I think it’s relatively easier to convince students to switch from Yale (and to some extent Princeton) to Harvard. Chances are not great if they’ve committed to MIT or Stanford. I actually don’t believe Harvard would actively look for info on whether the WL students have committed to as part of the decision making.
- Yes they are. Needs blind is totally different. You wont be rejected for the sole reason you can’t afford the school and need aid.
- ???
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the holistic approach. I was just pointing out an easy way that Harvard can identify full pay students if they want to.
Yes definitely they can. Which is weird to me because I think harvard doesn’t require submitting your income bracket when applying via common app. It has been some time since I last used commonapp.
Why does applying REA give any advantage when it comes to getting off the waitlist?
I agree with Jack Davis. And I wouldn’t draw conclusions about what criteria are being used based on what people claiming to have been admitted have reported on the internet. Some people who have made internet claims have not said anything about income, for example.
It doesn’t. The only real thought is you are more committed to the school because you applied with that type of application.
I’ve seen many online talking about how they got off (in past years) due to getting a major award or scholarship like coke or gates.
Applying REA tells the school, “I really want to be here.” A student who just came off the wait-list thinks that signal might have helped.
Something else to consider is we may not just be talking full pay vs kids who receive aid but there may be “development cases” (i.e. families who are prepared to donate) involved as well. I doubt that Harvard really needs anyone’s 90K but many of the wealthy kids come with far more money than that (and also have top grades, scores and extracurriculars). For all we know, Harvard is taking off kids who can give a ton of money.
Remember, universities that are “need blind” still preferentially admit development cases. Your ability to pay tuition in full may not not be considered for admission at a need-blind school but your plan to donate well beyond this (that you have communicated to the university’s development office) most definitely is.
Agree. Their main goal is to grow their endowment.
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Schools won’t send student enrollment information to the Clearinghouse until 30 days after the start of the Fall term (or the term’s add/drop date if that’s sooner.)
So, Harvard (or any other school) has no idea where any incoming first year has paid their enrollment deposit at this point (unless the student or someone else tells them.)
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Then honestly it is just institutional needs both schools seek.
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What is the clearing house? Would that be considered public information? So is there some kind of repository of information where every student in the country that has officially committed to a college has his/her name listed with the college they selected? And college admissions is allowed to look at the list of names of attendees of any college? I didn’t realize that was a thing.
No such database exists.
The National Student Clearinghouse has a record of all the colleges where a person has attended/enrolled/taken classes. The existence of this database prevents students from hiding classes where they might not have done well, and would like to apply as a first year rather than a transfer, to take one example.
Colleges have not yet reported incoming first years to the clearinghouse because well, they haven’t attended college yet.
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Thank you for that explanation. I never knew something like that existed.
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is anyone planning on calling harvard to see if there’s a wave this week?
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You can call, you know. They have a plan that works for them. Our calling is not going to accelerate it, Hang tight.
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Hi - I have been actively following this thread and found the information helpful. My daughter was contacted this morning and offered admission to the class of 2029. We think she was only contacted by email saying there is a status update but not 100% sure since we are traveling overseas and her data has been turned off.
She was given till the end of Wednesday to decide. We did apply for aid but did not receive any. I will be contacting them later today to see if they can match the offer from a school she committed too (another Ivy).
My daughter is unconnected to Harvard and attended a NYC private school. She is a humanities/ arts person. Good luck to everyone.
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Huge Congrats on your daughter’s acceptance! Could you shed more light on which ivy school your daughter previously committed to? Is it one of the Y P or something else? I’m curious about your this about people have speculated about a “conspiracy theory” 
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