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The book says an academic one is one: with a rank 1 or 2 in high school, 700 on at least five SAT tests, 4/5 on at least three APs or 6/7 on at least three IBs, and who shows academic initiative outside the classroom.
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<p>It would be a good idea NOT to assume that an academic 1 is as common, even in Harvard's applicant pool, as some in this thread are supposing. There are a fair number of high test-scorers who don't get good grades, and the other way around (that was true in my high school graduating class, and is true in my district's high school in every recent year). A person who has a strong both-and play in SAT I test scores and high grades might still have no ACADEMIC extracurricular activity at the level Harvard considers outstanding. The Olympiad contest winners and science fair winners and national debate champions and so forth number, in the aggregate, in the hundreds at most, not in the thousands. So by the description quoted above, it would be reasonable to estimate that persons with an academic 1 would make up about 10 percent of the ADMITTED class (2,000 each year, at Harvard), which squares very well with statements from Yale that every year about 200 or so students are a cinch for admission on academic grounds. Most all the other applicants are considered to be somewhat fungible, and are in competition with one another for a spot among the admittees. </p>
<p>I thought the book Byerly recommends is interesting reading. Not the last word on Harvard, but a wide-ranging first word.</p>
<p>The supposition would seem likely if the previous assertion is true, that is, if "academic initiative" translate to "national recognition."</p>
<p>However, this is not Fox's wording.</p>
<p>"Roughly 10 percent of applicants to Harvard are given academic ratings of one, about half have academic ratings of two or three, and approximately forty percent have academic ratings of four, five, or six. Academic ones are virtual locks for admission."</p>
<p>tokenadult, your explanation makes sense, but I most would agree that a summer program is arguably "academic initiative outside the classroom." However, then, the "virtual lock" is a bit shady.</p>
<p>Virtual lock? Yeah, sure. So I'm a virtual lock? The girl who counts ceiling tiles during English and analyzes the floor patterns during Calc? I have the grades and test scores and awards, but in truth, the numbers aren't an infallible indication of potential.</p>
<p>tkm256, I hate to belabor, but that is what I am saying. Supposing Fox is correct, that that is what it takes to be an academic 1, an academic 1 is not a "virtual lock."</p>
<p>sonar...belaboring right back, I was supporting you. It's all cool :)</p>
<p>I would think a "cinch for admission" is winning/placing in Intel or another highly coveted national award. It's not something like 800 SAT sections or 6 AP 5s...there are too many of those.</p>
<p>What if there aren't really things like Intel in the country you're from? How are you supposed to compete against people in America who all seem to do things like that? Could 'extracurricular' academic stuff done in your own school eg essay prizes, societies count?</p>
<p>Thanks for referring specifically to the language of Fox's book, which I don't have at hand at the moment. As he formulated the sentence, I doubt the statement. I'll stick by my statement that there are perhaps a couple hundred applicants to Harvard who have all the academic wherewithall they need, however they manifested it, to be admitted as long they don't have a criminal record or really gross body odor. </p>
<p>I will note for the record that I have NO inside information about how any college does its admission decisions. I hear the same public statements all the rest of you, and read quite a few books by authors of varying points of view to triangulate information from each school's official statements. </p>
<p>Good luck to this year's applicants. The wait is almost over.</p>
<p>An academic 1 is not just getting top grades and scores. It also involves going above and beyond in some way and showing a true passion for learning. Like the kid at my school who was frustrated with the fact that there was no AP Physics E/M offered at my school, so he went and read the textbook, started an independent study and taught a class of 15 people by himself to prep them all for the AP test.</p>
<p>The same would follow for the extracurricular 1, and so on.</p>