Harvard Waitlist 2017 - WITH SPREADSHEET! Forum

[drawstring]

Tomorrow folks, and possibly only 2-3 weeks until acceptances.

[admiringatticus]

Have people ITT sent any additional LORs? I already sent four so I don't know what additional benefit a fifth would have.

[Gary]

Have people ITT sent any additional LORs? I already sent four so I don't know what additional benefit a fifth would have.

Edit: misread

[admiringatticus]

Have people ITT sent any additional LORs? I already sent four so I don't know what additional benefit a fifth would have.

Wait... Is this serious? I sent in one- I don't think they really need bimonthly updates after being waitlisted

Are you talking about a LOCI? I sent in one LOCI as well.

[Gary]

Have people ITT sent any additional LORs? I already sent four so I don't know what additional benefit a fifth would have.

Wait... Is this serious? I sent in one- I don't think they really need bimonthly updates after being waitlisted

Are you talking about a LOCI? I sent in one LOCI as well.

Sorry..... I'm stupid. It's been a long day....

[anon369]

Have people ITT sent any additional LORs? I already sent four so I don't know what additional benefit a fifth would have.

Wait... Is this serious? I sent in one- I don't think they really need bimonthly updates after being waitlisted

Are you talking about a LOCI? I sent in one LOCI as well.

[drawstring]

I'm not sending one in because I think the blog post below hinted at not wanting any more, and IIRC a blog post from a past cycle suggested the same. Maybe it's different for the WL though.

https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/admission ... dest-part/

[drawstring]

Anyone else excited again

now watch me start again in a few weeks

[lawschool22]

Anyone else excited again

now watch me start again in a few weeks

Nope lol. I'm doing my best to just forget I'm even on the h WL. I figure I should proceed as if I'm not getting in, and if I do it'll be an amazing surprise.

[drawstring]

....I wish I could get in that mindset.

[lawschool22]

....I wish I could get in that mindset.

Have you deposited anywhere else?

[drawstring]

Yep, Chicago

[Wiggly]

...

[barrelofmonkeys]

Question: is there a way to approximate how much money we would receive in aid at Harvard? I think my decision to stay on the waitlist sort of depends on cost a little bit, and I'm wondering if there's any reliable way to gauge that.

[Pneumonia]

Question: is there a way to approximate how much money we would receive in aid at Harvard? I think my decision to stay on the waitlist sort of depends on cost a little bit, and I'm wondering if there's any reliable way to gauge that.

So in order to receive a grant you must take the "base loan" amount, which is around 45k. This leaves around 35k as the max aid that a person can receive. In order to receive that amount Harvard must assess both that your parental contribution is $0 and that your own contribution is $0.

The parental contribution outline is here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... ytype.html
It takes into account parental income in combination with parental assets. There is some confusion as to whether or not it is assets or "assets minus liabilities" ie net assets. The income/asset limits were much more generous than I would have expected, but maybe my family is just poor.

The personal contribution doesn't take current income into account since you'll be foregoing it to attend, but it does take your resources into account. The student determination info can be found here:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... ssets.html

Main contribution determination page:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/sfs/ ... urces.html

So your grant will be (COA) minus (45k base loan) minus (assessed parental contribution) minus (assessed student contribution). It's pretty formulaic; I was able to approximate mine within like 10% or so.

A few things:

-The resource assessments are simply that- what Harvard thinks you and/or your parents should and are able to contribute toward your education. So if they assess a parental contribution of 10k/yr and your parents don't/can't/won't pay that amount then you must take it in loans to meet the COA.

-The same applies to the student contribution- if you can't contribute what they determine you can then you'll have to take the difference in loans

-KEY DIFFERENCE- Loans taken to cover the assessed parental contribution are LIPP eligible; loans taken to cover the student contribution are NOT LIPP eligible.

-All of this takes place on a year-by-year basis, and you basically have to verify all of it in September. It is a hassle, and I haven't even gotten to the verification stage yet.

-There is a way to petition for exceptions to the "assessed contribution," so there is room for finaid to be awarded with some discretion, but like everything else with H (fee waiver, travel stipend) it is a hassle to do and not likely to benefit you unless you truly do have a real need/reason.

-There is some confusing info on the website that says something like "all students will automatically be assessed a 2500 contribution for the summer before 1L." Idk if they've changed it, but the way it read a few weeks ago made it seem like you were responsible for contributing that amount to your 1L tuition from your 0L summer. TripTrip mentioned that this is not the case, and he was correct. Don't get scared by the language on the website.

-Your grant aid gets reduced by around 16k for any summer that you take an SA.

I know this is more info then you asked for BOM, but once I started I thought I'd just finish typing it all out. Hope at least some of it is helpful : )

[barrelofmonkeys]

Thank you SO MUCH Pneumonia! That's super helpful. WAOW.

: )

[2x2Matrix]

My deferral was granted this morning. I think that opens up a spot for a sub25th LSAT. Best of luck to everyone!!

[Brettanomyces]

Very helpful stuff. Thanks, Pneumonia.

[drawstring]

My deferral was granted this morning. I think that opens up a spot for a sub25th LSAT. Best of luck to everyone!!

Thanks Matrix!

[drawstring]

Very helpful stuff. Thanks, Pneumonia.

x2

Awesome post

[SwiftHippo]

My deferral was granted this morning. I think that opens up a spot for a sub25th LSAT. Best of luck to everyone!!

Do waitlist -> acceptance offers actually work this way according to TLS wisdom/anecdotes? Or is it the same black box as every other admissions decision?

[drawstring]

I think the first thing is to ensure that their medians don't drop, so if an applicant with an above median GPA withdraws and they need to fill that spot to secure the median, someone with a high GPA will be scooped from the waitlist. A look at past WL data indicates that numbers are still quite important at this point, and that makes sense because those who turn down Harvard for Yale, SLS, Rubies, etc. tend to have strong numbers.

I'm not sure that they'd pick someone off the WL specifically because they have a below median LSAT and the deferred admit does too, but I think it would leave the door open for a WL'd applicant with a below median LSAT to be accepted if they could balance out the high GPA (as Matrix has) and/or share other qualities with the applicant.

On another note, the spreadsheet suggests that at/above median GPAs are less common than at/above median LSATs. I wonder if that means that high GPAs are more valuable, or if HLS is comfortable with their GPA median but not their LSAT median, and therefore wants a larger pool of strong LSATs to pick from.

[ParisetMoi]

Has anyone seen if there's been a decline in the facebook group lately? I'm excited for the next few weeks. I hope my loci was convincing enough to make them want to look at my app again.

[HorseThief]

Has anyone seen if there's been a decline in the facebook group lately? I'm excited for the next few weeks. I hope my loci was convincing enough to make them want to look at my app again.

There are 524 in there now. I don't know what it used to be, though.

[Nonconsecutive]

Has anyone seen if there's been a decline in the facebook group lately? I'm excited for the next few weeks. I hope my loci was convincing enough to make them want to look at my app again.

There are 524 in there now. I don't know what it used to be, though.

Its been right in that range for awhile now, I think far less people joined the FB group this year because it has never been even close to the size of the 15, 16, etc. classes.