<p>My athletics is an absolute 6-million and I got in.</p>
<p>Was that huge passion reflected in all 2888 of your posts to the College Confidential forums?</p>
<hr>
<p>haha ouch. that stings...deep down.</p>
<p>wait.. if harvard really does cut off all the ones with "stray grades" first or second round, then how do those athletes or artists get in with "subpar" grades?</p>
<p>i hate that athleticism is a category. thats ridiculous. is music? is art? is journalism? yeah yeah, im going to hear how difficult it is, how much time and effort. whatever. im just so jaded by this all. i came away from reading that article completely disgusted by the preferential treatment that legacies and athletes get. im just a normal kid with no advantages who worked hard, and that happened to work somehow for me, but didnt for countless others who just werent on a level playing field.</p>
<p>
[quote]
is music? is art? is journalism?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Absolutely. Think Yo-Yo Ma, or a large portion of the reporting staffs of many of the nations leading newspapers. </p>
<p>I don't know enough about art to ciite examples, but the admissions people would say yes. The real problem with art for those who want to be practicing artists, rather than art historians, is that they need a different kind of education. They need to focus on construction a la RISD, rather than analysis and writing papers. So an outstanding budding artist might be better served going to an art school. However, if that artist had the right traditional academic qualifications, she might well be admitted preferentially based on artistic ability.</p>
<p>From yesterday's Crimson, reporting on Pulitzer prizes:</p>
<p>Nicholas D. Kristof 81 and Joseph F. Kahn 87, both former Crimson editors and current writers for The New York Times, won prizes for Commentary and International Reporting, respectively. Playwright Christopher Durang 71 was recognized as a nominated finalist in the Drama category. Durang will receive the Harvard Arts Medal in May.</p>
<p>"About thirty candidates, most of them legacies, will receive a compromise spot on the little-known Z list, which reserves a place in the following year's class in exchange for an agreement to take a year off for personal development. Legacies are most often the beneficiaries of this side-door option. "</p>
<p>Interesting news.</p>
<p>If you read the stats of admitted and rejected kids this past April, you will see that the picture you get from this article doesn't seem quite right. So many with less than perfect stats are chosen over those that do, sometimes because of something very evident in their list of activities, or some other factor which is less evident. It also seems to me that SAT's play a less significant role.</p>
<p>And rightly so. SAT's tell you damn near nothing.</p>
<p>afan-
yes, a strong artist/musician might get in, but i was just pointing out that neither of those require an entire category whereas the importance of athleticism seems to be on par with academics and extracurrics. on another note, i find the "z list" absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>The description of the "z list" is one of the innacurate parts of the story.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the link to the article! Fascinating!</p>
<p>Some snippets that I found particularly interesting:</p>
<p>"says one former Harvard admissions officer, 80 percent of candidates have the smarts to succeed academically, and 40 percent are premier contenders with superb chances of admission at any other schoolwhich means SAT scores of 750 or higher, top class ranks, and prodigious extracurricular accomplishments "</p>
<p>"Despite the university's reputation for braininess, it's jocks who have the most pull inside Byerly Hall. Every year, the admissions office has to replenish the squads of 41 Division I teams, and reserves up to 10 percent of the entire pool for that purpose.. ..."</p>
<p>" Each state usually has at least one representative, which can give applicants from places like Wyoming and Montana a proportional advantage compared with overachievers from northeastern suburbsincluding those around Boston...."</p>
<p>" admissions officers aren't interested in rewarding past performance...and see themselves not as MVP voters but as talent scouts whose duty is predicting what a prospect will pull off as an undergrad and beyond ..."</p>
<p>So much for the many posters who did ECs only to get to Harvard....</p>
<p>It turns out that they get lots of applications from superb musicians who are also top students. So they don't have to adjust academic standards for the muscians at all. So it is not so much that the musicians are not a separate category, but that they represent a large part of the applicant pool. Being an especially good musician certainly helps.</p>
<p>Does not being one hurt? I used to play before I realized I hated it.</p>
<p>that chap 1 of the opal book was amaaaazing =') it was very touching and inspiring..</p>
<p>that 'z-list' definition isnt off at all. what it boils down to is if you have an obscene amount of money at your disposal, (or/as well as) a well-documented history of giving back to harvard, your otherwise marginal son or daughter will indeed receive a spot in the class of 2011. i am friends with three such people (who applied and got a spot in the 2010 year), and they are by no means anywhere near stupid, but they didnt stand out as brilliant either. i also have one friend whose parents have been giving back to the school for decades, who did not get a spot in the class of 2011, presumably because his academic record did not pass the smell test.</p>
<p>That is what we call an "urban legend" and incorrect.</p>
<p>im not sure why you're so adamant about the issue, but i'm not really, and i wont push it, because i just dont care enough. i just was trying to share some personal perspective. this is very real, and happened to my friends. hell, there's even a facebook group about it. believe what you want, but try asking someone who knows what theyre talking about before blindly dismissing the possibility.</p>
<p>I believe there is an excellent chance that I am better informed than your friends.</p>
<p>look, thats fine. best of everything to you, i really wasnt trying to start some sort of internet fight, and i'm sorry if i offended you in any way.</p>