<p>I was looking at the Harvard board and I couldn't believe how many people with top test scores and academics got rejected/deferred!
I know extracurriculars, character, and essays play a huge role in the admissions process, but I'm applying RD Yale, my first choice, and I'm curious to see if academics are really that minor in determining admissions. Anyone have any insight?</p>
<p>i would be suprised if such a person was rejected at harvard since they only reject 3 percent of their EA applicants...</p>
<p>anyway, all schools say that academics are first and foremost when determing who gets in and who gets rejected. i think that said, if all you are is a brilliant test taker and all you do is study, colleges will probably pick people who have more things, like ECs, essays, and whatnot going for them over you. you are going to college to learn after all, and thus, academics will play a huge role in admissions. however, they're looking for people who will take advantage of all the resources on campus, academic, social, and extra-curricularly. your scores and gpa will put you in the running; what makes you get in is the subjectives beyond that. or at least that's what i think...</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Harvard and top ivies want people that are interesting, not only interested in grades but have pursued their passions. Good grades and test scores just get you to the base of the wall of acceptance. Activities outside of academics is what gets you over the wall.
Unless you have won the noble prize while in high school you still need good grades and test scores to get in, but people with a 3.7 can get in if they have pursued something outside of academics.</p>
<p>Harvard could fill the freshman class twice over with people who got 800s on the Math or Verbal SATs. A majority of all 1,600 scorers in the nation apply to Harvard. There are usually about 3,000 valedictorians chasing 1600+ slots. But if they just went by SAT scores, the freshman class would be a pretty narrow group, rather lacking in "diversity" of all kinds.</p>
<p>Do you know what is the lowest GPA is of a person accepted to Harvard or Yale?
Not including people that have donated a new building to the college :)</p>
<p>all this is true... i guess we're back down to the major question on these boards, and why these boards were created: what do you need to be accepted into X college, or Y university. it seems pretty hard to predict.. i know awesome, intelligent, passionate people who've been rejected to top schools and rather boring ones who've gotten in. i'll just wait till april ;-)</p>
<p>ivyguy, I'd guess that it would be some celebrity..</p>
<p>It is probably someone at a school that has a really tough GPA system. There is a school in my county where the valedictorian will have 3.87 at the end of this semester. Adcoms know that differernt schools have different difficulty levels in terms of classes and GPAs, so a 3.6 at that school may seem low to others, but its pretty good for whoever got it.</p>
<p>How do you explain if you had some crazy teachers; I had 3 teachers that made the class impossible, I had an 88 and that was the 2nd highest grade in the class.</p>
<p>I don't know. I had the same situation kind of. I took AP Chem and the teacher had this effed up grading system where she gave the top five students 100s and then gave the next five students 90s and so on. But I don't think there's anything you can do besides maybe getting a counselor to explain it. If you complain you'll sound bitchy I think.</p>
<p>Any list of "selective" schools that relies on "percentage of class in the top 10% of their high school class" is skewed towards the California state schools which rigidly award slots to such people even if they come from crummy schools. Its a backdoor way of applying affirmative action, since "top10%" applicants from poor (usually minority-dominated) schools are given an edge - even if they have very low SAT scores.</p>
<p>We are starting to see a similar phenomenon in Texas and Florida, which should give an artificial boost to UT Austin and UF Gaineville in the USNews rankings</p>
<p>yeah; i had that situation with history, but if you think about it, it kinda balances out. admissions officers don't know how hard it is to get an A in ap history, but they also don't know how easy (in our school's case) it is to get an A in ap stat... i'm sure it levels out in the end.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but the essay thing really annoys me. I can understand picking someone with a 1400/ 3.8 if that person has really good recs or ECs. But I disagree with basing decisions too much on essays, even though the top schools place a lot of weight on it since everyone has good test scores. I just don't think one essay you spend a month on should be anywhere near as important as four years of school and the stuff you do there.</p>
<p>Harvard may place more weight on interviews and letters of recommendation (if from a reliable, informed source) than on essays.</p>
<p>That's what I've heard. My friend's mom is a Harvard interviewer, and I remember one day she had an interview. Anyway, she was talking about how good the girl was, how smart, funny, kind, nice, involved, etc. And my friend and I were like "so, are you going to write her a really good rec?" and she goes "Well, she's not really Harvard material."</p>
<p>I died.</p>
<p>Harvard interviewers rank candidates from 1-6 (with 1 being the highest) in four categories: academic, extracurricular, personal and overall.</p>
<p>Having impressive personal qualities (as revealed by the interview) can often make the difference, but cannot tip the balance if the candidate seems incapable of handling the work.</p>
<p>Well if someone is "smart" and "involved" you'd think they could handle the work. I doubt it's a truckload. On tour, the students at Harvard were crying out how much spare time they had, and how the work was hardly demanding ...</p>
<p>I don't think that colleges should place much weight on the interviews. First off, you might be having a bad day or it might be your first interview. Secondly, the interviewer shouldn't be deciding who is "Harvard material" and who isn't-- they should leave that up to the adcoms.</p>
<p>What happens if I have a kind of low gpa (97.5 unweighted) but I'm ranked 1? Would they assume that the grading system is hard or that no one in that grade is a good student (which actually the case)?</p>
<p>funny how many times harvard is mentioned in a topic in the yale forum hehe</p>
<p>yeah, i know :-P<br>
we know Harvard weights interviews and letters of rec's more than essays now..
what about Yale?
essays.. recommendations.. interviews.. transcript.. EC's..
maybe those who applied EA could help us out here :)</p>