Harvard C/O 2019 Applicants Forum

[Li'l Sebastian]

I promised myself I wouldn't obsessively refresh this thread today.

[Li'l Sebastian]

I'm really good at lying to myself :c

[Topszn]

I'm really good at lying to myself :c

another day, another 12 hours of compulsive refreshing TLS and my emails whilst pretending to lead a normal life

[Li'l Sebastian]

I'm really good at lying to myself :c

another day, another 12 hours of compulsive refreshing TLS and my emails whilst pretending to lead a normal life

I've given up hope of a normal life at this point.

[bobgenghiskhan]

Anyone else got a good feeling about today?

And - a bit of a premature/wishful question - anyone know what happens if an applicant's phone is disconnected or some other problem comes up with the listed number for JS2? Is a backup email sent, a la SLS?

[Ensalada]

Anyone else got a good feeling about today?

And - a bit of a premature/wishful question - anyone know what happens if an applicant's phone is disconnected or some other problem comes up with the listed number for JS2? Is a backup email sent, a la SLS?

Yes an email is sent. If you have a second number (day phone vs evening phone, for example) they may try that too. I'm international but my home landline in the states got a missed call from Cambridge.

[Li'l Sebastian]

This thread: Abandon all hope Ye who enter.

[Li'l Sebastian]

Anyone wanna take bets on whether we'll get a wave today or not?

[QuentonCassidy]

Got another fortune cookie tonight and it said "You are about to get the recognition you deserve." Last fortune cookie may have been a false alarm but this one is definitely a signal of impending JS2s.

How much Chinese food do you eat?! Lol

Hahaha it's just a Monday thing! I swear I have only gotten it twice in the past few weeks!

[QuentonCassidy]

Anyone wanna take bets on whether we'll get a wave today or not?

Well I'm sitting in a different spot in my class today in case I need to sprint out the room to take a call, sooo....

[tflan19]

Anyone wanna take bets on whether we'll get a wave today or not?

Originally I was super optimistic about today because of the history of lots of movement on Tuesdays, as well as the fact that a JS2 wave is now super overdue.

That being said, as the day drags on, I'm less optimistic. This will probably be a pretty big wave. I expected it to start on the early side, but I guess it could start in the afternoon and run into the next day?

[sanibella]

Anyone wanna take bets on whether we'll get a wave today or not?

Originally I was super optimistic about today because of the history of lots of movement on Tuesdays, as well as the fact that a JS2 wave is now super overdue.

That being said, as the day drags on, I'm less optimistic. This will probably be a pretty big wave. I expected it to start on the early side, but I guess it could start in the afternoon and run into the next day?

Agree.

[Li'l Sebastian]

I might be starring at the stars, but I've got my feet on the ground.

[schocolate]

I'm incredibly curious as to what's making this cycle so different from previous years.

[Hildegard15]

I'm incredibly curious as to what's making this cycle so different from previous years.

I honestly think it's the uptick in applicants. HLS wants to be able to be as picky as possible.

[t14pleaseee]

I'm starting to think that Harvard may just not have a class of 2019

[schocolate]

I'm incredibly curious as to what's making this cycle so different from previous years.

I honestly think it's the uptick in applicants. HLS wants to be able to be as picky as possible.

That makes sense, but I thought that would just mean that borderline candidates would hear back later or maybe get waitlisted first instead of accepted. There are still definitely candidates in this thread and in the general applicant pool who are objectively strong and should be easy admits regardless of the size of the applicant pool (especially since Stanford and Yale are admitting students much more regularly). Harvard can be (and is) picky, but it still needs to fill a 500+ person class.

[mdnyc]

I'm incredibly curious as to what's making this cycle so different from previous years.

I honestly think it's the uptick in applicants. HLS wants to be able to be as picky as possible.

