If you recently learned that you were rejected Restrictive Early Action by Harvard, you aren’t alone in your frustration. We are widening the scope for this post, though. Harvard defers most REA applicants, yet very few deferred applicants get in. This guidance, then, applies for both rejected and deferred REA applicants. First, though, some statistics.
Harvard has been very tight-lipped about admissions statistics in recent years. They know that everyone knows that it is extremely hard to get into Harvard. What they don’t want to do, though, is to make such a big deal about how exclusive Harvard is that students are discouraged from applying. What makes the acceptance rate so low, after all, is that the number of applicants is so high. They want to maintain that exclusivity without scaring away future applicants.
This is part of the secret behind offering REA instead ED, which was a change that went into play in only 2011. REA, as you’ve experienced, has drawbacks — though. It has more restrictions than Early Decision with fewer benefits. They don’t lock you in, and you don’t get a strong boost.
As we mentioned, Harvard has held back admissions stats in recent years. In the winter of 2023, though, the REA acceptance rate was 8.7%. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2028, for comparison, was only 3.6%. Despite this swing, Harvard insists that students who apply REA do not receive a boost for choosing to apply early. Rather, they say, the increased rate of acceptance is simply because the students who apply REA are so competitive. It is also a testament to the types of kids — beyond academics — who apply early. There are the athletes, the legacies, the children of adults associated with Harvard, and others who receive special consideration. Unsurprisingly, then, more get in. You, unfortunately, didn’t fall into that pool.
In this post, we are going to break down the steps that you need to be taking immediately to bounce back from a rejection or deferral from Harvard in the Restrictive Early Action round. Now, let’s dig in.
We help strong students bounce back from disappointing early decisions. Learn more.
There are four steps that can make a difference in your admissions outcomes if you start now.
Step One: Take a Break
The first step is to do nothing, seriously. Take a few days to recharge and reset. Give yourself time to sleep, to be outside, and to be with friends. More than anything, be kind to yourself. We know that you are extremely driven. You have big dreams, and you want big things for yourself. You’ve taken big swings, and applying to Harvard REA wasn’t the first nor will it be the last. You have more in you, and we want to see you thrive through this set-back to exceptional successes.
Step Two: Strategize
Being rejected or deferred by Harvard REA does not mean that you are not cut out for a top-tier school, but you do need to take a measured and balanced approach moving forward. This does not mean, then, that you have to strike all your Harvard-esque schools off of your list. Keep two or three, and ideally one would be Early Decision II. ED II options are few and far between, but some are exceptional and are certainly worthy of consideration.
Then you need some true target schools. Not targets skewed by the Harvard dream, but genuine targets that align with your grades and scores. This can be a little bit painful if it requires some adjustment. That pain is necessary, though, and it doesn’t mean that you won’t have a fabulous college career. It’s okay to feel frustrated by this, but you need to move through that frustration.
Of course, too, there need to be some safety or foundation schools. Ideally, three or four. If your targets are adjusted correctly, your safety schools should naturally follow.
Yes, you can apply to a mountain of schools, but a well-balanced list means that you don’t have to. This gives you more time to dedicate to each application and will result in stronger outcomes than if you take a “spray-all” approach that ultimately weakens the punch of each piece of the application puzzle.
Step Three: Essays
You can’t know why you were rejected or deferred by Harvard REA, but if you have the grades and the scores for Harvard it is something else about your application that didn’t connect with them. Most often, we find that this is an issue of your story. Namely, that the stories that you told in the application did not have the impact that you hoped they would have. This may be because you prioritized sounding impressive over showing who you truly are as an individual.
When facing an acceptance rate as low as that at Harvard, we find that students too often think the solution is to put as many fancy sounding things as they can into their application. Ultimately, it ends up sounding like a heavy and dense list that makes no emotional impact on the reader. Sure, they learn that you’ve done a lot…but that type of writing doesn’t say much about you.
We challenge our students to strip back their essays — both the main essay and supplements — to distill who they are and strength the stories that pack a real punch. This is a targeted approach, rather than turning a college application into a grab bag, and it works. It can make some people uncomfortable, asking “but will they see enough?” That discomfort is understandable, but we do things this way because it works. The number one issue we see with rejected REA applications when students reach out asking “why did this happen?” is that they tried to do too much and weakened the impact of everything in the process.
Step Four: Ask For Help
If you still want a shot at a top-tier school with an acceptance rate under 10%, this step is extremely important: you need to ask for help. You are an expert on you, but you are not an expert on the college admissions process. Receiving tailored and customized guidance on everything from big-picture strategy to when a semicolon actually isn’t impressive is critical to achieving your best possible outcomes in the Regular Decision cycle. Remember, it’s harder to get in RD, so each decision matters more than ever. Working with an expert ensures that you make the right ones.
If all of this is overwhelming, take a deep breath and make a literal to-do list. Break down your objectives for the next few weeks, and start tackling them one at a time. You can do this, you just need to start.
Driven students can get into exceptional schools, even after a disappointing ED decision. Learn more.