<p>@fa1421, they already are, my college counselors have them somehow lol but i havent seem them on the internet or anything. but look at last year’s. they’re almost identical</p>
<p>The first time I saw new CommonApp topics, I was about to cry, too. I couldn’t remember any situation in my life to write about, so I wrote an awful essay. However, couple days ago a new idea came to my mind, and I wrote an essay I really like.
I mean, maybe you just haven’t find an appropriate thing to write about yet. It’s more than 2 months to the ED deadline, so don’t give up!</p>
<p>Should I take AP Chemistry and AP Physics B if I self studied and got a 4 on both?
It’s either that or AP Evironmental and regular Anatomy and Physiology. My school doesn’t offer many AP’s or honor’s Anatomy, and I already took AP Bio, Pre-AP Physics, Pre-AP Chem, Regular Bio, and after that I’ve taken all AP’s offered.</p>
<p>Just for everyone who was wondering earlier it may be true that Harvard EA is beneficial for athletes, minorities, truly exceptional applicants and legacies. if you’re not one of those then it likely doesn’t make much of a difference.
Can someone give me an opinion on my test scores? I think the only part of my overall application I’m insecure about is my 670 on the math SAT1. I got 730 CR and 780 W. My college counselor says my 750 in the MathII subject test might help make up for my SAT1 score. Also, Harvard knows my school is one of the most difficult in the nation so hopefully my good math grades will make up for it as well? Please give me your input!</p>
<p>@josealanesparza I don’t have much experience with this because my school doesn’t offer any AP classes but that sounds impressive to get good scores without taking the class! if I were you I’d take one of those two classes, and then take ap envrio for some diversity. I recommend physics because I’ve heard its MUCH harder in college. to transition from pre-ap to college level might be difficult</p>
<p>I have a question about the application process. I have my application and my essay completed, but I need to get my teacher recommendations done. I have already talked to my teachers about it, but my school just switched to Naviance to manage recommendations and school reports this year. Our Naviance log in website is not even set up yet, and none of the staff are trained to use it. Also, our recommendations and school reports have to be done online. The track coach says that I need to get my application submitted by 9/10 before my official visit. Any advice?</p>
<p>I’m an international student thinking about SCEA Harvard or ED Columbia. The thing is, my application won’t stand out. My academics are okay (2250 SAT, yet to take 2 subject tests) and I do a lot of assorted extra-curricular activities. I also won’t stand out because I’m undecided/liberal arts (leaning towards history/political science). Maybe I’m in the wrong forums but most of the Columbia/Harvard forums seem to be people with specific passions in economics or business or engineering or medicine. Also, as a middle-income family, I can’t possibly afford it without financial aid, and the binding of the ED still confuses me (if I get in by some miracle to Columbia, will the financial aid come with the acceptance, and if it’s not enough am I still bound?? Is it a huge hassle to get out of if my parents aren’t willing to pay etc). Would my chances just be better to apply RD. </p>
<p>The Harvard SCEA is due Nov 1 but my final exams in my country finish Oct 29, so is it worth devoting so much time and energy to commonapp and SAT subject tests in Oct and a) not getting into Harvard and b) losing focus on my finals which determine what uni I can get into in my own country. I only know one person who has gone through this process (and she’s an acquaintance rather than close friend) so I feel completely lost if not for this place. I don’t have a college counsellor to vent all my questions to. Okay, writing this long message makes me sound like a loser I’m sorry everyone.</p>
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<p>Yes, or shortly thereafter (you don’t have to decide until you see the FA package).</p>
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<p>No, and it’s solely your decision.</p>
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<p>No, you just say thanks but no thanks, and apply RD elsewhere.</p>
<p>@alisonx; Harvard is basically free if you family income is <$60,000 so if you say you are middle class you should be okay. If your application is not as outstanding as you would like, the best way you could change that is with your essays. If you don’t have your major planned you should at least demonstrate an idea of you vocation or life aspirations,. If I were you I would personally apply through regular decision. It would be much easier and despite what statistics say a do believe admission officers when they say that there is no advantage in applying early. A great place to get informations about selective college admissions would be the MIT admissions blog, it is really really good and it gives advice written by MIT students to high schoolers applying to schools in general, not just to MIT. Good luck with your application process and your exams!</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the advice guys. You’re all awesome. I think I will apply for RD just so I’ll actually have more of a chance to plan the application for my top choices. I’m really nervous about the essay though. Gosh, so much pressure on it. Thanks again.</p>
<p>@vonlost, If I can say thanks but no thanks if my parent’s are unwilling to pay, why is it “binding”. Is that the wording they use just to create an intimidating tone. Thanks for the reply</p>
<p>^ I think it’s a holdover from the days when ED was used by those who could pay full list price. Schools now want to attract top applicants without the money, so the fear of being trapped must be removed. You’re still binding yourself to your favorite school, telling them you’ll attend if they can provide enough financial support.</p>
<p>I wonder if there’s a geographical advantage to students from less represented states, like Oklahoma?</p>
<p>Harvard says (<a href=“http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf[/url]”>http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf</a>) geographical residence is considered (e.g., region), but state is not.</p>
<p>Thanks Vonlost. I’m pretty excited to apply SCEA to Harvard. I have the typical 4.0 GPA, 35 ACT, 2230 SAT, 800 US History SAT, and I’m waiting to take Chem and Math 2 next month in October. So I’m pretty much just a generic applicant. I did some research at the University of Tulsa and I’m going to try to send that to some competitions like Siemens or Intel. But yeah, I’m just hoping for the best right now.</p>
<p>So are all of you fully committed to Harvard SCEA? I’m still weighing the advantages compared to MIT+Northeastern+CIT EA.</p>
<p>Is Northeastern on the same prestige as Harvard or the other Ivy’s? I mean, you go anywhere in the world and every sort of person knows about Harvard. Even the other Ivy’s or even Stanford less so. I guess Harvard has that sort of world prestige attached to it that draws so many.</p>
<p>Northeastern doesn’t have the same prestige level of the ivies, but I don’t really care. Honestly, Northeastern is somewhere that I’m as certain as I can be that I will get in(you never really know), it has a nice campus and some good programs. Does anyone know how available Undergraduate Research is at Harvard? Is it comparable to MIT and CIT, which I know have a lot of undergraduate research opportunities.</p>
<p>Part of Ivies’ prestige is in the difficulty of admission, a separate issue from academic quality or benefit to students. I’d like to see a tabulation of various schools’ normalized, e.g., GRE/LSAT/MCAT/etc minus SAT/ACT scores as one measure of what schools do for students.</p>
<p>What schools do for students? Most HYPS graduates that I know of can go into finance (note: PE or HF, not IB) without taking economics or finance. </p>
<p>I have one friend who graduated from Yale with a classics degree specializing in Roman history and latin - he got a job at Goldman Sachs as a Prop trader right after school - you basically can’t do this if you’re out of NU or any LAC lesser than Swarthmore. </p>
<p>Speaking of running a hedge fund as a high school kid…I would really like to have a conversation with that man. I have quite a bit of contact with HFR (hedge fund research), Eureka hedge (based in singapore) and a HF research firm in Shenzhen, China. My research and practicing interest is in HF as well. </p>
<p>But well, I applied to Princeton EA. I think Princeton and Harvard, same thing…except Princeton is closer to New Yawk. lol</p>
<p>If there is NOT any strategic advantage in admission to applicants, I still don’t see any reason for my DD to waste her EA chances to other colleges.</p>