C'est la vie!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>There's a lot of debate as people try to understand the admissions process and make sense of who gets accepted. I would like to present just one applicant profile that I think demonstrates the uncertainty and level of unpredicatability behind it very well. These are the statistics of a relative of mine, with a few non-determing factor alterations in order to protect his anonymity. I had the chance to look over his application materials, and I didn't see anything in his essays or the recommendations that was even remotely negative. (His counselor and recommenders were so enthusiastic that they wanted him to have copies of their letters). I think you'll find his admissions results interesting:</p>

<p>White, male, public school student in Georgia.
Valedictorian of a competitive class of about 500.
IB student, straight A's, 5 AP tests, all 5s, several courses at local university. Research experience.
1600 SAT, 800/790/770 SAT IIs.
Fluent in French (non-native speaker).
Eagle Scout.
All-State trombonist with diverse jazz, concert, and classical performance experience, as well as paid gigs.
Also plays violin.
Quiz Bowl captain.
Black belt in Judo.
2 years of HS swimming, SCUBA certification.
National essay contest finalist.
Ran a small internet consulting business.
The usual clubs (NHS, etc.), local and state recognitions, and so forth and so on.</p>

<p>He basically personifies well-rounded. He is very likeable, well-spoken, and passionate about his interests. I'm only exaggerating slightly with familial bias when I say there is nothing not to like.</p>

<p>Again, I want to protect his anonymity, so I didn't list every math award, every National Merit-type thing, but they're there too. I think the list above speaks for itself. Interview and essay were both solid.</p>

<p>Well, at this point, you've probably anticipated the purpose of the thread:</p>

<p>Harvard recruited him over the summer of junior year with phone calls, email, and mail. He visited and it became his first choice. Then Harvard deferred him. He sent a nice follow-up letter, emphasizing continued accomplishements and interest in the school. Then they waitlisted him.</p>

<p>However, another top-10 school accepted him without recruitment with a designation that ranked him in the top 0.5% of their applicant pool.</p>

<p>So, what to make of that? You can draw whatever conclusions you want, but ultimately the message is c'est la vie. View this as a sort of allegory: this is in many respects represents the perfect non-legacy non-URM non-singlefaceted non-recruitedathlete applicant. Once you take away each of those categories, each school has some number of slots for the well-rounded genuises like this person. For whatever reasons, they don't always get in.</p>

<p>So if you applied somewhere and didn't get the result you wanted, all those people who seem to be feeding you platitudes to make you feel better are actually telling you the truth. It is a crapshoot, at least to some extent. And if you're applying in the future, look at lots of top schools, no matter how obscenely well-qualified you are.</p>

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<p>And in the end, he'll do just fine without his Crimson education. </p>

<p>Don't worry everyone, even the best of us have to be told "no" sometimes.</p>

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<p>I agree.....</p>

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<p>what school's did he get into?</p>

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<p>I empathize with your anguish over the admissions result in this case.
But just for the sake of argument, let's change one item in the profile here: rather than a 1600 on the SAT, suppose his score was 1400.<br>
What, then, would distinguish him from the other 20,000 applicants.<br>
Well, little.<br>
The point is that what distinguishes your relative is his perfect score on the SAT. Otherwise, nothing else in his profile particularly stands out.
Please don't take this as a put down; rather as a frank assessment of the current admissions climate. Having high grades and superior test scores is often not enough these days; the top tier colleges are looking for something more. I wish I knew for sure what that extra thing is that they're looking for.</p>

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<p>elevenblanks: I'd prefer not to give specifics. Suffice it to say that other schools comparable to Harvard accepted him, one with a special designation.</p>

<p>kubakloth: I think the distinguishing factor is in the some cases the breadth of successes. The "extra" thing that gets many people accepted is a well-lopsided factor in their favor. E.g. world-class athlete, musician, etc. However, Harvard by no means fills its class with 1700 people who each have one or two well-developed talents. If you believe their literature, it's maybe 50-50 between the well-lopsided and the well-rounded (their terms).</p>

<p>What I think is unusual in my family member was his combination of accomplishments in several fields. No one was singular alone, but the combination is unique. Perfect academics is one factor, but note that he also earned a black belt, an eagle scout award, and significant music recognition. Any one of these accomplishments is unique to less than 5% of the applicant pool. (A figure I cite because of the rough RD acceptance rate.)</p>

<p>I would think his application would stand out even without the test scores. However, they demonstrate the academic qualification. It's the strong development extracurricularly that rounds out this case and others like it.</p>

<p>I don't interpret your words as a put-down, but I do beg to differ on the competitiveness. In any case, I mean this post less as a continuation of anguish or analysis of "why" and more of a warning/guide to others.</p>

<p>Take a look at the statistics thread in this forum and what the more well-rounded people consider their "hooks." What is surprising about this admissions situation is that my family member had several of them....</p>

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<p>"Harvard recruited him over the summer of junior year with phone calls, email, and mail." </p>

<p>I'm curious about this; were others on this board "recruited"? My son received no unsolicited correspondance from Harvard. He was, however, accepted (after an EA deferral).</p>

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<p>1moremom: The admissions decision was made somewhat more mystifying since he was approached by the HSRP in summer. They encouraged him to visit the campus and apply, and answered questions. There was of course never any guarantee of acceptance, but the attention was certainly misleading.</p>

<p>See <a href="http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/hrp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/hrp/&lt;/a> for more information.</p>

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<p>I think the best response to this is... harvard can't accept every qualified applicant... and... that's really all I can come up with. I'm not so convinced that this student didn't have enough going for him.</p>

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<p>was anyone recruited by harvard? i mean i wasnt , no one else from my school was in the past; im pretty sure that the only correspondence i got from them came on april 1...</p>

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<p>I hate to break the ice here and go off topic, but would a SCUBA certificate hold weight in adcoms? Just curious since I have one...</p>

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<p>No. It's just a priviledge.</p>