The person who posted on Reddit yesterday said they were given until Tuesday to decide. So that’s not a full week 
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I wonder how Harvard makes these very specific decisions at this point. I read in previous comments in this thread that the take from certain geographic areas, or sometimes if they need a person who plays a specific instrument, or they want to take someone for a specific major, etc. etc., …but I can’t picture in my mind exactly how that works. If there’s an entire admission’s committee, do they have all the waitlisted students attributes memorized? If not do they completely re-look at every single file again when they want to pull from the waitlist? What if you sent in a LOCI or an update to your file, how would that get reviewed and taken into account? Do they make a spreadsheet with different names and factors? Do they just put all the remaining names in a pile and randomly pick? The entire process is so fascinating to me. I just don’t understand how they can recall everything about each student and know which one to select when they pull from the list. It would be fun to be an admissions person and learn the secret process 
I’ve seen in Reddit posts saying that three Ivy-committed students got off Harvard’s wait-list this summer, and it looks like they’ll all be paying full price.
It makes me wonder whether Harvard’s wait-list is truly need-blind or if money still plays a role—especially with possible federal funding cuts ahead.
No idea how Harvard does it obviously. But theoretically, they can have a shortlist of backup candidates for every spot offered in case the offer is declined.
All CC waitlist offers seemed full pay as well. I don’t this this is coincidence.
The posts/comments seem fake. One person is saying tuesday, another saying Wednesday. One is an account that was made today, another is an account with no history. I just don’t believe them.
As far as full pay getting off. It is needs blind. Those who are full pay typically have better resources to succeed in competitions to get awards and academically succeed.
They don’t look at how much they’d have to pay for you to attend, but if you are in a lower income bracket your chances regardless will be lower due to the limited opportunities you had.
If you are referring to the reddit comments, the original poster has an account history of one year and the other comment has a two-year history and the other guy posted often about the ISEF topics.
Based on everything I’ve seen, those posts seem true. Yeah, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Every wait-list student I’ve heard about is full-pay. If you need aid, your chances look close to zero right now.
Harvard used to say families earning under $200 K got generous help, but this summer it feels like: no money, no honey.
If you’re already committed to other top Ivy and can write a $90 k check each year, your odds of coming off the wait-list are pretty high.
There is an another post title “Harvard waitlist”, in which two have commented they got off.
If that is true then it isn’t a new thing. Ivies have a disproportionate amount of low income students to those that are top 1%.
They made their announcement about free tuition for families earning under $200k per year right before the current admin pulled funding. This might’ve messed up their budget to the point where the waitlist is now need-aware. Of course, they aren’t going to publicly announce this as they can be internally need-aware while publicly acting like they’re need-blind.
At the same time, a large portion of their enormous endowment is specifically earmarked for financial aid. There is no better time to use it than now, which could mean that the degree to which they are need-blind hasn’t changed.
You can make logical explanations for both sides. Really no way to tell what’s true unless Harvard makes an official announcement about it, which they won’t.
55% of Harvard students receive financial aid. If Harvard’s waitlist is need-blind, it doesn’t make sense why waitlist admits seem to exclusively be full-pay.
Are they only selecting students who have previously committed to other ivies, especially to Yale?
It wouldn’t make sense for them to.
- It’s unnecessary work to figure out where the student is committed to.
- Even if they do base their decisions based on where the student is committed, it would disincentivize Harvard from taking students who are already committed to other ivies, as they are less likely to change schools this late.
At this point what would anyone’s best guess be of how many offers they have to give to fill the class given the international problems?
50-100, more likely towards 50
55% are on fin aid (can be as simple as covering 10% of tuition), but if you look at for example the class of 2025 there are a disproportionate amount of high income students compared to low income students.
Students who are rich do better in admissions.
Do you think the next wave will occur next week, and will there be any rejections, or will it simply be students who are admitted? It’s all hypothesis, but I’m curious to hear different people’s thoughts. Thanks!
They’re likely going to hold off on rejecting people for as long as realistically possible. There is nothing for them to gain by releasing a candidate that can potentially enroll in case a disaster happens.