Harvard 2010! Forum

[of Benito Cereno]

So most of the hold group = borderline admits of yesteryear?

What I'm trying to ask is that, assuming they have an equal number of applicants as last year, what applicants last year "equal" the hold-group from this year ? Why bother to hold so much now? what has changed?

i don't think there's reason to believe anything has changed. i do believe they've been doing holds for years. that lsd link posted somewhere here or on the hold thread showed many many people held 2 years ago.

That may be true... but I keep hearing this amount of "holding" is unprecedented.

What's clear is that rejections have gone out much earlier this year than last year. Having a descsion delayed until spring last year didn't mean anything as almost all non "obvious admits" didn't hear until march. Now, however, there are quite a lot of outright rejections (including to people with clearly borderline numbers) being given out quite early. Therefore, being held until spring has meaning.

[bloodonthetracks]

i just went UR. how long do you think i need to wait to hear something?

[gilagarta]

JR 1 today - 1/26 - 5 min, 50 sec long
JR 1 email - 1/22
Still UR

Anyone else have a JR1 today? I want to obsessively compare myself to you.

[gilagarta]

i just went UR. how long do you think i need to wait to hear something?

I just checked and apparently I went UR on 1/20 and then got the JR1 email on 1/22. But I never got an email telling me I was UR. Don't know if that helps.

[georgina]

What's clear is that rejections have gone out much earlier this year than last year. Having a descsion delayed until spring last year didn't mean anything as almost all non "obvious admits" didn't hear until march. Now, however, there are quite a lot of outright rejections (including to people with clearly borderline numbers) being given out quite early. Therefore, being held until spring has meaning.

oh, so who in previous years got holds? like, would people who got rejected this january have gotten held in previous years? i think no, because by that thinking there would be fewer holds this year than before, which as Cord says, doesn't seem to be the case. when you say "being held until spring has meaning," do you mean holds this year have special meaning, and if so, how do you think the hold meaning has changed?

now i'm confused.

[bloodonthetracks]

i just went UR. how long do you think i need to wait to hear something?

I just checked and apparently I went UR on 1/20 and then got the JR1 email on 1/22. But I never got an email telling me I was UR. Don't know if that helps.

UR via status checker; no email.

[lawnerd]

This is the first year for 'holds'. They never did it in the past.

[Kronk]

This is the first year for 'holds'. They never did it in the past.

Yes they did. In 2008.

[Walfredo47]

This is the first year for 'holds'. They never did it in the past.

Yes they did. In 2008.

I think what is important to note is that with JR at the helm instead of TS, it will be exceedingly difficult to discern the strategy of HLS as this point.

[Kronk]

This is the first year for 'holds'. They never did it in the past.

Yes they did. In 2008.

I think what is important to note is that with JR at the helm instead of TS, it will be exceedingly difficult to discern the strategy of HLS as this point.

Touche.

[Walfredo47]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

[BenJ]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

The application deadline at Harvard and Stanford both is February 1. So there will be substantial movement from both in early-mid February since they will know their entire applicant pool.

[Kronk]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

The application deadline at Harvard and Stanford both is February 1. So there will be substantial movement from both in early-mid February since they will know their entire applicant pool.

V6 gets accepted February 2nd.

JR: "Eh, I guess we can't do any better--come on in...*grimace*"

[lightbulb1986]

.

[Core]

JR 1 today - 1/26 - 5 min, 50 sec long
JR 1 email - 1/22
Still UR

Anyone else have a JR1 today? I want to obsessively compare myself to you.

stats?

One thing that freaks me out is the quick turnaround I got that many others didnt seem to receive. i´m pretty borderline but got the JR1 only one month to the date of my application being complete. I missed the next round of JR2s (yesterday), and some got the JR2 today. Im a URM so I´m hoping they´re waiting to see what their working with after February first. Thoughts?

What are your #s and URM status?
Click the link to my LSN in my profile. We are probably in very similar, if not the same, boats.

[lightbulb1986]

.

[lightbulb1986]

.

[Core]

omg didnt they not get back to you for like 3 months? I HOPE we´re not in the same boat...Man somebody got a little too liberal with the phone interviews....

Yup. Held just before the 3-month mark. They generally wait until the end of the cycle to admit borderline URM applicants. The ones they've admitted so far are AA or are very close to HLS's medians.
Link me to your LSN if you have one.

[lightbulb1986]

.

[crackberry]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

All this talk about the application deadline fast approaching is making me a little concerned that they won't get my LOCI and additional LOR in time.

[Jericwithers]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

All this talk about the application deadline fast approaching is making me a little concerned that they won't get my LOCI and additional LOR in time.

They don't accept that stuff after Feb 1st? What about transcript updates?

