<p>Harvey Mansfield practiced “bi-grading”–he was vocal about grade inflation and so would send a grade to the Registrar and tell the students that if they came to see him he would let them know what he would have graded they “in the old days.” He is the only one–and I think it was just for a semester as a publicity stunt. </p>
<p>Harry Lewis, the former Dean of the College, has cited studies that show that by what-ever measure of success one wishes to use, that, except for proto-academicians–Harvard grades have no statistic correlation with success. </p>
<p>So if you are “gunning” for a Rhodes/Marshall or a "top " law or medical school (there may be some truth in law school tiers and career opportunities but none with medical school–do YOU know where your doctor when to medical school? Exactly.) if you do the work asked for by the course you will do well enough for whatever purposes you desire.</p>
<p>Oh, what did correlate with success? Being a member of a varsity team.</p>
<p>And in regards to my first question, I’ve found an answer so I’ll post it here in case anyone else is interested.</p>
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<p>From the FAQ section of the Dept of Government’s website:</p>
<p>“As a Harvard undergraduate, any course taken at Harvard Summer School will automatically appear on your transcript. If it is a Government course, it will count just as it would if taken during the year. For instance, if you take an American Politics course during the summer, that could count toward your American field requirement. If you took a summer school course before you came to Harvard, you must petition to have it count for Harvard credit.”</p>
<p>Hey, I’m a freshman in high school and really looking into Harvard. I just wanted to see how my stats sounded and what I can do to look better from the perspective of someone who got admitted to Harvard. I know it will be kind of hard to do seeing that I’m a freshman and haven’t had the opportunity to take any AP’s or anything but nevertheless… </p>
<p>Classes taken so far: Honors Geometry, English I Honors, Honors Bio, Honors World History, Band I and II (Not taking band next year or marching band though so I won’t be getting any props for that), Healthful Living I, and Computer Applications I</p>
<p>Classes Next Year: Latin I and II. English II Honors. Civics and Economics Honors. Chemistry Honors. Anatomy Honors. AP Psychology. Algebra II Honors. </p>
<p>EC’s: Beta Club, Boy Scouts of America (Almost Eagle, currently a Life Scout), XC and JV Lacrosse. I plan to run for student council 10-12. Possibly as president.</p>
<p>SAT- N/A
ACT- N/A</p>
<p>Gender-Male
Ethnicity-White/Non Hispanic
Income Bracket- 130-190K</p>
<p>Strengths-Good GPA (so far), always tested great on exams and such so I will hopefully do good on SAT/ACT. Good leadership skills</p>
<p>Weaknesses- Could perhaps do some more extracurriculars. I’m very social and polite but haven’t developed any good relationships with teachers as well which will hurt me recommendations wise. </p>
<p>So your feedback on the potential of getting into Harvard and any tips to help me out along my high school career in order to look a little better would be much appreciated. Again I realize that being a freshman it’s kind of hard to determine the probability of being accepted but any response would be great.</p>
<p>I have some fairly specific questions, so I don’t know if any of you will be familiar enough with these areas to comment, but I’ll give it a shot:</p>
<p>Is anyone familiar with Harvard Mock Trial? How intense is the team, generally? My high school didn’t start mock trial until this year. I’m really interested in participating at a collegiate level, but will the fact that I’ve only had a year’s worth of experience hinder me?</p>
<p>Is anyone on this board a Social Studies concentrator? I first found out about this concentration from my interviewer. He asked me about my career goals and the areas I wanted to study as an undergraduate and immediately told me that I sounded like someone who would enjoy Social Studies, which was his own concentration. I just kind of wanted to know the general feel of this concentration and how competitive it is to get into. </p>
<p>As far as pre-orientation, did anyone here participate? I’m interested in FAP, but it seems pretty competitive, and I doubt I’d be selected. I’m also really interested in FUP- my career interests are mainly focused on social justice, and I’m also Co-founder/VP of Habitat for Humanity at my school, so this sounds like it would suit me. I was just curious as to whether any of you participated in Pre-orientation programs, especially either of these, and if you felt that they helped you to get acquainted with the campus and find a niche early on?</p>
<p>Edgar 777: Do yourself a favor and do not spend the next three years on CC stressing yourself out and worrying about college admissions. Work hard in school, do things you love, write essays that show who you are, and relax. </p>
<p>It is impossibly early to tell you how competitive of a college applicant you are, and quite honestly, it will never be possible to really tell. Having people guess your chances will do nothing but worry you or give you a false sense of security. College admissions are stressful, and I am also guilty of trying “chance” threads because of the stress. As someone who just finished the process trust me when I say that it will just end up having one of the negative effects listed above. </p>
<p>Go have some fun and do something you’ll love for the next couple of years. Come back to CC when applying to college as a resource for valid information (not “chances”). </p>
<p>Have a good freshman year, and best of luck in all that you do.</p>
<p>Now, let’s keep this thread on task. I have learned a lot of good information as a prospective student and hope to continue that trend!</p>
<p>And I have the same question as Aleader, but I am wondering about FOP and fall clean up! If anyone could elaborate on their pre-orientation experiences it would be wonderful!</p>
<p>Does Harvard have a fly-in program for Visitas? Both Princeton and Yale offered to subsidize the cost of visiting, but I’d really like to visit Harvard…
Thank you!</p>
