An interesting article about the Harvard admissions process: from Boston Magazine

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>One could quarrel with some of the observations, and quibble about certain details, etc., and with the fast pace of changes its already a bit out of date ...but it is interesting nonetheless.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bostonmagazine.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.view/articleID/e1a0ed2f-c761-427d-85a4-3a6812bcff59%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bostonmagazine.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.view/articleID/e1a0ed2f-c761-427d-85a4-3a6812bcff59&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>This is from the November, 2005 issue, which somehow escaped my notice earlier.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
So the final portion of the process is spent in “reruns,” in which candidates who had won approval have their acceptances cruelly yanked away.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>that sucks</p>

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<p>A little hyperbolic, don't you think? After all there is a limit on how many they can accept. Nothing is "yanked away."</p>

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<p>I never knew about the "Z-list."</p>

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<p>For all kinds of reasons, Harvard is more interested in stats than any other ivy league school. In this respect, admissions at Harvard is like state school admissions. Basically, if you don't have the stats, there is no need to waste your money applying to Harvard. Ecs and all the other stuff don't matter here without the stats. Other Ivies cut you some slack based on unique and interesting non-academic stuff. It's a pity so many are led (by Harvard mailings and phone calls) to believe that they have a chance when their chance is zero. Harvard is a possibility and a good school to apply to if you have great stats. Otherwise, try some place else.</p>

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<p>"By design, Byerly Hall—much more so than Yale, says Breimer—selects students who typically have shown some all-consuming passion, and will dedicate themselves to it even at the cost of their academics."</p>

<p>I like the sound of that.</p>

<p>"Required to say no to about 20,000 students, Harvard's admissions officers are more than happy to find any reason to cut an applicant. Even the slightest blemish—a stray grade or less-than-demanding course choice—can become a scarlet letter."</p>

<p>Oh ****.</p>

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<p>"Required to say no to about 20,000 students, Harvard's admissions officers are more than happy to find any reason to cut an applicant. Even the slightest blemish—a stray grade or less-than-demanding course choice—can become a scarlet letter."</p>

<p>Not true (correction, picked the wrong quote). They're not looking to reject. Admissions folk are looking for reasons to accept, unless you consider that to be two sides of the same coin.</p>

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<p>"By design, Byerly Hall—much more so than Yale, says Breimer—selects students who typically have shown some all-consuming passion, and will dedicate themselves to it even at the cost of their academics."</p>

<hr>

<p>LIES!
I have great academics and have one huge passion that I made very evident in my application.</p>

<p>bastards!</p>

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<p>Lol if they were looking to accept, their admit percentage would be at least 50%.</p>

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<p>They're looking to accept, but they have a limit. Harvard wouldn't be Harvard if it took 50%.</p>

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<p>"they've set up a filtering process so rigorous that a lot of very bright kids who've spent their lives assembling what they believed to be perfect applications will never really have a shot. "</p>

<p>More power to 'em!</p>

<p>"Harvard places a strong emphasis on that “futures test,” "</p>

<p>Wow! I love The Big H even more now! This probably helps them weed out the prepackaged riff-raff.</p>

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<p>


</p>

<p>Was that huge passion reflected in all 2888 of your posts to the College Confidential forums?</p>

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<p>I think on the first pass, they are. When one is presented with an overwhelming number of applicants, it's far simpler to build the giant "No" pile first, and throw a few outstanding candidates into the "Yes" pile. The tough part is sorting out the ones that are left vs. the remaining spaces.</p>

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<p>I always thought that the first pass was to weed out the applications which have no chance. As in the straight D's sophmore year apps. I thought they kept you in as long as there was some possiblity of admission. This might not be the case at Harvard, but I think Ben Jones of MIT said it works like that across the river.</p>

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<p>I read articles like that and all I can think of is- "I'm not worthy...how the hell did I get in?" lol</p>

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<p>Well you ARE worthy ... just don't let it go to your head!</p>

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<p>Yeah, no doubt you're "worthy," or they wouldn't have accepted you. </p>

<p>That said, you, like the other admitted students, are probably no more "worthy" than hundreds, or even thousands, of other applicants who were not accepted - just more fortunate.</p>

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<p>"admissions officers start by assessing each applicant in four areas (academics, extracurriculars, personal qualities, and athletics) on a scale of one (best) to six (worst)."</p>

<p>Athletics is one of four areas evaluated. Uh oh. Can you have three "bests" and one "worst" and still make the cut?</p>

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<p>"Athletics is one of four areas evaluated. Uh oh. Can you have three 'bests' and one 'worst' and still make the cut?"</p>

<p>Oh, sure. There must be thousands of kids at Harvard (including my son) who have no real athletic talent at all. The point here must be that athletic ability can potentially be extremely helpful in the admissions game - not that its absence hurts you.</p>