, hopefully we can both end up in Harvard Yard. Good luck! :slight_smile:

#4

As for some advice, my counselor said that the earlier you send in the application, the better… I do not know if this is actually proven, but some suspect that the admissions officers read the applications in order from earliest submitted to latest, and that they are more willing to accept applicants in the beginning of the long essay reading session. In other words, the first essay has a greater chance of making a good impression than the 4,679th, given that both essays are the same.

#5

Nothing will be read until your transcript(s), teacher recommendations, and GC Secondary School Report are received. Sending in the application early will make no difference if nothing else arrives until the deadline.

#6

@skieurope if you take a nice sat … Are you disadvantaged

#7

@azwu331 my kid submitted his SCEA just an hour before cutoff and got accepted so…as long as you submit your complete application on time you will be fine.

Perhaps, your counselor just want you to get a head start.

#8

@verizonwireless Care to rephrase?

#9

november* instead of nice

#10

@verizonwireless Well that makes more sense :slight_smile: No, November testing will not put you at a disadvantage. Personally, I find the dates too close for comfort and wouldn’t risk it, but YMMV.

#11

Harvard is definitely my first-choice college! I’m not sure about whether to apply SCEA though if it doesn’t offer any advantage to applying RD. Would it make more sense to apply EA to Yale/Stanford/Princeton?

#12

A few thoughts:

When Harvard went back to SCEA, their early admit rate was pretty comparable to YPS – and it was easy to accept their explanation that your chances in the SCEA round were no different than the RD round.

However, for the class of 2018, Harvard took more than half their class in the early round (895 students) – that’s 246 more students than Yale took SCEA, 198 more students than Princeton took SCEA and 170 more students than Stanford took SCEA.

Class of 2018 SCEA Acceptance Rates:
Stanford = 10.77%
Yale = 15.47%
Princeton = 18.53%
Harvard = 21.24%

By taking so many more applicants in the SCEA round than their peers – both in sheer numbers and percentage wise – Harvard was “tipping their hat.” They were letting student’s know that if you really wanted Harvard, your chances are better applying in the early round.

However, for the class of 2019, Harvard scaled back their SCEA acceptances, while Princeton ramped up theirs

Class of 2019 SCEA Acceptance Rates:
Stanford = 10.2%
Yale = 16%
Princeton = 19.9%
Harvard = 16.5%

Keep in mind that HYP admit most of their recruited athletes in the SCEA round – that’s about 200 to 240 students per school, which is one reason why HYP’s SCEA acceptance rate is higher than Stanford’s. Also, HYP defers more students in the SCEA round than they could ever hope to admit in the RD round (and that’s not including those student’s that apply in the RD round). Stanford does not do this.

For the class of 2020, it’s really anyone’s guess which school will accept more students in the SCEA round. So, rather than try to second-guess the issue, student’s should apply to the school they like the best, and let the chips fall where they may.

#13

@sansculottes If Harvard is your first choice, I would say go for the SCEA.

#14

Thanks! xx

#15

Hey! I’m an international from India and I’m applying to Harvard SCEA too. It has been my top choice for as long as I can remember. I don’t visit CC frequently so is there a Facebook group for applicants? I’d love to keep in touch with fellow applicants

#16

The reason that Harvard’s SCEA acceptance rate dropped from 21.2% to 16.5% had much more to do with the number of applications increasing by a whopping 26.2% or 1,227 (5,919 vs. 4,692) than Harvard “scaling back” their acceptances. (They took 15 students less than the year before - 977 vs. 992.)

Total applications for the class of 2019 also increased from 34,295 to 37,305. Harvard has been really stepping up their targeted outreach to low-income and minority students which is resulting in increased applications from students who would have never considered Harvard a possibility before. International applications are also on the rise.

#17

**Official Harvard SCEA and RD statistics for the Class of 2016/b:

In the SCEA round, Harvard accepted 772 out of the 4,231 applicants who applied, with an acceptance rate of 18.2%. Out of the 4,231 applicants, 2,838 were deferred and 621 were rejected. The regular decision rate was 3.8%. Harvard accepted 2,032 students total out of an applicant pool of 34,285.

African-Americans comprised 10.2% of those accepted; Latinos comprised 11.2%.

Around 10% of accepted students were international.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/29/admissions-harvard-rate-2016/

#18

**Official Harvard SCEA and RD statistics for the Class of 2017/b:

In the SCEA round, Harvard accepted 895 out of the 4,856 applicants who applied, with an acceptance rate of 18.4%. Out of the 4,856 applicants, 3,196 were deferred and 651 were rejected. The regular decision rate was 3.8%. Harvard accepted 2,029 students total out of an applicant pool of 35,023.

African-Americans comprised 11.5% of those accepted, Latinos comprised 11.5%, Asian-Americans comprised 19.9%, Native Americans comprised 2.2%, and Native Hawaiians comprised 0.5% of the class.

Around 20% of accepted students were international or dual citizens.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/3/28/class-of-2017-admissions/

#19

**Official Harvard SCEA and RD statistics for the Class of 2018/b:

In the SCEA round, Harvard accepted 992 out of the 4,692 applicants who applied, with an acceptance rate of 21.1%. Out of the 4,692 applicants, 3,197 were deferred, 366 were rejected, 18 withdrew, and 119 had incomplete files. The regular decision rate was 3.5%. Harvard accepted 2,023 students total out of an applicant pool of 34,295.

23% of those attending were from the Mid-Atlantic, 17% were from New England, 17% were from the South, 10% were from the Midwest, 11% were from the US territories, and 11.5% were international. 7.7% were US citizens from other countries.

55% of those accepted were male, and 45% were female.

African-Americans comprised 11.9% of those accepted, Latinos comprised 13%, Asian-Americans comprised 19.7%, and Native Americans and Hawaiians comprised 1.9% of the class.

3,400 applicants were ranked first in their classes.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/12/992-admitted-under-early-action/

#20

**Official Harvard SCEA and RD statistics for the Class of 2019/b:

In the SCEA round, Harvard accepted 977 out of the 5,919 applicants who applied, with an acceptance rate of 16.5%. Out of the 5,919 applicants, 4,292 were deferred, 541 were rejected, 19 withdrew, and 90 had incomplete files. The regular decision rate was 3.2%. Harvard accepted 1,990 students total out of an applicant pool of 37,305.

52% of those accepted were male, and 48% were female.

African-Americans comprised 10.3% of those accepted, Latinos comprised 11.4%, Asian-Americans comprised 22.7%, Native Americans comprised 1.2%, and Native Hawaiians comprised 0.3% of the class.

10.8% of accepted students were international.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/12/12/early-admissions-class-2019/