[crackberry]

My best educated guess would be that, given that Harvard plans to admit roughly 850 students, with 550 of those matriculating, they have elected this year, perhaps in a change of strategy, to hold more students than usual in hopes of reaching a critical mass from which they will decide the rest of the class. Unlike SLS, which basically holds everybody until all applications are in, albeit with a few autoadmit exceptions, HLS has more ability to admit students in a rolling fashion since their class is so large. But from their standpoint, it seems to me that it would be in their best interest now to wait until the application deadline has passed, and then consider the range of available applicants, from the holds to the December retakes to the few stragglers who went complete after November. Isn't the application deadline February 1st? If it is, then I would expect a considerable amount of movement in the next month.

All this talk about the application deadline fast approaching is making me a little concerned that they won't get my LOCI and additional LOR in time.

They don't accept that stuff after Feb 1st? What about transcript updates?

No, they accept it, but people are speculating that there will be a lot of movement soon after Feb. 1 because they'll have their entire applicant pool in hand.

[Lmao Zedong]

is harvard even going to maintain its 170-173-176 LSAT split this cycle? granted that i'm biased as an LSAT splitter, but it seems pretty clear they're selling out for GPAs this cycle. i would rather have a 4/171 than a 3.75/178 for H this year, but there's not a chance i would have said that at the beginning of this cycle; LSP and last year's LSN both favor the 178 heavily.

check out the 4/171 neighborhood for last year's LSN and it's a sea of yellow, bit of red, bit of green http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0809/. on the same graph, a 178 seems auto-admit all the way down to 3.7, a long row of greens (the one red must have been a very strange case because he got boned by everyone down to duke/northwestern).

this year, there's already a solid cluster of 4/171 acceptances (as a bit more anecdotal evidence, i can add two more "greens" from my UG with 3.9+/below median LSAT). there are a couple 3.75/178 acceptances, but based on how many greens are in that area for last year you have to figure a bunch of those are floating around in hold purgatory still (there are at least 3 for whom this is true on TLS). in any case, it really seems that 3.75/178 is no longer auto-admit, and 4/171 has gained the ground that the 178 has lost.

[Dignan]

is harvard even going to maintain its 170-173-176 LSAT split this cycle? granted that i'm biased as an LSAT splitter, but it seems pretty clear they're selling out for GPAs this cycle. i would rather have a 4/171 than a 3.75/178 for H this year, but there's not a chance i would have said that at the beginning of this cycle; LSP and last year's LSN both favor the 178 heavily.

check out the 4/171 neighborhood for last year's LSN and it's a sea of yellow, bit of red, bit of green http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0809/. on the same graph, a 178 seems auto-admit all the way down to 3.7, a long row of greens (the one red must have been a very strange case because he got boned by everyone down to duke/northwestern).

this year, there's already a solid cluster of 4/171 acceptances (as a bit more anecdotal evidence, i know two people at my school who are in with 3.9+/below median LSAT, and none with <median GPA). there are a couple 3.75/178 acceptances, but based on how many greens are in that area for last year you have to figure a bunch of those are floating around in hold purgatory still (there are at least 3 for whom this is true on TLS). in any case, it's really seems that 3.75/178 is no longer auto-admit, and 4/171 has gained the ground that the 178 has lost.

I've noticed this trend as well. My (selfish) hope is that Harvard is hanging on to the 175+ LSAT types to round out their numbers at the end of the cycle. But, like you, I didn't expect Harvard to go all Berkeley on us.

[sundevil77]

is harvard even going to maintain its 170-173-176 LSAT split this cycle? granted that i'm biased as an LSAT splitter, but it seems pretty clear they're selling out for GPAs this cycle. i would rather have a 4/171 than a 3.75/178 for H this year, but there's not a chance i would have said that at the beginning of this cycle; LSP and last year's LSN both favor the 178 heavily.

check out the 4/171 neighborhood for last year's LSN and it's a sea of yellow, bit of red, bit of green http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0809/. on the same graph, a 178 seems auto-admit all the way down to 3.7, a long row of greens (the one red must have been a very strange case because he got boned by everyone down to duke/northwestern).

this year, there's already a solid cluster of 4/171 acceptances (as a bit more anecdotal evidence, i can add two more "greens" from my UG with 3.9+/below median LSAT). there are a couple 3.75/178 acceptances, but based on how many greens are in that area for last year you have to figure a bunch of those are floating around in hold purgatory still (there are at least 3 for whom this is true on TLS). in any case, it's really seems that 3.75/178 is no longer auto-admit, and 4/171 has gained the ground that the 178 has lost.

As a 4/171 currently on hold applicant, I sure hope you're right!