<p>Is tehre anyone on here who got into Harvard without being, like, top 3% of their class, or recruited for athletics, or having near-perfect test scores, or not doing the optional essay (which I have a hunch is a weedout)?</p>
<p>Please! I'd love to know your story.</p>
<p>What? I thought the optional essay was actually well...optional!</p>
<p>"...or not doing the optional essay..."</p>
<p>Hahaha... IT IS OPTIONAL. I didn't do the optional essay and I got in. Neither did either of my roomates. I asked a few other people in my dorm, and almost none of them wrote the optional essay.</p>
<p>A weedout? Geez. You think that Harvard believes the people that throw in an extra essay are by definition better qualified? IT'S OPTIONAL.</p>
<p>On the other hand, on the other things you wrote about: between me and my two roommates, one of us was at the top of his high school class, one has almost perfect test scores, and one was recruited for athletics. Those things are important, it's true. However- yes, there are many, many people here that don't have lists of ECs as long as your arm and SAT scores that reek of perfection. There's no way to predict who's getting in just based on stats- you don't know what Harvard's looking for.</p>
<p>Here's a far more important piece of advice: you're finding out in two weeks (if you applied EA). That's the only time you'll know whether you got in or not. Speculating about it earlier is useless.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh...thanks Admiral...I was about freak. It's completely pointless to be nervous because there's nothing you can do about it, but at the same time it's hard not to be nervous...ok neways...</p>
<p>Graah, my college counselor told me to never skip the optional parts, that's part of why I asked about the essay part.</p>