Anonymous
01/30/2026 09:33
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
Haaaaahhhaaaaa!!!! Our wealthy high school (great school district) had 200 Valedictorians (700 students)—-many public high schools are like this now. We heard an admissions talk at a college acknowledging that they are aware of this.
On the opposite end a lot of schools don’t have valedictorians anymore and don’t rank students.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 09:32
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
How is it wrong to state there are about six public high schools in and around Boston / Cambridge that are considered feeder schools? I’m sure there are random students from all over being admitted to Harvard. This was a list of towns or schools, private and public, that consistently send students to Harvard.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 09:07
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not so at our private.
Dartmouth and Yale are extremely hard.
Others not so much.
Funny, both love our Baltimore private. Princeton, for which it was a feeder throughout the 20th century, does not.
With respect to ED, I would say that about half to two thirds of the Ivy acceptances come early and the rest RD. Typically at least two are accepted to all the Ivies but often more, especially at Dartmouth, Yale, and Cornell. The exception is Princeton where one kid gets in every two to three years. Stanford seems to only be early while MIT and CalTech is typically RD.
What did Gilman do to piss Princeton off?
Anonymous
01/30/2026 09:06
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
My suspicion is that this is an “elite” private school thing. These schools are much more likely to have legacies, recruited athletes, and aggressive steering in the early rounds, which presumably means lots of early round admissions and fewer RD admissions from those schools.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 09:02
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
HYP are on a different level, but the other ivies can happen in RD. Last year our public had 2 in at Cornell at ED. Other ivy applicants in the early round were deferred or rejected. In RD, several more got into Cornell, we also had a Harvard, Penn and Brown. Harvard student was also admitted to the other ivies applied to in RD and Stanford, but had been deferred SCEA at Princeton and ultimately rejected. You just never know.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 08:40
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
About a dozen from TJ (including my child) and at least one (my child's friend) from our base high school got into Ivies in RD.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 08:35
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
DC Big3 high schools. One had 2 kids admitted to an Ivy last year who were not ED/SCEA referrals. The other had 3. I had a senior at one and a current senior at the other school.
You need to apply ED/SCEA and hope you get in or deferred. RD is an incredibly long shot.
You need to apply ED/SCEA and hope you get in or deferred. RD is an incredibly long shot.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 08:34
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
Haaaaahhhaaaaa!!!! Our wealthy high school (great school district) had 200 Valedictorians (700 students)—-many public high schools are like this now. We heard an admissions talk at a college acknowledging that they are aware of this.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 07:54
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
There are 28,000 high schools in America. 99 percent of public high school valedictorians are not getting into Harvard.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 06:13
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
Hmmm in 6 years of Naviance data, Harvard hasn’t taken anyone from our public high school. By your logic this must be the year right? Because there’s always a valedictorian!
Anonymous
01/30/2026 02:48
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
What do you mean "quite wrong" ?? The data showing all of the top feeders being elite schools is right there on the website. The people on this forum give me a brain aneurysm. Brains slower than the average toddler.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 02:45
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
How many times do you DCUM idiots need to be reminded that 1 special case does not represent the majority?
Also, who gives a sh!t if you were admitted to Harvard when they accepted 30% of their applicants. This is 2026, and the kids at Harvard now are smarter than you will ever be.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 02:42
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Quite wrong. Harvard often takes the valedictorian of public high schools. I’m one of them.
Anonymous
01/30/2026 02:37
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:To use Harvard as an example, they accept about 2000 students per year out of roughly 48,000 applications. Until recently, they would take roughly 1000 during the SCEA round and 1000 during the RD round. However, in recent years, they have stopped sharing the breakdown between SCEA and RD acceptances. It's fair to assume that the odds of acceptance for an unhooked applicant to Harvard in Regular Decision are astronomically low.
I suspect the numbers are similar for Princeton and Yale. And Dartmouth is very tiny. Unhooked students basically have no chance at these schools in RD.
Cornell seems like the only ivy that is somewhat accessible for smart unhooked students in RD, followed by Columbia. But in reality, smart and accomplished unhooked students are generally not going to ivy schools these days.
And Harvard has its own set of feeder schools that send a lot more students than the average HS. THese are elite privates full of rich/legacy/connected parents and selective magnet schools. The average HS student has no shot.
https://www.thecrimson.com/widget/2024/11/15/top-feeders-data/
There are about six public high schools in the Cambridge / Boston area on that list
Anonymous
01/30/2026 02:34
Subject: RD Acceptances at Ivies
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:More likely due to better applicants.
+1 Most Ivies (except for Cornell which is bigger) are enrolling 2500 kids a year or less. There are like 30,000 high schools in the USA, and there are overseas applicants too. Why do you think that it would be normal that a HS has students accepted each year at Ivies, unless your school is a magnet school or a kid with a lot of rich/connected/legacy applicants?
I should have mentioned students do get in but only at ED or REA. In fact kids from RD are even more qualified than those apply at REA or ED. But they do not get in.
You don’t know who’s more qualified. The reason there are schools with no admits to Harvard or Yale is simple. They chose who they thought were the most impressive applicants.
The rejected kids will find another quality school and do just fine.