I applied as early action to Harvard, got deferred then eventually accepted!! Interviews: frankly I don’t want to rank these, but I will say I connected really well with my Harvard interviewer and he was such an insightful and amazing person... he asked me such engaging and thoughtful questions and we barely talked about any of my ECs and focused more on my beliefs, passions, and what I wanted to do in college... I feel like he really asked questions that brought out the full scope of my personality and I’m so thankful that I had him as an interviewer, we talked for about 1 1/2 hours and it felt like only 10 minutes Essays: spent about 3 weeks writing common app, did some revisions but nothing too heavy, wrote about navigating through my job as a manager and having to direct people who didn’t really respect me because of my age and how I broke through that spent about 2 months on Harvard specific essay, went really in depth about my family life, won’t elaborate much more but it was extremely personal and close to my heart

got deferred then rejected. bombed the interview lol it was awful 0/10 would not ever want to do that again even I'd reject me

Slaved for months over my essays, was brutally honest, and shared my outlook on the world. Multiple AOs told me they loved them, which was incredible. Letter of Recs: (I didn't read any of mine, so these are speculations to the best of my ability) English teacher, 10/10. I mean that truly, I have not loved any teacher more in my life, and I talked to her almost everyday. She told me it was a privilege to teach me, and she was honored to write it. Science teacher, 7/10. I was one of the best students, just he never really let any of his students get to know him. I don't know what his writing skills are like either. Principal, 8.5/10. As I mentioned, we worked together, she told me I would go on to do great things, and to make sure I came back to visit her. Runs a huge school though, so I'm sure she's had many stellar students over her career. Neuroscience mentor, 8/10. We worked extremely well together, and he said I made lots of meaningful contributions to the lab, and that he was glad to have had me intern. Very objective person, doesn't get sentimental, so hard to connect. (I think this is all of them, I may have had some others, not sure lol) Interviews: Overall I think they went wonderfully! I really connected with almost all my interviewers, and they all said they were impressed with me, and that I would make great addition to their campus. My college list going into senior year didn't look like this, PLEASE PLAN TO APPLY TO SCHOOLS WITH A VARIETY OF ACCEPTANCES (I had multiple state schools and other schools with over 60% acceptance rates), but after I was accepted to harvard early, I only applied to schools I would consider over harvard, as my family and I did have pay all the application costs (so it kind of seemed like a waste of money as I knew I would turn them down) Best of luck everyone and stay safe!