Yeah, I agree. Now, the real question is how much they need to evaluate the late admitting applicants. Is throwing their LSAT and GPA into the pool enough to make a decision on those of us who applied in 2015? If so, JS2's can come any time now. Or do these new folks need to be more fully evaluated, in which case we may need to wait another few days? Or weeks?

I have to believe it's the former. I assume they know what their softs distribution will be already (that can't change very much), so the only remaining variable is the scores distribution, which they now have with the final applicants submitting their scores. Once they decide on what they want their 25-75 will be, they should be able to move quickly.

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

[meowmers]

guys they aren't admitting anyone right now because they're waiting for me to interview later in the week.

[schocolate]

Yeah, I agree. Now, the real question is how much they need to evaluate the late admitting applicants. Is throwing their LSAT and GPA into the pool enough to make a decision on those of us who applied in 2015? If so, JS2's can come any time now. Or do these new folks need to be more fully evaluated, in which case we may need to wait another few days? Or weeks?

I have to believe it's the former. I assume they know what their softs distribution will be already (that can't change very much), so the only remaining variable is the scores distribution, which they now have with the final applicants submitting their scores. Once they decide on what they want their 25-75 will be, they should be able to move quickly.

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

This seems like it counters the idea of rolling admissions though.

[schocolate]

guys they aren't admitting anyone right now because they're waiting for me to interview later in the week.

o i c

Good luck!

[oliverotis]

Yeah, I agree. Now, the real question is how much they need to evaluate the late admitting applicants. Is throwing their LSAT and GPA into the pool enough to make a decision on those of us who applied in 2015? If so, JS2's can come any time now. Or do these new folks need to be more fully evaluated, in which case we may need to wait another few days? Or weeks?

I have to believe it's the former. I assume they know what their softs distribution will be already (that can't change very much), so the only remaining variable is the scores distribution, which they now have with the final applicants submitting their scores. Once they decide on what they want their 25-75 will be, they should be able to move quickly.

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

This seems like it counters the idea of rolling admissions though.

Also contrary to the trend of the last several years, in which waves of decisions have happened in the week after the deadline

[Hildegard15]

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

I feel you there. My LSAT is between 50th and 75th and my GPA is between 25th and 50th and I have WE BUT my softs are a bit meh so the longer we wait the more I worry they won't need my LSAT to help their spread.

[herecomesthesun]

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

I feel you there. My LSAT is between 50th and 75th and my GPA is between 25th and 50th and I have WE BUT my softs are a bit meh so the longer we wait the more I worry they won't need my LSAT to help their spread.

Similar. GPA above 75th but LSAT below 25th. Decent softs, some work experience but not a ton

[mdnyc]

Yeah, I agree. Now, the real question is how much they need to evaluate the late admitting applicants. Is throwing their LSAT and GPA into the pool enough to make a decision on those of us who applied in 2015? If so, JS2's can come any time now. Or do these new folks need to be more fully evaluated, in which case we may need to wait another few days? Or weeks?

I have to believe it's the former. I assume they know what their softs distribution will be already (that can't change very much), so the only remaining variable is the scores distribution, which they now have with the final applicants submitting their scores. Once they decide on what they want their 25-75 will be, they should be able to move quickly.

That said, this waiting makes me nervous. I'm hovering right between 25th and 50th on the LSAT scale, so any movement towards pickiness means I have to rely more on a pretty good GPA and WE to carry the day.

This seems like it counters the idea of rolling admissions though.

I agree. You should be able to roll if you have a pretty good idea of what the final class will look like based on historical trends. The skifter here is the alleged uptick in quantity and quality of applicants. Theoretically, that ambiguity is now resolved. So if they still follow a rolling philosophy, they should be firing up the phones any time now, and they shouldn't need to wait for additional JS1s or evaluations to come back. But every day we don't hear makes it increasingly unlikely that what we're waiting on is just the logistics of offers to get sorted out and more likely they're trying to evaluate the applicant pool (or a large portion of it) in aggregate.

I hope I'm wrong, of course. And I hope to be proven wrong in about an hour.