<p>In essence, what I am trying to say that the support structure that is in place at many schools out on the Island and in NYC is much better than those in Montana and other rural areas.</p>
<p>My daughter was admitted from a rural state. She attended a high school that actively prevents kids from moving ahead to advanced classes, that requires time-consuming dummy courses (seriously cutting into time for AP self-study), that assigned a new counselor who had talked to her only once before the EA deadlines, that advised library fund-raising phone-a-thons to spruce up the ECs, etc. We have friends with a kid in an East Coast prep school. The school arranged for impressive overseas resume-building adventures, provided appropriate academic counseling, and used its contacts to line up personal tours through fine schools beginning in her junior year. We got the public tour at Harvard and saw nothing that a tourist wouldnt have seen. Its a different world on the steppes, at least when it comes to ECs, IBs (whatever they are), APs, etc., and I think the Harvard admit people take that into account if your stats are otherwise over the top.</p>
<p>The previous poster is right in that Harvard takes into account for admissions the type of school and resources that students have. </p>
<p>In describing the opportunities available to a student in an affluent school, the previous poster also said, "The school arranged for impressive overseas resume-building adventures..."</p>
<p>Just so everyone knows: It's a fallacy that colleges are impressed by pricey overseas trips to do community service or other things. Bascially, those trips are available for whomever can afford them, and thus, the trips say nothing except that the kid had rich parents.</p>
<p>Colleges are far more impressed by things that students create and fund totally on their own. Consequently, a student who creates and writes a grant to fund a tutoring program for an elementary school in their own town will have a far more impressive EC than a student who flew off to [insert poor exotic place here] and did a summer of so-called service arranged by an organization whose services his/her family paid dearly for.</p>
<p>Also, more than likely, the student who creates their own program will have learned all sorts of sophisticated things and tough lessons about organizing things, collaborating, etc. The other student will have learned things like, "People are people" because the other student wouldn't have had to solve problems or really do the hands on work to create the projects.</p>
<p>New hook: create a charity of your own instead of helping out with someone else's. United Way, go away...</p>
<p>Hahahaha did anybody else notice the hit at Cornell?</p>
<p>"McGrath Lewis says that just 15 percent of Harvard students are accepted for primarily academic reasonswhich in Harvard-speak means substantial progress toward rewriting the history of Western Europe, not just acing a pre-calc exam. As for your well-rounded, all-American, strong-B-plus student at a good suburban public school who plays three sports fairly well, serves as class vice president, and helps out at a local soup kitchen? He should get ready to enjoy four frigid winters in Ithaca."</p>
<p>What's the title of the article?
Is it still available? I can't find it after I click open the link.</p>
<p>"As for your well-rounded, all-American, strong-B-plus student at a good suburban public school who plays three sports fairly well, serves as class vice president, and helps out at a local soup kitchen? He should get ready to enjoy four frigid winters in Ithaca."</p>
<p>Ithaca College, not Cornell.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Try THIS link now. The article, captioned "Keys to the Kingdom" was in the November, 2005 issue of Boston Magazine.</p>
<p>Typical snarky comment from Ms. Hernandrez - the $10,000 "bootcamp" lady:</p>
<p>"I very much enjoyed Keys to the Kingdom [November, about the Harvard admissions office], which featured various quotes from me. However, one quote was inaccurate, or at least misleading. The story said Hernandez admits she got only one student into Harvard last year. What the author failed to point out was that I had only one applicant to Harvard last year! Of my students whose first choice was Harvard, the acceptance rate is close to 100 percent for the past eight years.</p>
<p>Most of my best students see past the glitter at Harvard and tend to prefer Dartmouth, Stanford, Princeton, Penn, and Brown, something that might be difficult for Harvard to understand.</p>
<p>Michele Hernandez, president
Hernandez College Consulting
Lake Oswego, OR"</p>
<p>Honestly I like it that mainly looks on Academics, as a German I am used to this kind of system. German Universities are only interested in your graduation grade, ECs do not matter. That is my problem, I don't have any good ECs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most of my best students see past the glitter at Harvard and tend to prefer Dartmouth, Stanford, Princeton, Penn, and Brown, something that might be difficult for Harvard to understand.
[/quote]
I understand, her connections are considerably better at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>She is not beloved at Dartmouth. I'd hate to be a kid applying there if they found out she was the guru behind him.</p>
<p>"Not surprisingly, Hernandez has drawn the ire of a list of critics.</p>
<p>Admissions officers have denounced her prices as "nauseating." Some college admissions officers say they'd heavily frown on, possibly reject, any applicant they knew had been aided by Hernandez."</p>
<p>At what price point do paid counselors fees become nauseating?
Are some paid counsellors (such as Kaavyagate famous CC sponsor Ivywise ) less nauseating to college admissions officers than other paid counselors (i.e. Hernandez)?</p>
<p>"Most of my best students see past the glitter at Harvard and tend to prefer Dartmouth, Stanford, Princeton, Penn, and Brown,"</p>
<p>No glitter in these places. So humdrum...</p>
<p>Why would Ithaca College be the next choice for someone who is applying to Harvard? Isn't Cornell looked at as the easiest to get into of the Ivies?</p>
<p>i don't know if any of you have seen my other posts (tho i'm sure you have because i bumped one of them a ridiculous number of times. sorry!) so sum1 here spoke about getting a tutor program approved. well, on one of my posts, i wrote about a similar situation of mine that is simultaneously dissimilar. i proposed a tutor program to my schools admin and it got approved. persisted and persisted but it fell apart. anyhow, i do not plan on pursuing that any farther because i am working on getting an inaugural walk for autism research set up in my state/area (im on the committee - the only 16 year old on it). anyways, does that tutor program still show initiative? i want to show harvard that if i get the chance to go there i will grow like i never have b4 in my life. thanks to all who respond (and if anyone doesnt, dont worry. i will not bump this excessively (if at all)</p>