<p>Harvard offers to subsidize the cost of certain students’ travel, but not all. I’m not too sure what determines who receives the payment for travel.</p>
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<p>While I am not a Social Studies concentrator myself, I do know for a fact that it is not a competitive concentration - in fact, very few of Harvard’s concentrations require an application, and for those that do (like Environmental Science and Public Policy, for example), it is not at all difficult.</p>
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<p>Yes, I did.</p>
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<p>Well, I knew where the dining hall and my dorm were, and that’s about all I cared for. :)</p>
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<p>BS! The number of people rejected from FAP isn’t that large. If you want to do it, apply. I did Dorm Crew over FUP because I needed the money, but if you can afford not to work before school because you have a cushion, then do something else.</p>
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<p>I’m familiar with the Mock Trial Team. It’s fairly intense, and there is a competitive selection process, but it’s well worth it. Your lack of experience shouldn’t make participating in Mock Trial more difficult; some of the most talented Mock Trial team members had no experience when they started. If you’re good at acting in the types of situations found in Mock Trial, it’ll show, experience or no.</p>
<p>FAP! It does reject people, possibly the most of all the programs, but don’t count yourself out. Last year, one kid got in entirely on the strength of his ice cream cake decorating skills. One got in because she sewed dolls. Some people write poetry (in English or another language) just for the application. There are the stereotypical musical theater aces, of course. If you did art of any sort in high school, you can use that in your application. I thought my application was terrible (I am not an artist), incidentally, and I got in.</p>
<p>General word of advice: Nothing good ever comes from avoiding things because you are scared of failure. (The “of failure” part is important: avoiding hard drugs and leaping off high places is not fear, but wisdom.) Maybe FAP won’t take you, but as a not-really-artsy person, participating in it was one of the better decisions I made here. One of my friends was rejected from FUP, actually, and I don’t know anyone who said they were rejected from FAP. Apply to both! See what happens. PM me if you want more questions about FAP, especially because it can be pretty hard to figure out what it’s like from the information on the web.</p>
<p>Thanks to both ksarmand and exultationsy. I was really worried that I would get to Harvard and be rejected from every single program I wanted to participate in, haha. It’s just crazy to think about competing against Harvard students in any sort of application process. Knowing that most of these things tend not to be as competitive as I thought makes me feel better.</p>
<p>I originally thought I just HAD to do FAP, but I looked at a lot of information on FUP this afternoon and almost think I like it more! I think I’ll just apply to both and let the cards fall where they may. =) </p>
<p>Whitefang, I think I can actually answer your question about Visitas to some extent. I believe that flight expenses are only covered for students who are on full or near full financial aid. I received an email a few days ago from Harvard offering to pay my flight expenses, and they cited the fact that I was awarded “one of the most generous financial aid packages Harvard offers.” If you did not receive this email, I would guess that Harvard did not plan to cover your travel expenses. If you’re on nearly full or full aid and didn’t receive this email, I would say definitely contact the financial aid office, and they will probably be happy to cover your flight. If your aid isn’t as generous but there is a legitimate reason that you can’t afford the flight, I suppose you could try your luck and contact them anyway, but I would not specifically expect anything unless you received the email.</p>
<p>Well, you can make enough money to tide you over for a few months. Unfortunately, the federal and MA governments take a nice bite out of your paychecks. </p>
<p>However, I’d urge you to do it - I met 4 out of my 7 blockmates during FCU, and the work’s not that hard. Plus, you do have an opportunity to familiarize yourself with Cambridge and the campus, although this may not mean much if you don’t venture outside of your room.</p>
<p>I did FCU and nothing beats making money. Definitely do dorm crew throughout the year and become a captain. It’s absurdly easy to become a captain and you make obscene amounts of money during spring-clean up. Literally obscene. On my list of things I would have done differently at Harvard, doing term-time dorm crew might be #3 or #4.</p>
<p>D can’t make it to admitted weekend, but is visiting a week later. She wants to take several classes and has scheduled one. Looking at online schedules is very confusing, though. As a humanities-leaning pre-med, what beginning science class can she take that is taught after 2 on Thursday or Friday morning? Will you use the course name listed in the online catalog because we’re not finding Life Science 1b?</p>
<p>What other things should she try to do while visiting? We haven’t found an online activities calendar, but maybe haven’t looked hard enough. She will be hosted Thurs and Fri nights and stay in Boston with brother who will be coming in from a nearby college Sat night.</p>
<p>I don’t think that there is a calendar of all the activities. Your daughter should ask her host about the activities or types of activities in which she is interested, because her host should know someone, or know someone who knows someone, in the activities in which she is interested. (There is a list of activities online, but I might start by asking her host for “humanities related” or “law related” or etc. activities first. When I was a pre-frosh, I picked one humanities organization at random that was not the best choice to visit as a pre-frosh. Had I thought to defer to my host, I might have gone to an organization fulfilling a similar function in a slightly less intense atmosphere.)</p>
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