What are my chances?

Sepulchure
Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:01:53 +0000

@compmom I’ll respond in the order you asked:

The research I conducted involved developing a mathematical model for a superlens, a lens that has infinite resolution potential. It was a continuation of my mentors previous work, but I did most of the heavy lifting. I submitted the paper I wrote to harvard admissions, and she wrote me a recommendation, as stated above.

You’re actually right. I get very little sleep these days because of everything that I’m doing, but that’s sort of how I like it. I need to feel involved. You don’t think having all those activities in different topics might hurt me (as opposed to those applicants who do one thing on a godlike scale), do you? My other concern was that my ec’s weren’t impressive enough for harvard admissions, considering that there are kids with IMO medals and AIME scores. How would you say mine stack up?

When I wrote my Harvard supplement, I was following the advice of a friend of mine who went to harvard and also wrote about his research at Harvard’s facilities, so I figured it might be appropriate. He also had similar ec’s to mine, so I took his advice very seriously. This was also only my Harvard supplement. My common app essay was about getting to really know my brother after we hated each other for several years and how we used horror movies to bond.

About the bump: I’m actually very anxious about it not because I don’t know own if I’m qualified, but because I’m concerned about how I look compared to the other 32000 applicants who do crazy things and get crazy test scores. From what I’ve looked at on the internet and from talking with the friend I mentioned, there are students at Harvard who were worse than me, and some who were better, so I appear to fall somewhere in the middle as far as being impressive goes. I just don’t know what to think, and I really REALLY want to go to Harvard (it’s part of the reason I interned there). On other forums where I ask this people tell me I have a good chance, but I guess I’m too cynical to relax about it.
Thanks for your time.