For all those who were rejected, understand that you probably only got ONE look by a single admissions officer. You were NEVER EVER discussed at the Committee level. You never ever got a "second read." The way Harvard admissions work (at other Ivies as well) is that your region's admissions officer reads your application (probably spends about 7 minutes or less on it) and if he/she thinks it is interesting, it gets forwarded to a second admissions officer for review. If your first read doesn't pass the biases or bad hair day of the first reader, you are toast. It won't get a second read. There is no check; there is no second read. You are one and done. Sad, but true: your whole application is wholly at the mercy of one person, for a brief moment in time. There is no "Committee"; Harvard "admissions" is just one person with a cup of coffee flipping through your digital application on their laptop. Really.
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